On "Amanpour," the titular host will talk to political and cultural leaders for a half hour, several times a week. The show begins Sunday, September 27 at 2 p.m. EST.

"The job of evening news anchor is one of the last great solo gigs in broadcast television, along with that of talk show host," says the Observer's Felix Gillette. Diane Sawyer's got the first — and now Christiane Amanpour has the second. Maybe TV news really is turning into a "pink collar ghetto."

Key to both these jobs, in Gillette's estimation, is the word "solo." The right to fill up the TV screen all by themselves is something Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw took for granted. When Sawyer's agent suggested her as a co-anchor for NBC or ABC news, Jennings said he didn't "go through all the crap" in his career "in order to divide up 22 minutes." Brokaw simply said, "No way. If that happens, I leave." Meanwhile, Sawyer has always worked with others, from "a pack of alpha newsmen" to Barbara Walters. Says Gillette, "No one should appreciate the autonomy of a solo anchor job more than Ms. Sawyer."

Amanpour's appointment isn't as groundbreaking as Sawyer's — plenty of women have hosted talk shows before. But her show will presumably be far from fluffy, showing that news networks are more ready than ever to let women tackle the serious issues of the day — and to do it by themselves. In the coming years, TV news might be one of the few places where women are actually praised for being alone.

Amanpour To Host CNN Talk Show [Variety]
She's Headed To Prime Time, And She's Solo [NY Observer]

Dumenco points to Rupert Murdoch and Steven Brill as voices calling for an end to free news on the Internet. But Dumenco is concerned that "a lot of news — possibly most news — has little real value to the average consumer." His prime example: Phillip Garrido's kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard. Dumenco writes,

The Garrido story has essentially zero value in my life. In fact, I'm frustrated by how compelling it is, how much time I've already spent reading about the story (mostly on the web), because there's absolutely nothing to be gained from it. (I might actually be willing to pay to never have to hear Garrido's name again.) Garrido is obviously something of a sui generis monster, so there are no object lessons here, it's not a cautionary tale, and there are likely few adjustments to be made to, say, the California parole system (Garrido was on parole for an old crime). We simply flock to this story, almost compulsively, like the proverbial car accident. Not because it's informative or edifying, but because, well, we can't look away. It's tragedy porn.

First of all, the idea that Garrido is one-of-a-kind, "so there are no object lessons here," is a bit of wishful thinking. He's hardly the first person to kidnap a child (as comparisons to the also-highly-publicized Elizabeth Smart case attest). He wasn't even the only sex offender in his neighborhood. His story has implications not just for the "California parole system" and the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department (a country district supervisor has said, "I feel confident the sheriff will use this as an example of how to do things better"), but also for how we deal with sex offenders and treat people with delusions. And as Gavin de Becker implies in The Gift of Fear, knowing how criminals operate can help protect ourselves and others.

Of course, this doesn't mean we necessarily need to hear from Jaycee Dugard's aunt — and certainly, news networks are sometimes guilty of exploiting tragedy to boost their bottom line. But Dumenco sounds a little bit like the old SNL bit where Al Franken asked "How does this affect me, Al Franken?" That was in part a joke about self-absorption, and it's somewhat self-absorbed to assume that every piece of news has to be personally applicable to you in order to be worthwhile. News is a little bit like science — it's not always possible to tell at the outset what its applications will be. And it's a pretty short journey from "how does this Garrido thing affect me?" to "how do these elections in Afghanistan affect me?" to a damaging disaffection with other people and the world.

There's an interesting conversation to be had about what kind of online news people will actually pay for. Will they shell out for Heidi Montag's latest lameness but not for healthcare reform? Domestic but not international? TV recaps but not book reviews? Will a pay model for online news lead media outlets to be even more sensationalistic than they already are? It's possible. And it's certainly true that Rupert Murdoch of all people isn't above using stories like Garrido's as "porn." But that doesn't mean we shouldn't hear these stories at all, or that the only news that's worth paying for is news with a personal and immediate application.

