CNN DECLARES PAULA ZAHN 'SEXY' IN NEW PROMO
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JAN 06 2002 22:37:49 ET XXXXX
It's out with the news, in with the sex at CNN this weekend after the network launched an ad campaign for 23-year news veteran Paula Zahn -- declaring her 'sexy'!
The 20-second promo, which ran on the all-news channel this weekend, features an announcer asking: What other morning show has a host who is brilliant, super smart -- and sexy?
The word "sexy" then appears in red letters on the screen followed by a face shot of host Paula Zahn.
"It is a sad day when we talk about journalists being sexy," countered FOX NEWS all-star Rita Cosby in a radio interview Sunday night.
"What about the guys at CNN, Larry King sure is sexy?!" mocked a senior MSNBC executive.
One CNN staffer, who asked not to be named, said the on-air Zahn 'sexy' promo comes as no surprise.
"I fear it is the People magazine-effect that has taken over every corner of the newsroom," said the insider. "It is humiliating to everyone who takes their job in journalism seriously."
It is not clear if Zahn signed-off on the promo before it aired.
Calls to the network went unreturned on Sunday.
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(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2002
The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
CNN stumbles over news anchor's 'sexy' promotion
Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished 1/8/02
Heavens: Along with all that journalistic credibility and telegenic gravitas, news anchors have sex appeal, too. It must be true, it was on television — at least, it was on CNN.
"Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart and — oh — just a little sexy?" asked a 15-second promotional spot that aired about a dozen times last weekend for morning news anchor Paula Zahn.
The coy sound of a zipper was the soundtrack for the words "provocative," "smart" and "sexy" superimposed over a picture of Miss Zahn. The spot, produced by a woman, did not have the blessing of senior executives.
Needless to say, the announcement had a short shelf life, indeed, yanked from the air yesterday and deemed a "major blunder" by CNN chairman Walter Issacson.
"I was offended," Miss Zahn said yesterday.
"It's out with the news, in with the sex at CNN," observed Matt Drudge, of the online news site Drudge Report.
It has not always been this way, perhaps.
"During her time here, we never referred to Paula Zahn as 'sexy' in any of the promotional materials about her," said a spokeswoman for the Fox News Channel, which hired Miss Zahn in 1999, then fired her last year during an acrimonious contract dispute.
Fox chief Roger Ailes claimed a "dead raccoon" would have received higher ratings than Miss Zahn, who arrived at CNN just in time to cover the September 11 attacks and declare her Fox experience "ancient history."
There is some irony afoot, however.
Sexy or not, the blond, svelte Miss Zahn turns 46 next month, is the mother of three and has spent 23 years before the camera as a correspondent for CBS and ABC, among others. If anything, the news that a woman in such circumstances is officially "sexy" should reassure middle-aged females everywhere, save die-hard feminists.
Meanwhile, the concept of "sexy anchors" and "news babes" has dogged the news media marketplace for years, driving the ratings race and further emphasizing the dubious idea that news can be packaged and perceived as entertainment, peopled with celebrity journalists.
For what it's worth, this is definitely an equal-opportunity field. Men and women alike receive racy accolades.
"News anchors are hot," noted one USA Today columnist. People and Playboy magazines and the Atlanta Journal Constitution are among publications that have polled the public about appealing newscasters.
The Journal Constitution's recent "Who's sexiest at CNN?" survey, incidentally, found correspondents Nic Robertson and Daryn Kagan leading the pack, with Bill Hemmer and Miss Zahn in second place, respectively. But things can backfire.
Two years ago, North Carolina TV anchor Alicia Booth was voted the "sexiest woman in Charlotte." She was quickly demoted to a reporter because "her looks got in the way," said PBS, which featured the case in a documentary on TV news in October.
While CNN speculates about the wisdom of using the term "sexy" in its promotional materials, the "sexy" issue has also erupted with respect to the hiring practices of the British media, where the BBC's chief news correspondent, Kate Adie, has taken on her network in no uncertain terms.
Accusing the BBC of hiring only "cute women with cute bottoms and nothing in between," she prompted the Times of London to observe that "the great bottom war" had been declared.
