December 14, 2006

"She gave a loose, flinging shrug that tersely conveyed disbelief, fury and sadness. It was an editorial in itself."

Virginia Heffernan approves of Amanda Congdon's style newsreading -- or, I guess, news pantomiming.

9 comments:

Gray said...

"I guess, news pantomiming"

Indeed. Wrong clothes for a photo shooting, wrong gestures for a newsshow...
Darn, can those young chicks never do anything right?
:P

Gray said...

"Do we really care what she thinks about matters of substance?"

Of course NOT! We only care about her looks! We are manly men!
:D

MadisonMan said...

I agree with the original article that she looks vaguely like Rosalind Russell, and I think Auntie Mame as a news reporter might be amusing. If I ever watched ABC on TV or on the net, this might be relevant.

Gray said...

"she looks vaguely like Rosalind Russell"

Rosalind Russel? Only after googling for pictures, I realized that she's been 'His Girl Friday'. Hmm, there used to be an old advertisement demo video of Congdon on the web, showing her praising the family Volvo (really funny!), before she became blond for Rocketboom...
Ok, there's a vague resemblance. But since almost nobody knows Rosalind anymore, this won't hurt Amanda. :)

Tim said...

Yeah, she's a babe.

And clearly part of ABC News trying to appeal to a younger demographic. Will it work? Probably not.

But pantomiming? I remember Cronkite, and the reporter's description of his more subtle communication style while indicating his thoughts I think is accurate; it suggests her act is a variation on an accepted practice. It's not as if the major news networks were ever scrupulously antiseptic about reading the news, even when they thought they were. Anyway, she might end up on the Daily Show, if Stewart could stand the audience distraction. She's hot.

Tibore said...

Is it just me, or was that NYT article totally lauding style over substance?

Look... Congdon may honestly be a substantive reporter; I don't know, I've never watched her. But again, my point is the NYT's depiction of her. Not a single word about accuracy or news values, nothing but praise for her presentation. That may make well for a restaurant review, but it's sad writing for an assessment of a reporter.

MadisonMan said...

I don't know what Steely Dan means either, 'tho it's not hard to make a guess. The one thing I remember of the band is that I gave aja to my co-worker Debbie, and she gave me Breakfast in America (Supertramp), and I certainly made out on that deal

Gray said...

"Is it just me, or was that NYT article totally lauding style over substance?"

Yes. So what? That's the new Zeitgeist, dontcha know?

MadisonMan said...

Actually, it may have been Gaucho, not aja. I think I was sick of Hey Nineteen.