When can we learn to take things seriously...?

News:
For my first actual blog posting I will be discussing how women are portrayed in News television. I decided against using my original idea of comparing a Chicago Newscast with a Carbondale Newscast. As an alternative my comparison is going to be between an Entertainment News broadcast and a CNN News broadcast. This way I would have a variety of news settings and actual news reports opposed to a variety of regions reporting on the same stories.

The Entertainment news show I watched is called Chelsea Lately. It airs on E - The Entertainment Network @11:30/10:30c. The show is rated TV14 SLD and primarily airs at night because it is based for a more mature audience. The show primarily focuses on Chelsea... hence 'Chelsea Lately'. Chelsea Handler is 32 years old, and grew up in New Jersey. She is the youngest of six children and has an extremely diverse background. With a Jewish father and a Mormon mother, Chelsea learned at a young age to start thinking for herself, and now makes insanely good money doing so. This raunchy television host started off doing comedy and she successfully managed to climb her way to the top of the corporate ladder. Not only does her entertainment news show have off the chart ratings but she is also guest starring in other television shows and is the author of a bestselling book, 'Are you there Vodka? It's me Chelsea'.

Chelsea's quick wit and blunt honesty makes her one of the more likable television talk show hosts. She's young, blond, thin, and hilarious... what more could you ask for. Her show has a variety of guest stars... having everyone from musicians, actors, to politicians. Chelsea's outgoing personality makes her easy to watch, and as you watch her show you realize that this the type of woman you wish was your mother. She engages her audience with her show, and includes the rest of her crew as well. Her assistant Chuy Bravo, is a short mexican man who is full of spunk. Bravo sits in on every episode and it's easy for viewers to tell that the two have a good working and personal relationship.

The episode I watched was on Tuesday November 11th at eleven o'clock at night... (a re-run i think). Chelsea discussed the Prop 8 Fallout, the recent Madonna concert, a playboy bunnie getting married, the president's dog, and a drunk woman on a plane. And her guest star for the evening was Madchen Amick from NBC's 'My Own Worst Enemy'. Throughout the episode she pokes fun at almost everything she talks about. Her jokes range from race, sex, religion, to herself. Chelsea is someone who definitely knows how to laugh at herself.

The show overall was better than I expected it to be. I think this woman could literally talk about anything and people would listen, her good looks and incredible sense of humor probably are a key ingredient as well to her success. I don't think it matters that she is white... it's all about personality and she has one that can take over a room, a crowd, and maybe one day the world? I would definitely recommend people checking out her show. Be fore warned it is for MATURE audiences only.

For the second half of this blog post I will be discussing an actual news report... one from CNN. The broadcast itself aired on Tuesday November 11th at midnight. Throughout the broadcast the reports addressed issues such as the three major car companies (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) going out of business, an exclusive with Bush and President elect Obama, Obama's 'Battle Plans', the Obama family moving into the White House, John Edwards and his affair, lots of Sarah Palin talk, 7 high school kids beating and stabbing over anti immigrant issues, and of course more Obama.

Throughout the entire broadcast, mostly men were doing the reports, men with degrees from very prestigious colleges (such as Harvard and Stanford). More specifically a man named Anderson Cooper. I noticed that in the bottom right hand corner of the screen it said something about Anderson Cooper 360°. The only women broadcasters were Heidi Collins who interviewed President Bush about his time in the White House. Heidi was young, Caucasian and very pretty. She was more a listener, than a talker; she asked the questions and nodded whenever she felt necessary. The only other women in the broadcast were Randi Kaye & Carol Lee, both were also Caucasian and definitely in their late twenties or early thirties - relatively young. They discussed the Obama family moving into the White House and the cute animal video of the day.

All of the women who were mention previously had either fluff stories or human interest stories. It seemed to me that the women were not entrusted with any stories of value. I did not really noticed any older women or women of any other race or ethnicity. When can we take things seriously if the only stories woman reporters are getting are fluff? When Anderson Cooper and the random woman he shared the cute animal of the day video with were doing their voice overs.... it almost sounded as if he was mocking her. "Oh isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen? I could just watch this all day..." It was ridiculous.

However on another note I found it extremely interesting how much each news broadcast's commercials differed from one another. On E - The Entertainment Network the commercials were primarily food ads, advertisements for other shows on the network, or dating commercials. On the other end of the spectrum on CNN aired a commercial multiple times, during each commercial break informing people to watch an exclusive on the 'Escape from Jonestown' who was being reported on by Soledad O'Brien (who happens to be a woman).

I think that depending on the network of the broadcast (CNN, NBC, ABC, etc), along with the region it airs in, and what is actually happening in the news... the stories women reporters have will vary. As for how the broadcasters are styled and if they are more generally a specific race, class, or age I think that also depends on the network and region along with who that type of news is directed towards. Overall both news casts were interesting and informative. As for personal preference Chelsea was definitely more entertaining, maybe that's why her show airs on E and not CNN.