Miss Adie, 56, described herself as "a terribly old-fashioned trout," determined to fight "the softening up in the news."
BBC management insisted they had not compromised news coverage with pretty faces. "It isn't dumbing down," said news director Roger Mosey.Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Red-faced CNN pulls ``sexy'' Paula Zahn promo
Monday January 7 6:56 PM ET
By Steve GormanLOS ANGELES(Reuters) - Executives at CNN had a new mantra Monday: don't call Paula Zahn sexy, don't call Paula Zahn sexy.
A CNN promotional spot touting its new morning newscaster as ``just a little sexy'' was pulled off the air after it was broadcast repeatedly over the weekend in error, CNN officials said.
Red-faced executives said the 15-second ad was the work of an overzealous promotional staff and that ``appropriate steps'' were being taken to ensure future promos are cleared through proper channels.
``It was a major blunder by our promo department,'' CNN Chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson said in a statement. ``The ad was never seen or approved by anyone outside the promo department. I was outraged, and so was Paula Zahn, who has spent more than 20 years proving her credibility day in and day out on the air.''
Zahn, 45, is a 10-year CBS News veteran who joined the Fox News Channel as an evening news anchor in 1999 and moved to rival CNN in September, signing a deal worth roughly $2 million a year to host CNN's morning news show. She first appeared on CNN on Sept. 11 during coverage of the suicide attacks on Washington and New York.
A revamped version of CNN's morning news program, retitled ''American Morning,'' debuted on Monday.
In a CNN promo that aired several times on Saturday and Sunday, a voice-over asks: ``Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart, oh yeah, and just a little sexy?'' At that point, the music pauses and the voice-over intones the answer: ``CNN, Yeah, CNN.''
Zahn appears in the ad with a shot of her on the set interviewing someone.
The episode occurred amid an intensifying battle for viewers between CNN and Fox News, which last week hired away CNN's longtime legal affairs correspondent and anchor Greta Van Susteren to put her in the 10 p.m. spot formerly occupied by Zahn.
Fox News fired Zahn in September after learning she was in talks to anchor a news program on CNN, then sued her agent, N.S. Bienstock, for breach of contract.
Fox officials were clearly gleeful over the Zahn promo embarrassment. Kevin Magee, Fox News vice president of programming, called the ad a ``sign of desperation.''
``It makes you wonder who's running the place over there,'' he said. ``She's their No. 1 star. It's the big premiere of their big show, and no one watched the promo before it went on. What were all those people doing?''
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Just a Little Honest
January 9, 2002
By MAUREEN DOWD
gaffe," Michael Kinsley once observed, "occurs not when a politician lies, but when he tells the truth."
CNN made a terrible gaffe over the weekend and told a terrific truth.
It was refreshing to see somebody finally spit out what we all know but what the networks go to ludicrous lengths to deny: They hire and promote news stars based on looks and sex appeal.
About 10 times over the weekend, CNN ran an ad promoting Paula Zahn's new morning show, "American Morning," with a male announcer purring, "Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart, oh yeah, and just a little sexy?" The word sexy then flared onto the screen, accompanied by a noise that sounded like a zipper unzipping.
The ad's naked truth stunned television insiders. "If they're sexy, so be it," said Don Hewitt, executive producer of "60 Minutes." "It ain't necessary to say it. It's undignified.
"Whatever Paula brings to television," he said, "it's despite the fact that she's nicely put together. It diminishes a first-rate woman journalist to label her sexy. Why doesn't CNN say that Wolf Blitzer is sexy? He must be sexy to somebody."
On Monday the embarrassed CNN chief, Walter Isaacson, yanked the spot. "It was a bad mistake," he said. "I'm really sorry. The promotion department didn't get it cleared. You can say sexy about a man but not about a woman."
A CNN spokesman explained that the noise was not supposed to be a zipper sound, but more like a needle scratching across an LP record — a sound effect sometimes used on "Ally McBeal."
