The Rise of the Emo-Anchor

What’s with all the on-air emoting?

The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette writes about this trend in the cover story for today’s paper. “Not long ago, television news was a no-cry zone,” he writes. “The top newsmen were celebrated for their emotional control in the face of gut-punching developments.”

But that’s changed. Gillette notes Glenn Beck‘s “We Surround Them” special, Roland Martin‘s tears after President Obama’s election, Rick Santelli‘s rant, Chris Matthews‘ “thrill” and Anderson Cooper‘s Katrina reports as just some of the examples of a changing cable news style.

But not all are happy about it. Roger Mudd, former NBC and CBS anchor, told the Observer, “I’m not sure that I accept blubbering on the air as proof of authenticity…It wasn’t pride so much as you were trained not to do that.”

(illustration by Robert Grossman for the New York Observer)

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