| Topic Name: |
Hemmer out altogether at CNN; Miles & Soledad O'Brien to CNN AM |
| Message Name: |
'Bout Paula |
| Date Posted: |
06/06/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
TV'S DUMBEST ANCHORS
Network news is in more trouble than you think. Our exclusive industry poll names the stupidest, meanest, and vainest desk jockeys in the business.
...
Heidi Collins
Anchor, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN
Collins is a total pro when it comes to reading copy??as long as it's not published in the New York Times. According to one insider, Jack Cafferty, a co-anchor on CNN, is fond of hiding a quarter in the pages of her morning paper to see if the University of Maryland grad ever cracks it open. "The quarters are always untouched," the source reports. One colleage says of Collins, who got married in 1992, "She probably had a teleprompter at the altar, or she wouldn't have been able to remember to say, 'I do.'"
Paula Zahn
Host, Paula Zahn Now, CNN
Is Zahn, 49, the sharpest tool in CNN's shed? Not according to a third of the network's staffers polled . "Everything has to be scripted for her," says one former highly placed Fox News source who worked with Zahn during her tenure there before she jumped to CNN in 2001. "She has to be produced to a T; she's the dumbest person I've ever met." When Zahn joined CNN the network aired a promo describing her as "provocative, super-smart, and ?? oh, yeah ?? just a little sexy," accompanied by the sound of a dress being unzipped. The network promptly pulled the promo when critics accused top brass of hiring her for her Teutonic beauty . "Anybody who actually believes her looks at are incidental to the success she's had in her career should be hospitalized immediately," John Podhoretz wrote in The Weekly Standard. |
| Message: |
I had the chance to see Paula in action when she was at CBS.
One thing I always noticed that even after a live talk-back interview was over and they were in break, if the guest was still on the bird, she'd ask follow-up questions as long as she could.
She's a very strong interviewer.
She was always studying scripts, making changes and notations and double checking with line producers.
I did some interviews with her, and was impressed by her constant interest in domestic and current events.
And oh yeah, besides being very smart she is in fact, damn sexy.
Of course, I saw and experienced this all first-hand so that won't mean much in these hallowed e-pages of rumor and 2nd-hand gossip.
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