Tuesday, January 15, 2002

 

Can news be sexy?

When you're in the news business, a good, meaty, interesting story that you know people are going to read is often described as sexy. But that's inside newsrooms. Calling someone who reports the sexy stories sexy just isn't right. But it happened when CNN ran ads describing news anchor Paul Zahn as provocative, smart and “just a little sexy.”

Zahn took offense to the ads and CNN pulled them. Although Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel says Zahn was just being "politically correct" when she wanted the ads nixed, I don't think so. By the way, Zahn left Fox for CNN in September. Anyway, Zahn has been in the business for more than 20 years. To be described as sexy must seem like a slap in the face to her and everything she's worked for.

But there's more to it than that. If any of the other networks had run the ads, that would be different. Personally, I don't think it would be right, but it would be different and not quite as offensive. Don't go crying "double standard" on me. They're entertainment networks that happen to provide news as well. CNN is supposed to be a news network. If any network should work against blurring the line between entertainment and news it's CNN.

Let's hope CNN learned something from this.

posted by Anne 1/15/2002 07:44:00 PM