probabilityfields

No, I’m not talking about Katie Couric (?), Soledad O’Brien, or Maria Bartiromo (even though Joey Ramone wrote an awesome song about her). Who could be more beautiful? have more class? better hair? and an impeccable sense of style? Of course I’m talking about ABC co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas. (As I write this I realize that her co-anchor Bob Woodruff is currently in serious condition after being hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.)

I watch ABC Nightly News almost every weekday at work, and since the late Peter Jennings, who was incredible, left the chair, I have been in thrall to Ms. Vargas’s perfect balance of neotany* and symmetry, refinement and warmth. However, fancying myself an amateur media critic, I felt it necessary to discuss the effect of her presence on the nightly news.

First of all, I love the fact that we can now have women anchors on the news (and a Latina at that), and I was a bit disappointed that she was relegated to co-anchor, but I have other issues beyond the concerns of second-wave feminism. How does having an attractive female anchor affect the way we see the news? Do we overlook her mediating talents and see her merely as another flashy graphic? When she reads the news will we spectators gaze hypnotized in a manner resembling the opening sequence of Anchorman? Maybe.

But there is one point where this whole problem gets interesting. It doesn’t happen every night, but when it does, you’ll know. Pay attention the next time you see Ms. Vargas tell you bad news. Perhaps an earthquake, or a bombing. Watch her face, her words, and the way it makes you feel. Below are a few screen caps of such moments.

What’s interesting about these moments is that I think the effect transcends the limits of the animal magnetism I described above. Now Vargas adopts a new surface. Her forehead crinkles, her eyes widen and her mouth hangs. She’s now the mother telling her child that the family dog was hit by a car. Is this what America wants? A a mother that will gently break the bad news but later kiss your boo-boos? Well…yes.

Okay, no more rhetorical questions. As usual, they are a sign that the author doesn’t have any answers. I don’t. But I advise all of you to watch ABC Nightly News sometime and watch for these moments. Compare this to Cronkite’s saddest moment, the death of JFK. With Vargas, we get to see that moment at least a few times a week. I think it’s very telling of our complex and troubling relationship to news media. A relationship that I unfortunately cannot articulate. I’m too damn hypnotized by Elizabeth Vargas.

* this is a term I borrow, toungue planted firmly in cheek, from a Discover Magazine episode on facial beauty I saw as a kid, which attributed attraction to a balance of symmetry and neotany, which basically means “cuteness”.