CNN Anchor Heidi Collins -- Incredible

Let's be charitable. Let's assume that it's CNN morning anchor Heidi Collins' local-news background that accounts for her ability to ad-lib during a conversation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta that boggles the mind.

Gupta was doing a story on the FDA's fingering of serrano peppers from a Mexican farm as the culprit in the recent salmonella outbreak. He brought some such peppers on camera, and lamented that the management of the store where they were bought could not, when questioned, identify whether or not they originated in Mexico. Collins' immediate reaction: "Incredible."

Really? Is it really hard to believe that most American produce retailers don't routinely label country of origin on all their fruits and vegetables? Does Collins not shop for her own food? Or is "incredible" just one of those catch-all local-news-anchor reactions to everything the anchor might be told about on air--car crash, rescued kitten, toxic peppers, Britney jailed?

Heidi Collins: incredible. Literally.

Comments

[Freesia2]

Harry, I think she likely caught you at a bad moment.

But then most moments are bad moments when watching the anchors covering the news these days. They're not journalists anymore. They don't cover news. They're just camera friendly people who use words like "incredible". A lot.

It's enough to make a person. want to eat some toxic peppers, isn't it? News coverage these days can get to a person. I prescribe that you turn off the tv for a bit. It's good for your mental health.

[vat6948]

Toxic news anchors are by-far worse to your health, than the pepper's CNN is serving up. Turn the T.V. off, and take a walk.

[Freesia2]

What I find fascinating is that we have more access to news than at any point in our history. People used to have to wait a week and hope the pony made it across the river just to get a newspaper. Then radio and tv came and there was more coverage but nothing compared to to the touch of a button access we have now. AND, we have it 24 hours a day.

But we know nothing. A story may be true, it may not be. If they bother to cover it at all. Just because it has a previously respected newspaper banner over it or it's on a major station, doesn't mean diddleysquat. They don't even bother to really retract anymore if there has been a mistake. And blogs are great but they're often biased and usually unaccountable.

What's going to happen to us? Protections for the press exist because we need them to be free to do their job. For us. We can't go to the site, gain access to the person in the news. We count on the press doing it for us. But they're not doing it for us, 24 hours a day.

Don't they love us anymore? Is it something we said. :-)

[truth101]

Yes I heard the same interview and noted this.....but you have to realize that
Lou is the Captain of the ship and that much of his exclamatory phraseology....
often justiified but often less than what else might be said....has filtered down
to her and the team. What s sad is that MSNBC is almost retarded on all
the issues articulated on CNN and that minds like Chris and Keith which
are prettty darn sharp are also prettty darn narrow.....incredible. liked your
interview with Keith......promotion s work, huh>>>??

[LittleMarymoonshine]

My grocery store labels all of the produce; why wouldn't I assume every store did the same?

[schatsie]

Tell me why VITAMINS are not labeled as to country of origin??? is it because they are all coming from CHINA???

And those GE fluorescent light bulbs, those are all coming from China and at $4 per we cannot produce them AND distribute them in our own country more cheaply....EXACTLY how much oil is burnt bringing these in from China and how much investment in the cargo boats? and then they still have to be distributed.... How much profit is Walmart making on these, how much profit is GE making and how much are the owners of the cargo boats making...

[knerd]

Food sticker or not, it's incredible to me that the management of any store does not know where its products come from.

[Mojane]

I've written several notes to CNN about the many women news anchors/personalities whose voices alone have me hitting mute if I haven't changed channels first upon seeing their faces. The voices are like loud, honking geese, nasal honking. Arrgh. They could use voice coaches or just study someone like Andrea Mitchell who has a pleasant voice as well as a brain. Campbell Brown has to be the worst.

[reliant1]

Thank God... I thought I was the only one. What happened to voice modulation? And that Witt on the other cable channel...chirping, kind of.

if they can't be bright can't they at least speak well?

[Freesia2]

And not giggle. Or laugh and laugh over absolutely nothing. Like a pack of hyennas.

[SethBLiNK]

You're not being fair here.

Gupta wasn't saying that the produce wasn't labeled. He was saying that when questioned, the management of the store couldn't say where it came from. And he wasn't just picking a pepper at random but a specific pepper that had been singled out by the FDA.

If the FDA says that Serano Peppers from a farm in Mexico may be the cause of salmonella, and I managed a produce store or department and couldn't answer definitively whether or not the peppers in my store might be the culprits, I think it would be my obligation to find out, or take the peppers off the shelf.