CNN's bitter rival, Fox News, which fired Ms. Zahn in September when it learned she was being wooed by CNN, immediately began crowing. In the absence of the usual Washington back-stabbing, Fox vs. CNN is the most entertaining contest going. The Fox anchor Brit Hume declared on air that the sexy ad was "a first in the history of television news."
Mr. Hume said off air he thought that in the old days CNN made news the star. But now, beset by lively cable competition and Ashleigh Banfield types, the network has to make stars the news.
"TV news is a peculiar hybrid medium with many imperatives," Mr. Hume said. "And attractive people, alas, is one of them."
As TV news has succumbed to glossy entertainment values, the executives in TV don't think so differently from executives in movies.
As Glenn Close recently told The Chicago Tribune, Hollywood always wants "the same old thing — young, sexy. I always have an image that there must be some room somewhere full of men saying," to paraphrase Ms. Close, "Would you date her?" "Yeah, I'd date her." "O.K., let's cast her."
The BBC's 56-year-old veteran news correspondent Kate Adie created a stir in October when she said TV bosses in England were more interested in the "shape of your leg" than professional credentials. Calling herself a "terribly old-fashioned old trout," she said the modern crop of BBC presenters had "cute faces and cute bottoms and nothing else in between."
American network executives have also been hiding their preference for the visual over the cerebral in plain sight over the years, as they paraded a bunch of glamorous cookie-cutter blondes, pretty conservative pundettes with gams longer than their résumés and dishy anchor studs across the screen, all the while pretending that it was more important for their journalists to be hard on the news than easy on the eyes.
The irrepressible Roger Ailes, head of Fox News, is chortling, declaring that in its "desperation" to add some Fox-like foxiness to its more staid network, CNN overreached.
He said he thought the ad was due to the influence of Jamie Kellner, the Turner Broadcasting boss who came over in March from running the WB network, where he used to oversee "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Felicity." He does not buy Mr. Kellner's plea of ignorance.
"This has got Kellner's fingerprints, palm prints and face prints on it," Mr. Ailes said. "Nobody in the history of CNN in Atlanta would have used that zipper sound effect or the word `sexy.' This is Hollywood. This is the way they promote a new sitcom. This is Kellner saying, `I made "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I can make Paula Zahn.' "
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
Save My Shoes! They're Jimmy Choos! Poor Paula Zahn. All that long legs, za-za clothes, shiny lips and big buttery chunks of hair presentation that went over so well at Fox has gotten her called merely "a little bit sexy" by CNN's promo department and the ad has angered the front office. Seems she wants to be thought of as smart. Read the Fox send up of the whole situation and say this for Fox. They have fun.
CNN Caught In 'Zipper' Ad For Paula Zahn
Tuesday, January 8, 2002; Page C01
By Lisa de MoraesPASADENA, Calif., Jan. 7
CNN executives today said they're "outraged" that their network ran a promo that touted morning newscaster Paula Zahn as "just a little sexy" to what sounds like a zipper being unzipped.
"I was outraged and so was Paula Zahn, who has spent more than 20 years proving her credibility day in and day out on the air," CNN Chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson said in a statement.
He called the ad "a major blunder" by CNN's promotions department and insisted that the promo, which ran over the weekend, was "never seen or approved by anyone outside our promotions department" before it was telecast.
"I had no knowledge of the promo until it aired; when I saw it I was offended," Zahn said in her statement on the subject.
And a CNN rep wanted us to know that Isaacson, Zahn and Jamie Kellner, chairman of CNN parent Turner Broadcasting, each called the network independently when they saw the spot, demanding that it be pulled.
The 15-second ad ran about 10 times before it was yanked, estimates one CNN source.
In the ad, a voice asks, "Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart, oh yeah, and just a little sexy?" as the words "provocative" and "sexy" are flashed on the screen, along with quick shots of Zahn's profile and Zahn's lips.
At that point, the background music stops and a noise is heard that, if you're from Zahn's former network, Fox News Channel -- which had a field day with this one today -- sounds like a zipper being unzipped, and if you're an insider at CNN you'd swear was the sound of a needle scratching an LP.
