Saturday, February 13, 2010

Amy Robach Married Andrew Shue Last Weekend

So Amy Robach got married last weekend to washed-up actor Andrew Shue. Of course this is not her first marriage, as anyone who has watched on her on the Today show will know just about everything about her family because every single family member she has has been featured in a story. Whatever problems or issues caused her marriage to end, that's her personal business. That she has gotten re-married is great, I am sure the couple are quite happy and thrilled. What I object to is yet again another curious decision on the part of the Today show producers (and maybe even Robach at the time) to extensively feature her family in stories designed I believe primarily to sell her to viewers as a nice family woman with a handsome husband, two beautiful daughters, very youthful-looking parents, a spry looking grandmother, and a cousin Bob. (OK, I'm kidding about the cousin.) I think that these stories were cynically designed to counteract what may have been not-so-great ratings and perceptions of Amy as maybe a little icy and impersonal. Morning show anchors doing stories about their families is nothing new and all of them have done them. But in Amy's situation it was ridiculous. It seemed like every show when she first started anchoring had some story with her family in it. She took her daughters shopping. She and her husband took dancing lessons. She did a story about Minnesota, and guess what, her parents live there now. What a coincidence! But then they stopped. On or around the same time she was removed from the Sunday show and replaced by Jenna Wolfe. I supposed you could put 2 and 2 together and wonder if something was just not working for Amy. About a year ago, maybe sooner, maybe earlier (you can always go back and check the caps for sure) she stopped wearing her wedding ring. I could find out nothing about it. No mention of course was ever made about. Then she started wearing what appeared to be her ring again, but now I know that it was her engagement ring from the Shue.
I suppose the question to think about is whether it is OK for morning show anchors to be part of the story. I know that their aims and goals are different from strict journalists. But they still have a story to do, and they need to maintain some kind of objectivity and distance. But have those lines been completely erased? And is it also OK for an anchor to use/exploit their family for a story when times are good but to ignore it when times are not so good?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chairman:
Thanks for your timely response.
I would love to pictures see Liz Claman in Stockinged feet on FBN. Also, if you have any pics of Becky Quick in stockinged feet, thise pictures would be appreciated as well.

Also when did Liz Claman start on FBN?

Thechairman said...

She started about 4-5 months after FBN initially launched as I recall.