I don't watch a lot of TV news but I recently noticed a couple of things in Boston. Out of curiosity, I looked up the age of Maria Stephanos (WCVB). I could NOT believe what it says. I was thinking MUCH younger. Then, I noticed a new Newsbabe on WCVB, Emily Riemer (sp?). She looks just like a younger Maria Stephanos and that's not bad. And it looks like JC Monahan is gone. She was a fantastic Weatherbabe but wasn't so good on the news and other assignments. And I guess she didn't look enough like Maria Stephanos so that must have spelled the end for her.

I think they work on the idea that sex sells.

Well, they don't have a network affiliation anymore, so they need something to get people to watch.

My favorites are on 7 news: Kim Khazei and Jadiann Thompson. Kim has taken up predecessor Frances Rivera's taste in leather fashion, making her an especial favorite.

An article today (Thursday August 3) has me bumping my recent post. So some of the news ladies think that we tune in to TV based on the "talent" that the ladies have to read the teleprompter?  If you say "new-clee-ur" instead of "nuke-you-lerr" you qualify. You don't even have to know how to pronounce foreign names or countries.
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From what I have read, typical TV news readers in Boston seem to earn upwards of $300,000 per year. TV news isn't even news, it's ENTERTAINMENT.  
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There used to be an FCC rule that a show billed as a newscast had to  have to at least 22 minutes of "news" (and 8 minutes max of commercials) in a 30 minute show. I think that rule has lapsed. I don't watch a lot of TV news but I'll guess that it's more like 2 minutes of news, 15 minutes of entertainment and the rest commercials.  
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So, yes, when I do watch TV news, it isn't to listen to a newsreader, it's to watch a pretty, sexy newsreader.
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Heather Unruh, et al., WAKE UP!