NBC News Swaps Out "Heavier" Staffers For Broadcast
Alternate title: Only Skinny People Are Allowed on TV Unless They’re Part of a Fat-Themed Reality Show.
According to the New York Post:
Sources say that when Brian Williams left his desk to deliver Wednesday’s nightly broadcast from the middle of the newsroom, producers brought in some ringers. “NBC newsroom staffers don’t look like Vogue staffers,” said one source. “So they asked less attractive, heavier staffers to move seats and allow younger, thinner members of the staff to act as extras.” The “extras,” including two interns who normally run errands, were told to sit up straight, look busy and keep their computers on the MSNBC Web site. “No porn behind Brian,” our source laughed.
Bolding mine. I’m also going to bold something in this next paragraph, NBC’s denial:
An NBC rep denied any reality-altering: “The majority of the people seen on the newscast are the same people who are there every night.” As for the interns? “They were serving a purpose. They were helping out with the broadcast.”
Thanks to our own Weetabix (who called this “Something I’ve always suspected…”) for the tip!
Posted by mo pie
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So…putting the coffee gofer on a computer because the person who actually operates it weighs more than they’d like is somehow both honest and a view of a healthy world?
I’m sick and tired of never seeing anyone on my television who looks like me unless that person is either desperately doing huge numbers of unhealthy things to magically become thin and healthy or is being held up as an example of everything that’s wrong with the world.
Boo on NBC for making sure we are further marginalized for the sake of aesthetics.
Notice that the NBC rep does not deny moving staffers around. S/he just says that the people in the shot were people who are “there” every night. This could mean “in the newsroom,” not necessarily in those exact seats. Ugh. This disgusts me.
I’m annoyed – not surprised, but annoyed. It also really makes me wonder if these “too big” folks are asked to go out and film “headless fatties.” There are so many levels of messed up to this I can barely sort it out!
I guess they’re taking a cue from Fox News, where being “attractive” is more important than being intelligent or capable.
Fuck.
So…putting the coffee gofer on a computer because the person who actually operates it weighs more than they’d like is somehow both honest and a view of a healthy world?
From a purported news source, no less.
Just as well I don’t do “nightly news” much anymore. C-SPAN is 24 hours.
This should be broken, though, and shouted from as many rooftops as possible, that NBC has sunk to the level of Faux News.
So thank you, Weetabix and Moe.
Given that I’ve often seen stuff horribly misspelled going across the CNN ticker screen (and the ticker is what ruined CNN Headlines for me) I guess I’m not surprised at the degrading quality.
And then I wonder if I’m degrading with all these “is the world going to hell?” thoughts rattling in my brain and out my fingers via the keyboard.
There’s a reason citizen journalism is on the rise. Sure, you expect some crazy, but it’s an honest sort of madness.
In Memorial Hospital, New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, Emmett Everett, a 380-pound paraplegic patient who was alert, talking, and in good spirits died, allegedly as a result of a lethal dose of drugs administered by a doctor. Why? The doctor felt that, because of his size, his evacuation from the hospital would be too difficult and time-consuming for the medical personnel and rescue workers. A grand jury refused to indict the doctor. This is a long article, but please read it. Please blog about it. Please get this story out there. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30doctors.html?_r=1&hpw
Outrageous!
Catherine,
I read the whole article. I can’t believe they didn’t indict the doctor, not just for the Mr. Everett, but for all the patients that were euthanized. Typically, I’m sympathetic to difficult situations, but I think the acts were so far outside the realm of acceptable that I have nothing but disgust.
Thanks for the link.