Fox News Makeup For Women Anchors: Why So Much?

Comet · #1 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 04:19 PM

I posted this article not because I care if news anchors are wearing too much makeup, but to highlight the fact this story is on Huffington Post's front page of news stories.

That is right. Forget about the economy, unemployment rate, the epidemic in Mexico with the drug cartels, the war in Afghanistan, violence in Syria and the Middle East, etc... No, no, how much makeup female anchors for a rival news network is apparently important sh*t.

And people wonder why no one takes some of these news networks and sites seriously.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Huffington Post. They are hit or miss most of the time. Some of their articles are very good while others are so partisan and misleading it makes your head spin.

Perhaps they could ask the Fox News female anchors to give their extra makeup to Rachel Maddow, because...damn.

Quote:

It's well acknowledged throughout the media world that female Fox News anchors are typically more, er, coiffed than their liberal counterparts. There are YouTube videos dedicated to Fox women's short skirts, a fully functioning website called The Women Of Fox News - Fox News Girls - Fox News Babes and Allure once penned a feature declaring, "With its bevy of babes, the network should be called the Foxy News Channel."

Miniskirts aside, the main difference is the makeup. The female anchors of Fox News, Liza Mundy writes for the Atlantic, wear significantly more makeup than any other network's anchors. While MSNBC's Rachel Maddow does a light, nearly-no-makeup look and C-SPAN doesn't even have a makeup room, Fox News anchors -- as well as female guests -- get the full bronzer, eye shadow, lip liner, gloss, etc. treatment. When Mundy herself was a Fox News guest, she was coated with "so much [eye]shadow that I felt I should be wearing a sash and tiara."

Mundy's not the only one to have noticed. An online thread entitled "Fox News Anchor Women" features gems such as, "Do they think they are in a Las Vegas floor show?" and "With all that lip gloss, they look like hookers on the make for a trick."

Fittingly, it's been said that Fox is the only network that employs a full-time "image consultant" for its on-air personalities. A female Fox regular told Mundy that "she gets more calls from network management about her hair, clothes, and makeup than about what she says." Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, after all, once boasted "I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings." Fox network execs know how this game works.

But Ailes isn't the only TV executive to acknowledge that sex sells. So why don't C-SPAN, CNN and the rest dip their female reporters in liquid bronzer and touch up their highlights? Mundy suggests that "the best explanation for Fox glam may be the channel’s largely conservative audience." Because, she reasons...

... the Fox News audience skews old. (Ed. note: do old conservatives like pretty women more than old liberals?)

... the audience skews female. (Ed. note: do women like looking at pretty women more than men?)

... "conservative women are typically less squeamish than progressive ones about... using your looks to get ahead."

Mundy invokes Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann to support this last stance, which seems just steps away from Ann Coulter's assertion that "all pretty girls are right-wingers."

Conjecture all you want (allowing your biases for or against Fox News to heavily influence your opinion, natch). To see for yourself, check out our slideshow of female anchors across several major news networks. Do the Fox News women seem more made-up that the rest? And is that a bad thing?

Fox News Makeup For Women Anchors: Why So Much? (PHOTOS)

Mikeyy · #2 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comet

I posted this article not because I care if news anchors are wearing too much makeup, but to highlight the fact this story is on Huffington Post's front page of news stories.

That is right. Forget about the economy, unemployment rate, the epidemic in Mexico with the drug cartels, the war in Afghanistan, violence in Syria and the Middle East, etc... No, no, how much makeup female anchors for a rival news network is apparently important sh*t.

And people wonder why no one takes some of these news networks and sites seriously.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Huffington Post. They are hit or miss most of the time. Some of their articles are very good while others are so partisan and misleading it makes your head spin.

Perhaps they could ask the Fox News female anchors to give their extra makeup to Rachel Maddow, because...damn.

huffpost.com/gen/742546/thumbs/s-FOX-NEWS-MAKEUP-large.jpg[/img][/center]

What a minute. Did we as a group decide Rachel Maddow was ugly or something?

PT Again · #3 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 05:35 PM

[QUOTE=Comet;470715]I posted this article not because I care if news anchors are wearing too much makeup, but to highlight the fact this story is on Huffington Post's front page of news stories.

That is right. Forget about the economy, unemployment rate, the epidemic in Mexico with the drug cartels, the war in Afghanistan, violence in Syria and the Middle East, etc... No, no, how much makeup female anchors for a rival news network is apparently important sh*t.

And people wonder why no one takes some of these news networks and sites seriously.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Huffington Post. They are hit or miss most of the time. Some of their articles are very good while others are so partisan and misleading it makes your head spin.

Perhaps they could ask the Fox News female anchors to give their extra makeup to Rachel Maddow, because...damn.

This is because Huff Po apparently thinks its reporting to parrot everything Fox New does

Infidel Dog · #4 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 07:13 PM

Hey Huff Po, ya know who else wears a lot of makeup?

off the porch · #5 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 10:49 PM

The article is in the style section. A picture/headline tease of all their daily stories are on their front page. This particular pic/tease is in the right column and for frequent readers, that is typically soft news/celeb news.

I think it's stupid to criticize the make up choices of news anchors but style criticism comes to most all celebs at one time or another.

There are plenty of substantive issues teased on the front page, too. I hardly ever choose to go to any story in the right column of huffpo.

saltwn · #6 (**permalink**) 08-23-2012, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Comet

I posted this article not because I care if news anchors are wearing too much makeup, but to highlight the fact this story is on Huffington Post's front page of news stories.

That is right. Forget about the economy, unemployment rate, the epidemic in Mexico with the drug cartels, the war in Afghanistan, violence in Syria and the Middle East, etc... No, no, how much makeup female anchors for a rival news network is apparently important sh*t.

And people wonder why no one takes some of these news networks and sites seriously.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Huffington Post. They are hit or miss most of the time. Some of their articles are very good while others are so partisan and misleading it makes your head spin.

Perhaps they could ask the Fox News female anchors to give their extra makeup to Rachel Maddow, because...damn.

Fox News Makeup For Women Anchors: Why So Much? (PHOTOS)

Rachel doesn't need any make up imho

Oftencold · #7 (**permalink**) 08-24-2012, 02:12 AM

I had wondered about this, especially the false eyelashes that produce obvious breezes when the hostess blinks.

My guess would be that they haven't changed their thinking to accommodate high definition TV.