January 22, 2014 Article

The Old Coot ain’t sitting pretty.
By Merlin Lessler

“Wanted! Pretty people! For TV news and weather reporting. Regular people need not apply.” At least that’s what I think is going on in media recruiting. Otherwise, how do you explain the parade of reporters sitting on the other side of your TV screen? Even Walter Cronkite wouldn’t make the hiring cut, not with today’s template. If you’re a “regular” person with broadcasting aspirations, think radio!

I don’t know how we got here. Studious people in my day weren’t the beauty kings and queens; they were like the rest of us, flawed. With a big nose, poor eyesight, a funny shaped ear, hair that refused to lie flat. Oh sure, there were smart people that looked good, but they didn’t join the history club, lug a French horn to school or stand with a phone in their hand for ten minutes before calling to ask someone for a date, and then hang up the second the “person to whom they wished to speak” said, “Hello.”

I also notice, with very few exceptions (the 60 Minutes staff, for one), that the old coot population is also excluded from the TV reporting desk. I guess it explains why Lew Sauerbrey is behind the mike at WEBO instead of in front of a camera at WBNG. It also explains why I’m allowed to sit with him and Dave every once in a while, with the “on air” sign glowing brightly.

Even the weather channel, staffed with meteorologists for goodness sake, looks more like a Miss America contest than a serious scientific endeavor. I don’t know about you, but I would like to see a mix of people allowed on the media stage. People who look like they handed in their homework on time, were picked on, even bullied, in their formative years, developing strength of character as a result. People with more substance, less ego. 

But, I guess it’s not to be. The rest of us are only allowed a cameo appearance on the TV screen. We’re the ones you see when the pretty people come to town and turn the camera in our direction to ask about the big snowstorm. And, hear us say, “I lived here my whole life and never saw anything like this!” Snowstorm, flood, whatever, we always respond with the “lived here my whole life” comment. Just once I’d like one of us to come up with a different answer. To make us look like we might be capable of handling a job in front of a camera. Instead, we provide job security for the pretty people. Our on air appearances are used to prove to network producers that regular people belong on the couch side of the TV screen. I’ve lived here my whole life (on my side of the TV screen) and never saw so many pretty people do the news and weather!