TVSquad

I love news bloopers, and this one is a doozy. WNYW's Ernie Anastos actually said the phrase "keep f**king that chicken" live on television the other night during a newscast.

The look on the female anchor's face is priceless. I think I'll take a screen grab of it and use it as my Twitter or Facebook avatar.

Doing the news can't be easy. It's a lot more than just reading the teleprompter, especially when you do it live. The really good anchors make it look easy and the merely competent ones make it look hard (but you feel for them). It's the really bad ones that make you cringe and throw something at the TV (or change the channel). Not only are they incompetent when it comes to skills, they have an off-putting air about them. At best they are anchors who should be reporters and not sit in an anchor chair.

I've picked the three very worst ones I can find on TV right now. And just so we're clear, I'm talking about news people who read the news or anchor. So you won't see show hosts like Nancy Grace or Bill O'Reilly here. And I'm concentrating on national anchors, not local ones. There's not enough space on the web to do one on local anchors. Though I'd love to do one on Boston anchors some day.

1. Rick Sanchez (CNN): Do I really have to explain why he's #1? OK...

We've already told you the news that Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson will take turns filling in for the injured Bob Woodruff. But I wonder: why don't they just let regular anchor Elizabeth Vargas do the job herself? Sure, ABC does a lot with their nightly news (two live shows - one East Coast, one West), but since they picked Vargas and Woodruff to replace Peter Jennings, why not have her as the only anchor until Woodruff recovers or they pick another permanent co-anchor?

I can understand getting someone in there quickly, since they want to keep the show a two anchor newscast, but why veterans like Sawyer and Gibson? What does this say about their choice of Vargas? Why not get other anchors and correspondents in there?

Remember when Sawyer and Gibson were only going to be "temporary" hosts of Good Morning America? Look how that turned out.

(Part 3 of 5)

Everyone said that the news anchor was dead. That they were going to be replaced by pundits, scrolling, bite-sized news, and blogs. So it's pretty amazing how much news news anchors made in 2005.

Anderson Cooper made waves this year (no pun intended). Not only did he get the spot that Aaron Brown used to have, he showed he had some serious newsman chops by confronting Senator Mary Landrieu about the lack of local and federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Cooper has been a good, serious reporter for years, but this year he really hit the big time and became the most talked about anchor on TV.

Dan Rather left under a fog of controversy (the Bush memos), but replacement Bob Schieffer has been a solid, calming prescence. If there is one single argument why the big network, dinnertime newscast should stay around, it's his show. CBS is reportedly testing various anchors and various formats for their news show. Let's hope Schieffer sticks around in some big way.

Brian Williams took over for Tom Brokaw, and I think he surprised some people with his steady, professional work (though I'm not quite sure why everyone is so surprised - he's been doing the job for years).

Keith Olbermann's Countdown continues to be one of the bright spots on MSNBC's schedule. He's a talented, smart guy, and his takedowns of people like Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and others were some of the great moments in 2005 news.

Of course, we lost one of the big three network anchors when Peter Jennings died of lung cancer. His death (along with Brokaw and Rather leaving) was said to have signaled the end of the network newscast. But with Brian Williams still getting good ratings, ABC's World News Tonight getting revamped, and Bob Schieffer getting many kudos for his solid work over at CBS, I don't think that 2006 will see the end of the network anchor either.