ANCHORING THE VAST WASTELAND :

Out There : Windswept, inept, Ashleigh Banfield hits the road. (TUNKU VARADARAJAN, August 22, 2002, Wall Street Journal)

Every Monday to Thursday, from 10 to 11 p.m. EDT, MSNBC thwacks its viewers on the head with a cudgel called Ashleigh Banfield. Ms. Banfield was recently described by Vogue as "the anchor who is changing the way we watch the news." She has, the magazine continued, created "a new genre of broadcasting--a kind of raw, take-you-there, experiential reporting." I'm not sure what Vogue meant by that last bit of molasses, but my translation reads, Unprepared, verbose and incapable of complex analysis.

What we have here is the exaltation of the ditz.

We like her; plus, this is kind of a double standard. No way is she any ditzier than Rather, Brokaw or Brian Williams. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 23, 2002 8:18 AM