Locally, New York television news consumers will be celebrating and missing in retirement, long time Eyewitness News Channel 7 correspondent and anchor Tim Fleischer, after 35years of covering NYC snowstorms and transit strikes. As it is the custom to play a clip of a retirees first day on the job so viewers can note the graying of their hair to present, I correct myself to add ‘once was’, if it’s done at all these days, the retiree will appear younger than the day they started, if female, just more trashy looking, its all part of the cultural times in which we expect our female television news personalities, in the practice of ‘appearance journalism’, hair dyed, greasy lipped “to the nines”…

“Pauline Frederick (February 13, 1908 – May 9, 1990) was an American journalist in newspapers, radio and television, as well as co-author of a book in 1941 and sole author of a book in 1967. in her nearly 50-year career, she covered numerous stories ranging from politics and articles of particular interest to women to military conflicts, and public interest pieces. Her career extended from the 1930s until 1981; she is considered one of the pioneering women in journalism.”

For the above backgrounder I stole from Wikipedia, like usual. Growing up I only had a slight interest in broadcast news, but was soon taken hostage by The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC as was most of the nation at the time. My interest in international news was sparked by the then new United Nations, looking back it was Pauline Frederick’s reports that made it interesting to me, when in 1953 NBC News hired her to report on the United Nations, which she did for 21years. 1953, seems so long ago, that a woman would be involved in broadcast news, in 2020, there should be by now at least one old gray haired female veteran employed at one of the cable or television networks, if not anchoring, reporting and appearing daily, maybe just as a senior consultant serving as an off air guide to their much maligned blond headed female talent. And to the so many wig headed, advising not to indulge in long false eyelashes, or not too much shining lip gloss if you please either, as anyone can plainly see, no one is sitting in an advisory-chair serving in any capacity insuring the longevity of women in media news gathering as a unique industry on to themselves on television, when their careers will soon end after they start to noticeably age, will be gone from view, be among the disappeared of the overexposed pretty little blond-headed things women in all media communications have recently become. Not to signal them out for extra scrutiny, the list is long, Alex Witt, Shannon Bream, Dana Perino, Katty Kay and Mika Brzezinski, all working hard every day to stay in that special blond league. I wonder what they will look like years from now without an elderly woman broadcaster to be held up as a prime directive example of women in the ongoing continuum. Further, this oddity of women in some newsrooms has spread to the small Asian women populating the television community, finding them streaked blond dyed too as some sort of fashion trend and not as serious journalists engaging in communications but as just another Hollywood inspired symbol.

Important in the know educators have been pointing out for years that the most successful students in school do so when reporting with a full stomach, meaning not fighting hunger pains. I remember an actor voicing in an eposode of the Rockford Files, “I’m so broke, I can’t even pay attention”, what does that truism have to do with these current times, well let me try to explain, how about congress’s failure to pass a meaningful stimulus package for one, lets refer to it’s absence as hunger pains, a devastating distraction from other important issues, fill in the blanks. Further into the deep, the devil will not be appearing before us as a short, balding black man who talks with a slight lisp, but blond hair dyed, with orange painted on skin tones, if only if male in appearance, if female blond hair dyed too, but with the addition of red greasy succulent pouting red lips, you see the devil knows how to dress to win in the fine art of persuasion.

Finally, today, (07/30/2020, Ali Velshi subbed for Rachel Maddow on the Rachel Maddow Show without the customary, Rachel will be back tomorrow, as I was so looking forward to hearing her evaluation on today’s top news occurrences…

“Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor
But it’s no great honor, either.
So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?”
From Wikipedia…”If I Were a Rich Man” is a show tune from the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof. It was written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock.

Today I watched on C-Span 3, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg, being grilled before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Commercial affairs, that are collectively worth billions. I am a continuing customer of three of them that is referred to as Big Tech, as I have and will continue to spend a few of my measly dollars to help make them richer, would it hurt their pocket books even a little, if they earned about a penny less with any one of my future purchases? I guess not, the marketplace dictates, if one can get it, keep on getting it, even if there is no urgent need to. But just what if I were a rich man…what would I buy? more stuff from the Big Tech…

Over nine months ago in several blog postings I observed the lack of women’s hair in the style of Afrocentricity on television, now it can be observed everywhere, however, still not on one woman anchoring a network newscast. Yesterday, I observed the seemingly discriminatory practices against darker skinned people in media, I predict to find them everywhere soon as well, sometime a culture has to be shamed into the common, then on to be accepted as part of the new norm.

A television image critic would only have to refer to me once, as just one of those blond hair dyed air heads greasy lipped, that run rapid and raging on Fox News before I would start changing how I’m perceived, at least as a journalist…and not some hoity-toity just out for a good time as a member of a news team…

Wikipedia tells us…”A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions.”

Margaret Sullivan, as the media columnist for The Washington Post, must have written many articles about the marketing requirement that women must dye their hair, is frowned upon if any gray hair is ever displayed, so there is seldom any displayed in dramas and rarely on a news program. Further, as a media columnist, she must have written hundreds of pieces on the active discrimination against people of darker skin tones, of which there are few if ever any on television, oh, some may be visible in a documentary depicting reality in Africa, even among them, rare is the watch word that can always be comfortably used..

Margaret M. Sullivan, has a Wikipedia page…it is written, “is an American journalist who is the media columnist for The Washington Post.” “Arthur Sulzberger Jr., The Times’s publisher praised Sullivan in a memo to staff stating that she had “ushered the position into a new age.”

Miss Sullivan is the author of the book, “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy”, I have not read this book, but its assumed it offers an open indictment of the consequences when local news is absent, then dies and local corruption starts and continues to thrive unchecked.

Recently Miss Sullivan appeared on Amanpour & Company on PBS, hosted by a hair dyed Christiane Amanpour, interviewed by one of its segment co-hosts, also a hair dyed Michel Martin, to plug her book. Miss Sullivan is described as a ‘media columnist’, she always as far as I can research appears hair dyed, has this blogger to wondering how many words has she published regarding hair dye that has invaded televised dramas, and news broadcasts? And if she has ever written a reaction to ‘appearance journalism?’ that is a media plague almost as deadly as the covid-19 virus is to media as it is to humans.

This morning I decided to compile a little data, armed with a stopwatch and a manual counter, over the course of thirty minutes, I watched television, counted the number of dye-headed women. Of the one hundred and twenty-three counted, only two had not dyed their hair, conclusion, the only reason I could determine for most of the dye headed women was because they were quite simply, ‘women’…

A flock of geese, a cluster of photographers, a herd of sheep, a pride of lions, a convocation of clergy, a swarm of bees, a caravan of camels, a pack of dogs, a school of fish, a parade of elephants, a band of gorillas. From time to time I like to get feedback from my readers on a subject; what do you call television journalists that dye their hair? And please don’t suggest, ‘phonies’, that would just be too easy…