I remember way back in 2000 when I first discovered 24 hour news. There weren’t quite as many model looking journalists though a few were present. The only time you heard about the middle east was when a particularly large bomb went off in Israel. Bush was already making friends with other countries following a spy plane incident with China. The big difference was you noticed a lot more variety in the news. More car chases, more exciting stuff like that. MSNBC became my favored channel thanks to reporters like Lester Holt, Brian Williams, and a particularly awesome blonde named Ashleigh Banfield. She wore glasses, was the most beautiful news reporter I’d ever seen, and she was intelligent. She carried herself like a news reporter and not a gossip columnist that someone stuck in front of the camera. They’d put the reporters in groups of two or even three throughout the day, and you’d get combinations like Holt and Alex Witt (who was much more bearable back then) and Holt and Banfield if you were really lucky. I think that’s part of the main problem with people like Witt and Contessa Brewer now — they have this conversation with the camera like they’re talking to a high school buddy or something instead of talking about a subject with another reporter. Contessa probably wouldn’t annoy me as much if she had a skilled journalist to work with next to her. MSNBC doesn’t really have anyone like Lester Holt that would be perfect in that role anymore, and I shudder to think what would happen if they took Contessa Brewer and threw her in with say Amy Robach or Alex Witt as a team.
All of them should go pull some Ashleigh Banfield tapes out and take notes.
Banfield was incredible in her coverage of 911 during a time when I never really paid attention to that kind of thing. She made you pay attention. She came out of that day looking like an A-list report that had increased her stock significantly. MSNBC responded by giving her a really boring show in the middle east where she’s probably lucky she wasn’t killed multiple times over and then firing her when she criticized how the media covers news. I never knew what happened to her until just now when I noticed while watching this OJ thing that she has a show on Court TV. A pleasant surprise. I must start watching this more, and I’m giving MSNBC fair warning that if they keep ticking me off with stupid shit I’m leaving them for Ashleigh. One Ashleigh Banfield is worth more than every single MSNBC reporter put together.
