Bread and Circuses

She was called a cafe philosopher, the Anna Kournikova of TV news, a "slut" out to murder innocent Jewish children. Ultimately, after winning an AP award for her reporting and an Emmy for her work at NBC news, Ashley Banfield was fired. Not for her refined blond looks or signature glasses. Ashley was fired for violating the essence of modern mainstream reporting: she had the nerve to ask tough questions and tell us the truth.

And we are all the worse for it.

There was glee in many hearts including mine when MSNBC hired the brilliantly outspoken Rachel Maddow to follow the Keith Olbermann's righteous fulminations. But in hindsight I realize NBC's move was brilliant in its cynicism. You see for all their eloquence and devastating dissections of the neo-con agenda, Keith and Rachel are not reporters. They may provide critical analysis and underreported stories but in the end their work can be also dismissed as opinion, a sop to the left eager for an entertaining alternative to the kooky and far-better-fed right.

Ashley Banfield lost her career because she wanted to be something more than a pretty face and corporate mouthpiece. No doubt her colleagues at NBC took a furtive glance at their 6 figure paychecks and buried her shoes.

"the Fox effect is very concerning to me. I'm a journalist. Fox has taken so many viewers away from CNN and MSNBC because of their agenda and because of their targeting the market of cable news viewership, that I'm afraid there's not a really big place in cable for news. Cable is for entertainment, as it's turning out, but not news.

I'm hoping that I will have a future in news in cable, but not the way some cable news operators wrap themselves in the American flag and patriotism and go after a certain target demographic, which is very lucrative. You can already see the effects, you can already see the big hires on other networks, right wing hires to chase after this effect, and you can already see that flag waving in the corners of those cable news stations where they have exciting American music to go along with their war coverage.

Well, all of this has to do with what you've seen on Fox and its successes. So I do urge you to be very discerning as you continue to watch the development of cable news, and it is changing like lightning. Be very discerning because it behooves you like it never did before to watch with a grain of salt and to choose responsibly, and to demand what you should know."

--Ashley Banfield, speaking at Kansas State University in 2003

Amen, girl! Those of us fighting to stay awake still miss you.