Image via LA Times.

How Much Would YOU Pay to Read Still More About Sicko Garrido? [Advertising Age]

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News gives the media a great big pat on the back for treating Diane Sawyer's upcoming replacement of Charlie Gibson at ABC's World News Tonight "as a news story, not a woman story." He writes,

In matters of gender as in matters of race, the mark of progress is when it's no longer news that a black man plays Major League Baseball or a woman anchors the ABC evening newscast.

So not-news that heads are already talking about whether Sawyer has more or less womanly softness than existing lady-anchor Katie Couric. Ex-ABC correspondent Judy Muller tells the LA Times,

That there was so much emphasis on Katie as the first woman will lessen the scrutiny on Diane, but it still will be there, because Diane has become associated with softer human interest features. Will she have that credibility for anchoring the big events of our lives? If there's one criticism out there, it's that she veers into sentimentality more than other anchors might.

So not-news at Connie Chung is already bristling at the Couric comparisons. She tells TV Newser's Gail Shister that all those predicting a "cat fight" "need to get a life." She also says, "The question should be, 'How will Diane do against Brian [Williams] and Katie?'"

So not-news that the Daily Beast's Rebecca Dana is already calling Sawyer's ascension "the revival of TV news' most delicious rivalry"  between the longtime GMA host and "Couric, who is gamely hanging on as the anchor of the CBS Evening News, is all smiles and warmth and live colonoscopies to Sawyer's dignified cool." No mention of "Brian [Williams]." Does that count as predicting a cat fight?

And so not-news that former ABC and NBC exec Richard Wald says, "You're going to have, for the first time ever, two women competing as solo anchors in a television framework that just - within living memory - sort of destroyed every woman who tried to do it." Sounds like a fun gig, doesn't it?

Sawyer doesn't just have to contend with veiled sexism, overt sexism, the assertion that there is no sexism anymore, and the burden of proving that a woman can anchor the nightly news without getting shitty ratings. She'll have to do all this from an anchor chair that's starting to seem a little like an old paisley couch someone left out on the street. Dana puts it, um, nicely:

It's not the prize it once was, but it's hers: anchor of World News, the once towering, now considerably diminished evening broadcast, which, like its competitors on NBC and CBS, keeps soldiering on in the face of looming irrelevance.

Sweet  looming irrelevance! Time's James Poniewozik thinks it'll be interesting to see how Sawyer's ratings stack up against Couric's, but only insofar as "there are interesting things about the network evening news, which is probably not much the case any more."

Connie Chung says, "I'm sorry this didn't happen earlier, when network news was a lot more dominant." But could it have? Or is the nightly news something women are allowed to dominate only once it's already become unimportant? Bonnie Erbe of US News & World Report says, "I never thought I'd live to see the day when the network newscasts became a pink collar ghetto," and the word "ghetto" may be sadly accurate. With network news drooping in the face of cable and the Internet, maybe women only get to be in charge because it's no fun anymore.

Or maybe that's too pessimistic. The influence of female bloggers is much-lauded and growing, and it's possible that the famed democracy of the Internet is giving women a chance to influence public opinion in a way newscasters no longer can. Joshua Alston of Newsweek says, "people watch the nightly news in order to have the day's stories read to them in a grave voice. That's all." It's a pretty simplistic description of what, for Sawyer, will no doubt be a complex and potentially rewarding job. But at the same time, there's a grain of truth to it  and in an age when "the day's stories" are coming at us 24/7 in a variety of voices both spoken and printed, maybe there's more room for diversity after all.