A needle scratching an LP?
Zahn, formerly with CBS News and at the time with Fox News Channel, was hired last year to anchor CNN's new morning news show. After learning of her CNN deal, FNC announced it had fired Zahn. Today FNC wanted to make sure that the Reporters Who Cover Television were aware of the On-Air Zahn Zipper Caper. And Brit Hume wrapped his evening newscast by promising viewers that Fox News would continue to be "fair," "balanced," but, "I'm afraid, not even a little bit sexy." After which FNC viewers heard that zipping noise.
Kellner, a former Hollywood executive, launched the Fox and WB networks before turning his attention to CNN; among his early moves was hiring thespian Andrea Thompson, best known for appearing seminude on "NYPD Blue," to anchor Headline News. Kellner took some heat when pictures of Thompson from adult flicks started appearing on the Internet.
Turner Broadcasting spokesman Brad Turell told the Associated Press today that the promotion's statement that Zahn is sexy was an error in judgment, "whether it's true or not."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
None dare call it sex
Thursday, January 10, 2002
By Bill O'Reilly© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Say what you want about Paula Zahn, but don't call her sexy. Don't do it or CNN will track you down and express their supreme dismay. Ms. Zahn is not sexy. I repeat there is no sex appeal in play here. Got it?
CNN is now embarrassed because one of its promotion people tried to get some men to watch Paula in the morning by pointing out her attractiveness in an advertisement. I know Ms. Zahn pretty well, having worked with her at ABC News and Fox. She is very professional but does spend a lot of time, shall we say, grooming. And it's time well spent – she looks good! Some guys might even think she's sexy – although you didn't hear that from me.
But Paula Zahn does not want to be known for her physical attributes. She wants to be known for her competency as a journalist. Fine. But you can be sexy and a good journalist at the same time. How do I know, you ask? Everybody's a comedian these days.
Anyway, back to Paula and her sexiness. Here's the deal. In the politically correct world of TV news it is considered sexist to mention an anchorwoman's looks even though they are vitally important. The driving force in the TV news game is ratings, and guys like to look at attractive women … so, if you want guys to watch your news you've got to have some good looking babes on the roster.
Women are generally much smarter and more civilized than males, so they will accept anchormen who are credible but not hunks. Thank God for that. It's not fair, but that's the way it is. Yes, Walter Cronkite is a good example of what I'm talking about.
And so is Eleanor Roosevelt. Very intelligent woman. No way she's reading the news on TV. Never happen. Shallow men would tune out.
Shallowness is the key word here. In order to make money, TV news must appeal to as many people as possible – and that includes the shallow, of whom there is no shortage. Eyeballs are eyeballs. It doesn't matter to the news bosses – nor to the anchorpeople for that matter – who is watching as long as they are watching.
When I heard Paula Zahn express indignation that her promo contained the word "sexy," I laughed. Hey, hey, Paula, if they think you're sexy, and watch you each morning, take it to the bank and hush up. Your livelihood depends on a mass audience and it doesn't matter why they like you as long as they do. You can still be a skilled interviewer and writer and give a little wink now and then.
The feminists object to that but most of them live in a world of ideological platitudes. TV news is the trenches. A mean, nasty world where cutthroat competition decides who stays and who goes. News reading gladiators all over the USA are just a bad ratings book away from having to get a real job. TV news is survival of the fittest and sometimes that means the prettiest and sexiest. Sometimes it means other things too, but you use what you've got.
The American people, I believe, know very well that many TV anchorpeople are full of it and know little about the news. It's showbiz and the audience chooses which show means the most to them.
In the case of the male audience ages 25 to 54, a great looking lady helps the news about Mullah Omar go down just a little smoother. Nothing wrong with that. And you can't fight it, Paula. Just be happy you look the way you do. And here's lookin' at you kid.
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DE GUSTIBUS
Serious
CNN, Foxy Paula: What a Dilemma
Smart people can be
sexy too.
BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN
Friday, January 11, 2002 12:01 a.m.