Not to do so would be INCREDIBLY negligent.

[JAUG]

sounds like she was at a loss for words and picked out a random thought.

[OldKnute]

Humm? Soooo are we given to understand that the Term,, Incredible,,, is somehow offensive?

Lemmie think a bit,, when I use this term,, it is most often a outward expression of shock or amazement.

NOW,,, If I may pause,,,, a long pause,, it is sooo I can flash process what I had just referred to as,,,, Incredible.

I see the gears turning here. If what Gupta was telling her was true,, then there is a HUGE breakdown in food sourcing, tracking and monitoring of imports, surely an ancillary oversight responsibility of the FDA,,, FOOD SAFTEY!

You know,, I will say it out loud too,, That seems Incredible. The FDA does not have an established system for marking each delivery, of fruits and vegetables???

Look,, I am being honest here,,, when I was younger,, the Quality of produce was a mater of PRIDE. Each Farm had their own, Logos BRAND to clearly identify their produce.

Branding was NOT a spin, or hype in some advertisement stratagem for market share or a NEW way to sell Snowballs to Eskimos. Branding was a BIG DEAL. What Sanjay Gupda shared here is,, Incredible to me,, and I hope.

Harry,, are Heidis natural Instincts for a News story just kickicking in? Exactly what is the FDA doing? You track this one down Heidi and there is a Pulitzer in it for sure.

Read,,,, Harvest Of Shame,,,, Heidi!!!!

Go Heidi GO!

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[FaceYourFears]

I guess the mods are friends with Heidi. I simply said that Heidi Collins reports the news as if she's eating on broken glass. Tony Harris is always fun and energetic while Heidi sits through the entire program with a grimmace on her face. I wish they'd replace her.

[RedStateCenterLeft]

As a former midwest anchor, I can tell you we're told by consultants to look amazed and involved.

Then again, we are placed in models--to have our hair a certain way, our clothes a certain way. I was told to lose weight, get eye surgery to correct my "eye look" as well as my name down to a single surname so it would be easier to remember.

Real people as anchors? Get real.

[grisgris]

Hoda Kotb (NBC Today Show) was a New Orleans' station anchor for many years. NO adopted her as one of own. We loved her. When she joined NBC, she changed the spelling of her name from the "Kotbe" that it was to "Kotb".
Too bad the networks and stations feel the need to "fix" their anchors.

[Moka11]

Oh Harry,... you just don't seem to realize that "news" anchors or "talking faces" come out of this factory in the midwest. Ya know when you fly over those states and you look out the window and there's a big building with lots of cars outside but it's in the middle of nowhere. And you might think "what goes on there?" That's the CNN Manufacturing facility. That's also where they made the Anderson Cooper model360 and they are currently working on a new version of the "Larry King" Most people don't know that The "Heidi Collins" talking face has no lower extremities. Also, Sanjay Gupta is version two of Bobby Jindahl. It's all harmless electronic fun really.

[RobinLandseadel]

Moka111: Don't you dare talk to Kent Brockman like that!

[TheOldSchool]

Not only do I make it a point to know where my food comes from, I also try to learn about who it hangs out with, and if it comes from a good family.

Was Heidi Collins named after that little girl in the book? The one who lived in the alps and looked a lot like Shirley Temple? Now, SHE knew where her food was coming from! (All the dosh she was getting from her film roles, I'd imagine.)

[InofTouch]

So we should get angry that there isn't enough labels...???

[strifeknot]

Yes.

[ohbomba]

Labelling is important when it comes to country of origin.
What would Maine think if there was lobster labled, "Maine Lobster" fresh from Iceland!

[Pdubya]

if NAFTA was a fair doctrine, we wouldn't have to worry about such concepts as "harmonization" of environmental and economical fairness. that it isn't fair makes us think more labeling (regulation) is the answer, which will only continue to boondoggle costs and risks. it is the policy (NAFTA) that is the culprit.

answer? grow a garden and shop locally!

[Driver125]

Please! Let's not encourage her. I believe the results could be dangerous to your mental health.

[DaveMacaray]

Harry,
Instead of poking fun at model-cum-tv news correspondents, why aren't you homing in on the way the national media has ignored the fact that New Orleans is the murder capital of the United States? Most folks still think it's Chicago, Detroit or NYC. But the city that leads the pack in per capita homicides is the Big Easy. Why does it get a break in coverage? Ignorance? Pity? Apathy?