Faux News, a Bikini Babe and Alberto Gonzales: Lessons From FOX's Anchorwoman
It was a combo of what a lot of people say News Corp. does best: salacious -- if not fictitious -- news and outright salaciousness thinly veiled as entertainment. So why did that cocktail known as Anchorwoman fail so miserably as a reality show - one and done as of last week Wednesday with a paltry 2.7 million viewers. According to Jim reruns got more viewers in that hour. ACCORDING TO JIM!
The recap for the 297,300,00 who missed it: Anchorwoman starred Lauren Jones who is famous for holding a lot of jobs you wouldn't want your daughter to have. Ms. Jones is shipped down to FOX affiliate in Tyler, TX to be remade into an...wait for it...Anchorwoman. As reality shows go it wasn't Unanimous awful -- truly Unanimous was the best worst reality show ever -- and you could at least make a drinking game out of guessing which parts of Jones's body were augmented (it was easier to guess which weren't). But basically it was a one-joke show: ditzy chick tries to make it in the cutthroat world of local news where looks won't buy you an exclusive interview with the city comptroller. Jones's foil in the show was the station's brunette anchor Annalisa Petralia who is merely attractive next to Jones's medically enhanced gorgeousness.
For all I know Lauren Jones might be the Madeleine Albright of bikini models. But opting to play the umpteenth version of the dumb blonde was a bad call. Vapid and bleached was played out way before Posh Spice tried to do the next-to-umpteenth version of it a month ago, and that was with the added benefit of English wit.
The real problem with Anchorwoman is that it was built on a flawed concept. Reality shows -- or "reality" shows -- are supposed to reveal to the viewer the unseen. That Ozzy Osbourne has much in common with Ozzie Nelson. That a thirty year old man could fall in love with a forty-eight year old woman instead of a twenty-three year old girl. Anchorwoman promised to peel back the mysterious curtain of news and reveal that the media is shallow and anyone can read a Teleprompter.
Unfortunately the folks at FOX were at least fifty-six years too late.
Billy Wilder did it better in Ace in the Hole (finally available on DVD) and Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet showed their prescience with 1976's Network.
But for a more immediate version of the same you only needed to check out the Fox News web page yesterday.
While all other major news sites were leading with the Gonzales resignation, the headline on Fox was an arrest in a Texas "kill spree." That was followed by stories on Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho getting popped in a Minnesota airport (hey, at least it he was a negative story about a Republican), a motorcade cop escorting President Bush who died in a crash and Michael Vick doling out a mea culpa. Below a story on a KY SWAT team taking out a gunman you get the line: Bush: Gonzales "Dragged Through the Mud." If you'd just dropped in form mars, you wouldn't even know the guy'd resigned. Much as history is owned by the victors, news is "owned" by the outlets. Even the demi-cognoscenti already know this. Anyone who truly buys into the bromides of "fair and balanced" or "most trusted name..." may have been slightly entertained, but would not have been remotely enlightened by the travails of a bikini model at a small market TV station. How FOX figured their Anchorwoman "reality" was going to compete with Fox News's reality is beyond me.
Just for the record, it's beyond me how Fox thought Anchorwoman was going to compete with Judy Miller's reality at the New York Times either.
If you're desperate to see if a ditz can really make it in TV news, Anchorwoman will be available online.
If you're desperate to see if sins of omission and agitprop can pass for news, Fox News is always online (and the Times, too!).
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FOX NEWS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A JOKE!! ALL THE NEWS THAT IS BULL SHIT AND NOT FIT TO PRINT. THEY BLATANTLY SUPPORT B U S H = AND ALWAYS HAVE..ASS KISSERS ALL
Democracy Now, Mother Jones, and fine Internet sites like this one,Alternet and Raw Story beat the heck out of all "Major" media news.
TV news is concerned with ratings and people seem to care more about the subhuman behavior of celebrities then what laws are being passed or judged by Congress and the Supreme court.
I wish it were different but American's are proud of their stupidity and do little to inform themselves of what is going on.
The low aptitude for science and math and the large percentage of Americans who get their view of reality from the bible ,or worse yet, the bible as read by some televangelist,shows why fox news does well.
Politics has become like pro wrestling and most people want their favorite to win at any cost and actually trust their chosen party.