In the early 1980s, when the lady was in her pomp, a poll in Britain revealed that a third of all British males thought that Margaret Thatcher was--in a nutshell--sexy. In fact, if my memory isn't playing naughty tricks, the findings were rather more torrid: A third of all British males had had, we were told, at least one erotic dream featuring Mrs. Thatcher in a central role.Her appeal stood the test of time. In 1999, on the eve of the millennium, a small British literary magazine called the Erotic Review conducted a survey of its readers to establish who, in their view, were the sexiest personalities of the past 1,000 years. Ranking fourth, behind Marilyn Monroe, Louise Brooks (an actress of the silent screen) and Lord Byron, was Mrs. Thatcher. Part nanny, part dominatrix, the lady--defender of the Falklands--clearly had sex appeal in the mind of the British male.
I mention this not merely because I admire Mrs. Thatcher--I'll admit, unblushingly, to a mild passion--but because the concept of "sexiness" is now the subject of some heated debate in American media circles. This, of course, is due to the messy business at CNN, in which Paula Zahn, a news anchor, was described, in a short on-air spot, as "smart and sexy." The spot was immediately yanked in a tizzy of indignation by CNN's CEO, Walter Isaacson, who pronounced himself to be "outraged" and went on to note that Ms. Zahn, "who has spent more than 20 years proving her credibility day in and day out," was outraged too.
Now, Mrs. Thatcher, most will admit, was not sexy in an entirely physical way: In fact, one might almost say that her sex appeal was all the more remarkable for its owing little or nothing to her physical cast. My point--basic enough--is that you don't have to look sexy to be considered sexy. And this point leads to my next, which is that if you're a "looker" (which is what Ms. Zahn is, whether she concedes the point or not), your appeal need not be celebrated at the expense of your smartness or "credibility."
Do we think plainness represents seriousness? Clearly not, because there is not one "serious" anchor on TV--no, not even Wolf Blitzer or Greta Van Susteren--who might be called plain. And there are even plenty of male anchors and reporters--David Asman at Fox News, Peter Jennings at ABC, Nic Robertson at CNN--who can be described as "sexy." So it is rather tedious of Ms. Zahn to object so strenuously to the Zahn-is-sexy ad. Wouldn't a more secure woman (or boss) simply laugh it off? The comedy is in the idea that both anchor and CEO might actually believe that she's there entirely because she's a brain.
It is always painful to see people rated solely by physical appearance, and devalued--whether by virtue of their beauty or their plainness--because of it. But it was disingenuous of Ms. Zahn, a master-hand in a milieu where pleasing looks are a precondition of employment (just as strength is for firefighters or an Indian passport for computer analysts), to play the role of slandered female, her professional dignity besmirched by the male chauvinist pigs in the CNN publicity department.
It was a betrayal of her smartness, too, that she failed to accept that "sexy" has nuances, and dimensions, that owe nothing to blond hair (which she has), enviable legs (on which the camera often focuses), a zesty smile (she's got it), and good teeth (Ms. Zahn's are the best in the business). There are, as Mrs. Thatcher proved, other qualities that contribute. Walter Cronkite (sexy bloke), had energy, quirkiness, earnestness and folksiness; Judy Woodruff (a sexy anchor) has intelligence and integrity; Donald Rumsfeld (currently as much a TV sex symbol as he is a defense secretary) is swaggering, blunt, jokey and edgy.
The underlying assumption in the Zahn contretemps was that there is some sort of man/woman divide or double standard based on an anchor's or correspondent's sex. But far from it: Viewers, male or female, might be tempted to regard Charlie Rose as a bimbo. He is chiseled, a picture of WASP perfection, and could easily coast on his looks even if he grasped no more than a third of what his high-level guests were saying.
So my take on Ms. Zahn? She is quick. Cuts in nicely when people babble. Always does her homework. Courteous, but doesn't suffer fools. Oh, and good-looking too, especially the teeth and that no-nonsense chin--and, yes, that new, post-Fox haircut.
In short, sexy. So why is it wrong to say so?
Mr. Varadarajan is deputy features editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His "Citizen of the World" column appears Tuesdays.
Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
