She could have been a young, attractive frontline presenter on sky, however they would rather James Rubin to have more primetime air time than her.... a real shame for her to be leaving, lets hope CNN, give her a chance.
Whilst i'm not really bothered one way or another whether she leaves - she was hardly on very often, to be realistic - it does make me wonder whether CNN has ever, in its 25 years on air, actually nurtured some talent of its own.
All they seem to do is grab presenters from other networks and offer them higher profile positions. They also seem to be less of an international channel that ever - their top story on their international website is 'Elton ties the knot'. For Sky, the BBC (for a while) and the Guardian to lead on this is not entirely unexpected, given it has taken place in the UK, it is a UK legal thing, and Elton John is a Briton... but really, CNN.
Half of their correspondents are just dire - see: Nic ''the wet'' Robertson, who they trumpet as a great war correspondent, yet I've never seen a report from him that hasn't looked like something from a local tv reporter. Christianne Amanpour - their top international person, who seems to be in London 99% of the time, and when she isn't she's sitting in 5 star hotels interviewing Lebanese politicians; never seen anywhere remotely dangerous or challenging.
As an aside, lovely to see Kay Burley wearing fur today. This would be just a day after Sky's top story was how barbaric the fur trade is.
Whilst i'm not really bothered one way or another whether she leaves - she was hardly on very often, to be realistic - it does make me wonder whether CNN has ever, in its 25 years on air, actually nurtured some talent of its own.
Well, with the greatest respect cat, it's hardly like Sky just picked Rao up off the street and turned her into a newsreader - she's worked for other broadcasters around the world.
I would make the point that most of the people on Sky News would have come from elsewhere, just as the people on CNN have. They're a respected international broadcaster - they should be seeking to hire talented and experienced journalists from around the globe. As an international broadcaster, it's important to have "international" faces.
Quote:
Half of their correspondents are just dire - see: Nic ''the wet'' Robertson, who they trumpet as a great war correspondent, yet I've never seen a report from him that hasn't looked like something from a local tv reporter. Christianne Amanpour - their top international person, who seems to be in London 99% of the time, and when she isn't she's sitting in 5 star hotels interviewing Lebanese politicians; never seen anywhere remotely dangerous or challenging.
As a viewer, I've always found Robertson to be someone capable of delivering great insight on the ground. Even while conflict is hot, he's still able to report beyond just the obvious bloodshed and offer viewers perspective and a look at the underlying issues. To be able to do that while you're getting shot at demonstrates to me someone who has a very cool head, which is more than I can say for some other "war correspondents" who are quick and eager to jump to conclusions regardless of the facts.
As for Christiane Amanpour - there's no doubt that she's one of the best in the business as far as I'm concerned. Yes, she spends some time in London - she does have a family there... you might have noticed her husband on TV - Sky News' attempt to cure insomnia. To say though that she's rarely in the field demonstrates that you don't watch CNN all that often, because she's frequently out there reporting. She's only just been in Baghdad (she might still be there now - I don't know). Amanpour is able to report in the field, offer analysis from the safety of a studio, conduct interviews, and even moderate debates. That's why she's their chief international correspondent - quite simply, she's very adaptable, and does her job incredibly well.
Let us just remember for a moment that Robertson is only well known because he happened to be in Afghanistan on the 11th September. As is typical of CNN and other American networks, they take these randomly lucky people (a la Aaron Brown on September 11th, another one nicked from a rival network) and make them their star reporters. CBS and Lara Logan is another example - pretty average (or should that be 'pretty, average') reporter who happened to be in the right place.
We will have to agree to disagree about Amanpour. I've rarely seen her out of a hotel or the London office. During the Iraq war and Afghanistan she was miles away from the action... not even in the region during one of them, whereas the likes of John Simpson were very visible in both conflicts.
The point I am making is that CNN and a lot of other American networks are totally alien to the concept of nurturing talent, whereas UK organisations aren't. Their idea of professional development is being lucky and getting paid more.
Well, I certainly can't blaim Anjali for looking elswhere. When Sky News relaunched she has barely got a look in and she is a far more competent news reader than Ginny Buckly for example. Still, she will be suited to CNN though, I think.
The point I am making is that CNN and a lot of other American networks are totally alien to the concept of nurturing talent, whereas UK organisations aren't. Their idea of professional development is being lucky and getting paid more.
But I think we have to acknowledge that the culture is different. I would rightly expect most of these reporters to start off at a local level - and let's remember that local news in the US is quite different to what you have in the UK... I was recently in LA, and I was really surprised at just how much local news there is - local newscasts before the network breakfast news programmes, local morning news, local news from as early as 2pm right through until 6.30 or so, then local news at night as well. Compare that to the UK where there's a full local news bulletin at 6.00 or 6.30, then short summaries during the breakfast, lunchtime and late night national programmes. In terms of the number of hours broadcasting, there's a much stronger emphasis on local news than networked national news for American broadcasters. So national news operations - including cable news - are obviously going to tap into the talent pool at the local level, and bring people up through the ranks, raising their profile beyond what they could hope to achieve in a local news market. Ultimately the professional development is likely to happen most at the local level, and then when talent is identified, the networks or the cable channels will pick them up and advance their careers. To say that there's no effort to nuture talent I think is a misreading of the media landscape in the US.
She could have been a young, attractive frontline presenter on sky, however they would rather James Rubin to have more primetime air time than her.... a real shame for her to be leaving, lets hope CNN, give her a chance.