Speaking of new "news". Did anyone see that Richard Jewell, the security guard vilified by the FBI and MSM when he tried to clear the area during the Atlanta Olympics (bomb went off but would have been much more tragic if this man hadn't acted as he did) has passed away. Talk about the Ramsey's and Jon Bonet brings back this travesty by the MSM as well. May our loving Heavenly Father grant this brave soul eternal rest and peace.
Fox News is an alternative reality. The best new reality show would be to see what goes on behind the scenes at Fox News and to see how they decide to spin the stories.
Not only do they lie on Fox News but they make lies the basis of the discourse. All of their neo-con panel of 'experts' Krauthammer, Kristol and the rest of them have not only never apologized for being so wrong about Iraq, now they want to compound their errors by promoting an attack on Iran. The next reality show on Fox could be- 'Who Do We Attack Next?'
CBS newsroom Denver - the day of the Jon Bene Ramsey murder - afternoon
The majority of the "journalists" in that room were boasting that the parents were responsible for the murder. Fact-finding and research was out the door that very first day. I was shamed by one of my fellow emmy award winning journalist for listening to and investigating tips. I had not judged as the evidence wasn't adding up. To this day, I don't know who murdered this little girl.
The family ended up being run out of town as they were put through the grill by all. The power of the media to sway popular opinion based on baseless stories is devastating.
Edward R. Murrow is rolling over in his grave. Faux news - real news - is it?
What do used car salesmen, lawyers, repig politicians and jounalists have in common?
They are share the bottom rung of the credibility ladder with lots of sleaze generously mixed in.
Who can you trust anymore in America? I'll take my dog over most others.
Fox news IS a reality show.
Take a couple million rednecks, give them fake news, and see what country they can be conned into invading.
What a stale idea... all the LA area news stations have been doing this for years.
"Vapid and bleached was played out way before Posh Spice tried to do the next-to-umpteenth version of it a month ago, and that was with the added benefit of English wit."
amen to this! and I would add, for both women referenced, fake breasts...
I didn't watch the show, but I read about it... and I understand some of the outrage... women newsanchors are still struggling to be taken seriously (we only recently have had a woman anchor on national news - Couric - and it's not going well), and this makes a mockery of them... and of the time they put into journalism school and interships to get where they are...
this is a problem with other reality shows, too... American Idol, The Lot, etc. trivialize the idea of working your way to the top by replacing that idea with a popularity contest...
Guess I'll just switch to CNN and MSNBC for the complete news slant, or fairy tales and outright lies, depending on their mood and the anchor.
Fox is turning more and more to smut news than real news anymore, thereis more air time given to clild molesters/
I personally think it's about time FOX unveiled their Weather Bunny. You know like the good old days of broadcasting when they had some chick dress up as a bunny complete with fluffball tail and point and giggle at oncoming storm charts--Katrina etc.. I am a tits and ass kinda person so I could go for that. It's about the only thing I can think of that will get FOX out of their hole.
Nah cylindar. That stuff is far to oversold. Does anyone remember a gal named Susan Rook from the early days of CNN. Now there was an absolutely drop dead gorgeous woman who was pretty darn good at what she did. Never wore a bikini but she didn't need one either. Bye the bye folks: Did you see where ole Bushie wants fifty billion MORE for Iraq. Seems he knows he's got the Dems by the cajones. Sorry to spoil your day.
I understand everyone getting upset about Fox News... but isnt that the point of what they are. The conservatives like them because they hear what they want to hear.. and liberals watch it because it makes them mad and gives them an excuse to rant and rave. The rest of us watch it because each and every one of the women on there... scratch that.. everyone except Gretta.. is smoking hot.
But ultimately it's not news.. it's entertainm
I doubt if the families whose son's were killed in Iraq find it amusing that Fox misled it's viewers into thinking Saddam and Al-queeda were one in the same.
Saying "FOX News" is like military intelligence. The two cannot co-exist. The cognitive dissonance is staggering.
Who needs Anchorwoman? We have Fox "News".
Complain about Fox if you want but all of the cable news outlets led with Michael Vick last night.
Except for maybe 1/2 of Countdown, all television "News" is bassically corporate propaganda. Fox is just the most blatent
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Posted August 28, 2007 | 01:25 PM (EST)