The traffic in cable news blondes "seems to be acceding to an almost abstract plane with the acquisition of Rita Cosby by MSNBC," Slate's Dana Stevens says. "It's as if the new rules of the cable-network publicity machine demand that flaxen-haired anchorwomen must be routinely seduced away from other networks (and the resulting defections hyped in the press), regardless of their virtual indistinguishability from one another or their highly dubious contributions to the field of journalism at large."

Stevens references Cosby's embarrassing reports from Aruba this week: "There was something bitterly amusing in watching Cosby try to justify her presence in Aruba ('As you know, I just arrived here in Aruba, which was not hit by the storm, but is dealing with the fury of the Natalee Holloway investigation') before devoting the rest of the hour to long-distance coverage of the mega-disaster happening back in her own country."