I watched CNN in horror as the Brooke Baldwin emoticon started to talk about the news...

[WCGreen]

I think she was created in some subterranean news anchor cloning and breeding system that produces anchors who talk in declarative sentences and only use action words...

She shows us that she is alive, in deed, by the way she walks/struts around the CNN set that looks like a local fox set on steroids.

Look at this picture...

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/baldwin.brooke.html

There is more air brushing on this specimen than on any playmate from the 1980's on.

She was created by focus groups and reminds me just how far away from journalism we have strayed.

Give me a rumpled curmudgeon any day over the super white toothed TelePrompter reader any day of the week.

Oh yes, I did see he once give a knowing look, put her hand to her chin and shake her head slowly, careful to not let one hair appear to be moving out of place, in sympathy...

[lunatica]

1. Is she the Borg?

Resistance is futile?

[WCGreen]

2. she makes the Borg look human...

[Newest Reality]

3. That picture is over-shopped!

Yikes.

Well, she could be one of them thar hybrids ya' hear about. Combination of Earth and alien genetic science.

[gateley]

4. "Brooke Baldwin emoticon"

:rofl:

I love your post. :headbang:

[hlthe2b]

5. Oh, to have the likes of Cronkite back again...

Some wizened men and women of some age/maturity to set an example for the up and coming younger crew. :shrug:

Sex sells and always will until we tune out.

[WCGreen]

32. A comedian the other day waxed nostalgic about Walter Cronkite

Interviewing Palin for the first time...

[angstlessk]

6. ONLY men are allowed to be rumpled curmudgeons...women MUST be

beautiful, or in Katie Couric's case...cute!

[speltwon]

8. Greta is apparently the ultimate counterexample

of that. Bill Oreilly in drag would be far more attractive

[WCGreen]

13. Yes but women have far more fashion choices than the blazer men have to wear...

Here in Cleveland we have two female anchors who are way into their 50's...

Don't watch 'em, but i know they are there...

[spanone]

7. journalism is dead.

[gauguin57]

9. Aw, c'mon everyone. Chillax. Watch your Two Minutes Hate, take your soma ...

... and watch Dancing with the Stars.

As Conan O'Brien said on his show last night: "There was an essay question on the SATs this year about reality TV. In other news, China has won."

[bluestateguy]

10. I long for the days to return when the news was boring and stuffy

and news reporters were old curmudgeons and cantankerous old farts.

[damntexdem]

11. Here's your problem: you watched CNN.

It's on its way to being as bad as Faux News, though it's not there yet.

[WCGreen]

12. I was just flipping through the channels and landed there,drawn in

by a curiosity about what this person was doing on the CNN...

[Lefta Dissenter]

14. the other morning on CNN

I thought I was watching "Housewives of New York" - little leather mini-skirt on one and cleavage "to here" on the other... they banter back and forth and then toss it to the cutesy little weather chick, with hair all over the place. And the guys (obviously guys) running the cameras and producing are practically turning the thing into a Victoria's Secret commercial, with their choice of shots of butts and boobs.

It would be one thing if they were brilliant, articulate women, who had any clue what the hell they were talking about, but your description of the "emoticon" is absolutely dead-on!

[sad sally]

15. Have you seen Mandy Drury on CNBC?

Husband says she could be mistaken for one of the "ladies of the night."

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. They should just be honest and start calling them ''news'' models. nt

[sdfernando]

16. Fembot

That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that picture.

[Peregrine Took]

17. 15 minutes is all the news we need. Anything beyond that is fluff n' stuff.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. I have never seen so much airbrushing!

It's scary...:scared:

I cannot expect that she thinks.

[noamnety]

19. The hiring policies are sexist

but to be honest, also your post comes across as a little sexist.

The problem is the quality of the newscasting, not how she looks. Hell, Bill O'Reilly looks like a nonairbrushed curmudgeon. See my point?

[WCGreen]

20. To be honest, I just happened to stop my channel surfing for a moment...

Given the nature of cable News these days, I am sure I could have said just as much about a man as well...

I know you are going to say "But I didn't" and I could answer back with that I sure don't think it was sexist, thinking it was more about the state of the business and you would disagree and I would say look at the picture and see how much tinkering there was done and since she obviously agreed to have that photo on the web site, I rest my case...

[noamnety]

22. And if the male anchors on CNN had plastic surgery

is that better or worse than using a photoshopped photo?

I still maintain a great journalist who's engaged in a bit of cosmetic enhancement - photoshop, or surgery - or hair transplants - or dyed their hair or whitened their teeth is better than a shitty journalist who happens to be a male curmudgeon. Equating a cosmetic bit of vanity (which most recognize can help their career) with journalism skills is silly.

I can't see that it's any better to discount someone for their looks (including photoshopping or hair dying, etc) than it is to hire because of their looks. Different sides of the same coin.

Who's the better journalist?

[WCGreen]

26. To be perfectly honest with you....

It was her style, her false urgency and her use of action words, talking in headline, if you will, that got me going.

She reminded me of the dozens of local anchors, male and female, who have come through Cleveland over the years who adopted that style of false bravado and on the edge delivery.

Cookie Cutter approach that is dumbing down broadcast journalism.

[noamnety]

31. That's a fair criticism. (nt)

[AsahinaKimi]

21. What if she is not real? What if she is a

Computer generated image! Like this...

[WCGreen]

27. OMG!

[Octafish]

24. She seems to have made a name for herself covering school shootings.

I wonder what was the last book she read?

[felix_numinous]

25. The Stepford Wives

comes to mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OMBNBgmxZY&feature=related

[jillan]

28. I think she needs a little more makeup. And maybe a few more highlights.

Honey - beauty comes from within - like Rachel!

[WCGreen]

29. Rachel is gorgeous.

In mind, spirit and body...

[jillan]

30. Yep - and she is without tons of makeup and highlights. Her eyes light up her face.

[Rex]

33. Fuck the M$M news, stop watching and don't support their sponsors.

They are all a huge waste of time and money and hardly ever report the news that people really need to know about. Fuck em.