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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
Our Top 10 helmet-haired howlers, starring Shepherd Smith, Katie Couric and more.
Jul 8, 2004 | There may have been a time -- long before the words "eyewitness" or "chopper" ever became associated with TV news -- when the job of delivering the events of the day to viewers at home had real dignity and gravitas, when nothing seemed nobler than sitting behind a news desk, reading from a teleprompter.
If such a time did exist, it surely came before the mid-1970s, when the focus of the evening news began its shift from news to personality. In 1970, Ted Knight's buffonish Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" caught the beginning of this trend with the first lampoon of the narcissistic newsreader. When Walter Cronkite put in a guest appearance on the show in 1974, he said, drily, that "every once in a while I think guys in our business need something to jog us out of being overdignified." Just a year later on "Saturday Night Live," Chevy Chase began satirizing the vanity of the evening news anchor with his line "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," on "Weekend Update." (It's no wonder, then, that Will Ferrell's new movie "Anchorman" is set in the 1970s.) News anchors have been a comic staple ever since, from Kent Brockman of "The Simpsons" to Jon Stewart on the "Daily Show."
But why are newscasters -- local newscasters, in particular -- such easy targets? Like anyone else who appears before the camera, they appear to take themselves too seriously. Compounding that problem is the habit of most newscasters to try desperately to strike an everyman pose, making them even more subject to ridicule. Why? Because we tend to strongly suspect that they're not, in fact, everymen and everywomen. Instead, we tend to suspect they're mostly well-compensated, wildly ambitious, slightly out-of-control type A personalities. When they attempt to seem natural -- just like us -- they seem even more cartoonish, more like Ted Baxter, and they can frequently be more hilarious than anything that has appeared on "Weekend Update" in a long time.
That's part of what makes watching them get caught off guard so satisfying: For a brief moment, we get to witness them as real people and not acting the way they think real people behave. There's nothing overtly funny about the clip of Dan Rather from the 1968 Democratic Convention. But it is enjoyable witnessing the pluck of the earnest young Rather, dusting himself off after getting a thrashing -- especially now, when the Rather we're used to has seemed as focus-grouped and media savvy as a sitcom star. The joy is not in seeing these newscasters screw up, but in seeing their personalities shine through when caught in a moment of surprise. And, OK, it's also thrilling to watch them screw up: Just try to watch the clip of the serious young reporter confronted by a streaker without laughing. We dare you. So, on the next page, we give you our 10 Best Bootleg News Clips, starring Katie, Shepherd and Dan, Freudian slips, attacking reptiles -- and one less one-of-a-kind object in the world.
