CNN is replacing their anchors on CNN American Morning. Soledad O’Brian is losing her anchor position, and is getting replaced by Kiran Chetry, who formerly appeared on the Fox News Channel.
CNN President Jonathan Klein reportedly said, “One look at her tells you why she deserves the spot. She’s a terrific anchor who lights up the screen.” This contrasts fairly dramatically with his commentary about John Roberts, who is taking over Miles O’Brien’s corollary anchor spot. According to this Yahoo News story, “Klein described Roberts as a ‘classic news anchor’ who’s also distinguished himself as a reporter on stories including the Israel-Lebanon war and the war in Iraq.”
One only need consider sites like this to wonder what the real role of women in the news media is. Kiran Chetry specific posts can be found here, where her value is revealed through an ability to do stomach crunches on camera and bend over in front of the camera while supposedly bowing to a football helmet.
One wonders where the discussion of her journalistic talents is. Wikipedia has an entry about her complete with a “headshot.” Rather than discussing her journalistic accolades – she won an award for a report on teen smoking – there is more discussion about her “story about eating ice cream” and how Maxim Magazine put her on their “top ten list of TV’s Sexiest News Anchors.”
–Susan Franck
