Weatherman sues TV station for hiring hotties

My point is that viewers don't care who delivers the information., not that we should only give them what they want.

I could be wrong on this, as I've only lived in SoCal where our weathercasters have always been either goofy or busty.

 

Here, all of our weather people are meteorologists. I can't remember the last person doing weather who was not.

 

After Lakers games on KCAL/9, when the news comes on with Sharon Tay and Evelyn Taft, I don't know what they're saying and I don't care.

 

As one who is in the "teevee" world, on air, this is the business we've chosen.

Nearly every 45-year-old female anchor who is put out to pasture was, at one time, a hot 26-year-old on her way up. I'm not say it's fair but you can't benefit from it in 1993 and act all angry when time catches up.

90% of us will, eventually, be taken off the air by somebody else's call. It sucks. But it's the way it is.

 

Nice to know where Taft ended up. She was the weathercaster/weekend anchor at the small CBS affiliate in my neck of the woods a few years ago. Wow, her and Tay on the same newcast, as far as looks are concerned, is an embarrassment of riches.

 

It actually is a very touchy issue. A woman anchor over 40 gets canned for a younger hot girl can complain of age discrimination. A male who gets shuffled out for a female (or vice versa) can complain of gender discrimination. Smart TV stations can use ratings, focus groups, surveys, professional evaluations and other things to build a file in support of an adverse action.

 

A friend of mine who worked in TV put it this way:

Male anchors become "distinguished."

Female anchors become "old."

 

KCAL/9 and KCBS/2 are sister stations and all the news people appear on both channels. Hard to believe that Evelyn Taft actually plays second fiddle to Jackie Johnson.

 

And, yes, this has happened to me in my career. Was once demoted for a female, making the entire newscast "all female". A female demoted me on top of this.

I looked around at the environment but decided not to look further into it. If I would have made some noise about it, perhaps I would have won (and, more likely, not) but at what cost to my career at future stations?

 

All of this talk about qualifications pre-supposes that it makes a fucking difference who reads the TelePrompTer. That would be an incorrect assumption.

 

Sarcasm?

 

Know what else is an incorrect assumption? That there is a meteorologist anywhere who uses a TelePrompTer.