Today's ponderables
I'll admit right up front I don't really hold the local news to a very high standard. Since I moved from Prince George's County to Howard County in 2004, I crossed a magical line between the "Washington D.C. and suburbs viewing area" to the "Baltimore and suburbs viewing area," which is fine. The D.C. local news tended to be about (a) things in D.C. far more than the 'burbs and (b) things involving the Federal Government. Which makes sense! But you can get news on the Federal gov't in lotsa places. I like the homey feel of the Baltimore stations, and I feel as though more Maryland interests are covered.
However, they can be really, really cheesy. The human interest stories, the "stupid criminal" stories, the funny pet stories...typical local news stuff. So this morning, as their bit of levity in between actual news stories, they presented these two gems:
Gem #1: Southwest Airlines paints Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model on airplane. Okay, blatant ridiculousness aside (quick! AirTran! Now is your chance! Paint a hot, half-naked dude on one of your planes!), I am going to add that the two anchors this morning were both women, since the usual male anchor took the day off for his birthday. (Good on you, man.) So the regular woman anchor and the substitute woman anchor were all, "Woo, look at that!" in a cringe-worthy way. Then, and this was what killed me, one of the women tried to pronounce the model's name (Bar Refaeli, for the curious), faltered a little, and then covered it by saying, "Who cares what her name is! Look at her, she's gorgeous!"
Gem #2: Local store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin offers "buy diamonds, get a gun for free" deal through Valentine's Day. In the interview clip they showed, the store owner said, "Everyone knows that women like diamonds and men like guns!" Sure, store owner dude. Whatever. You stay classy, Eau Claire.
I really have almost nothing more to add to this. It was just such a one-two punch of stupidity that I was nearly knocked out by it, and felt I had to share. It thrills me to my toes that our national dialogue can still be reduced to such half-assed gender stereotypes. Let me tell you.
However, they can be really, really cheesy. The human interest stories, the "stupid criminal" stories, the funny pet stories...typical local news stuff. So this morning, as their bit of levity in between actual news stories, they presented these two gems:
Gem #1: Southwest Airlines paints Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model on airplane. Okay, blatant ridiculousness aside (quick! AirTran! Now is your chance! Paint a hot, half-naked dude on one of your planes!), I am going to add that the two anchors this morning were both women, since the usual male anchor took the day off for his birthday. (Good on you, man.) So the regular woman anchor and the substitute woman anchor were all, "Woo, look at that!" in a cringe-worthy way. Then, and this was what killed me, one of the women tried to pronounce the model's name (Bar Refaeli, for the curious), faltered a little, and then covered it by saying, "Who cares what her name is! Look at her, she's gorgeous!"
Gem #2: Local store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin offers "buy diamonds, get a gun for free" deal through Valentine's Day. In the interview clip they showed, the store owner said, "Everyone knows that women like diamonds and men like guns!" Sure, store owner dude. Whatever. You stay classy, Eau Claire.
I really have almost nothing more to add to this. It was just such a one-two punch of stupidity that I was nearly knocked out by it, and felt I had to share. It thrills me to my toes that our national dialogue can still be reduced to such half-assed gender stereotypes. Let me tell you.