After they pay their dues and convince someone at the networks or the cable channels that they're photogenic enough to go national, they inevitably seem to do less journalism. Syndicated columnist Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, says most CNN anchors, in his opinion, aren't very different from Thompson. Bartlett correctly points out that the real reporting at the national level is usually done by producers who never appear on camera. That being the case, I for one would much rather see Andrea Thompson when I turn on CNN than any of the other news readers it employs. Not in this precinct.
TV is a visual medium.
It may seem unfair to us journalists born with a face for radio, but most people like to look at someone they find appealing or with whom they feel a comfortable link. Thompson, by most American standards, is attractive. Whether she's qualified to be a CNN reporter is another question entirely. In high-profile cases at the networks, anchors still do some work in the field to show that they're still news men and women, but most of it is the sort of grandstanding that couldn't be done without a cadre of producers doing the real labor. At CNN Headline News, the anchors don't have to worry about such extracurricular activity.