High Tension

There must be a lot of stress involved with working at CNN.  I remember a few years back, the weatherman who was being asked some relevant hurricane questions by Carol Costello, sniped and snipped and snapped and threw down his clipboard in a snitty rant. 

Un-professional.

Now this from the other day, in which cranky anchor John Roberts gets all bossy with co-anchor Kiran Chetry.  Watch it, please; I'll wait.

Notice how he sneers so condescendingly, "Would you mind not doing that while I'm talking?" and then slams it home with a gratuitous "Thank you, I appreciate that."

He did not appreciate that, by the way.

I used to watch these two in the morning but I couldn't stand his orotund gravitas any longer.  He tends to come on as if everything he says is such a bfd and we'd better pay attention, dammit! 

No bellowing!

When I learned broadcasting back before the days of pomposity, we learned a valuable lesson from Vince Bagli, the Dean of Baltimore sportscasters.  Vince taught us to speak on the air the same way we would speak when ordering ham and eggs at the corner cafe. No bellowing, no preening, no stirring of base emotions with baseless claims and demagoguery. 

I guess things have changed.  But Mr Roberts, do you think you could summon up enough professionalism to do what you're being overpaid to do and not be distracted?  Do you think that Walter Cronkite, during Challenger explosions and assassinations and Bush inaugurations and other disasters didn't have distractions in front of him, beside him and behind him?

Oh, sorry.  I'm all distracted.