The Ups & Downs of Ashleigh Banfield

PageSix Magazine profiled truTV’s Ashleigh Banfield for this week’s issue. (sorry no link)

Titled “The Comeback Kid,” the story delves into the highs and lows of Banfield’s TV career: from local TV in her native Canada, to her move to the U.S. and a station in Dallas, to the often controversial time she spent at MSNBC & NBC News, which came to a head after she gave a speech in Kansas on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Looking around her office, she points out a framed poster that Kansas State had used to announce her now infamous speaking engagement. “I look at this as one of my proudest moments,” Ashleigh says. “I don’t regret the speech at all. It cost me enormously
professionally, but four years later I’m proud of it.”

Banfield also talks about being criticized by her colleagues at NBC and how Tom Brokaw came to defend her:

“For whatever reason, people will always be critical of their peers in this business. I rose very, very quickly, and I
think there were headlines [about me]…Thank God people like Brokaw exist and will stand up for the little guy. I applaud him to this day as my savior.”

• Related: The mediabistro.com interview with Ashleigh Banfield…

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