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Anchor Blues: The Update

May 25 2007 Filed in: Seriously? | Ascribe.net Preview

About a month ago I wrote an editorial about how anchors are increasingly stepping in front of their stories and becoming the news. Should I make this a monthly thing? Vote yes or no by sending me an e-mail. Meantime, here's an update thumbnail:

- The claws come out... again. Audience members were shifting nervously in their seats as Rosie and Elisabeth had a hideous smackdown on "The View" about the Iraq war and the Bush administration. (Babs was off that day and unable to referee.) But what went completely unreported in this latest melee was that the entire thing was sparked by Joy Behar (actual quote: "don't interview each other") who is understandably infuriated by the latest revelations on how our country is being run and ran down a laundry list of things she doesn't like about our current government. (Current YouTube views: approaching 2 million) Question: what happens to the show when Rosie leaves?

- Honey, tell Consuela to avoid 60 Minutes. Lou Dobbs was recently interviewed by Leslie Stahl on CBS' "60 Minutes" about his populist mission that includes securing the borders with Mexico and restoring our quickly sinking country's order. Wherever you find yourself on the immigrant issue, the anchor, again, was the story here. Stahl uses the unfortunate catch phrase of "fair and balanced" to question Dobbs about whether his program is actually news. What do you think?

Update: Rosie to leave "The View" early and not complete the last three weeks of her contract.