Diane Sawyer To Anchor 'World News': 'Another Nail In The Coffin Of The Old Boys' Network' [Mediabistro]
Diane Sawyer Anchors Her Status On ABC [LA Times]
The ABC's Of Diane's Deal [The Daily Beast]
At ABC, An Anchor Shift; For TV, An Image Shift [NYT]
Diane Sawyer Replaces Charles Gibson But Nightly News Is Now A Pink Collar Ghetto [US News & World Report]
Why Sawyer Will Be Better Than Couric [Newser]
As Diane Sawyer Replaces Charlie Gibson, The Real Story Is That Gender Isn't The Story [New York Daily News]
Sawyer to Replace Gibson; Let Oppressed-White-Male Rhetoric Begin [Time]
Why Diane Sawyer Will Be Better Than Katie Couric [Newsweek]

First, of course, there's the wedding! Romance, wedding magazines, dress-shopping - why, look! The Wall Street Journal has a June-ready story on it! Oh. "Pre-Altared: More Used Wedding Gowns Go Back on Market." Apparently "the combined forces of the Web and the recession" are compelling a lot of women to sell their old dresses online. Obviously an expedient choice for the unsentimental or the space or cash-strapped, the success of the frankly-named PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com shows that in the new era of Modern Love, you can get your old/new/borrowed (and probably, blue) with minimal muss and fuss. And any sacrifice in sentiment is more than matched by the all-American pragmatism of the exchange.

Ms. Bulow found a dress online, tried on the $1,200 style at a bridal shop, then bought the dress for $450 from a young woman in Alabama whose wedding had been called off. "It's the way the free-market system should work," Ms. Bulow says. "She had something I wanted."

But not everyone's pinching pennies! Some people seem to still be splashing out on Fairy-Tale weddings that are all about love and romance! Oh, wait. "Forget saucepans, the modern bride is sparking controversy by demanding flashy gadgets and plasma TVs," says the Independent's "Wedding lists - self-indulgent or sensible?" It seems insolent newlyweds have no qualms about letting their loved ones upgrade them to the latest Gizmodo has to offer. Forget necessities; in the age of cohabitation and grown-up marriage, people have already got those. But you can get them nicer ones! "It seems the norm today for newlyweds to saunter from the altar into a home fully furnished with mod cons and designer furniture - all charitably paid for by their guests."

But now that you're married - either pragmatically or acquisitively - wedded bliss! Oh, wait. Here's the NY Times on "When Sex Leaves the Marriage."

It's estimated that about 15 percent of married couples have not had sex with their spouse in the last six months to one year, according to Denise A. Donnelly, associate professor of sociology at Georgia State University, who has studied sexless marriage.

Okay, that's worst-case scenario - Donnelly says that on average, couples make whooppee about 58 times per annum - but once the sex is gone? It's all downhill. Reanimating a stagnant sex life is "very hard" due to the many issues of communication, confidence, hurt and trust involved and, while it can be resuscitated, "people in sexless marriages were more likely to have considered divorce than those in sexually active marriages."

Well, those people are in luck, because as the Times of London story "With this website I thee divorce" tells us, online divorce sites are proliferating! Offering legal advice and resources, discussion forums, expert guidance and support, these sites may be teh wave of the future, cutting through some of the messiness of the inevitably painful process.

While online chats about divorce and marriage troubles are multiplying on sites such as mumsnet and iVillage, (as well as ) specialist sites ... appear to be proof that divorcing couples are increasingly seeking friendship and advice anonymously and online through chat rooms and the blogosphere.

And we know from web support in these parts! Or, as one site-user says, "The doctor has given me support but the web community has given me great emotional support, too. You either laugh or cry - but just to talk to someone who has also been married to an alcoholic and gone in search of bottles in the toilet is a big relief."

We'll be in the corner, weeping into our pile of invitations. And, no joke, "Pachelbel Canon" is actually playing on my LastFM "Antonio Vivaldi" radio. Also: who knew that "weeping bride" was a popular position in certain girl-on-girl porn genres? I wish I didn't!

Pre-Altared: More Used Wedding Gowns Go Back On Market [Wall Street Journal]
Wedding Lists - Self-Indulgent Or Sensible?[Independent]

When Sex Leaves The Marriage [NY Times]
With This Website I Thee Divorce [TimesUK]

When Katie first left the Today show to anchor the CBS Evening News in 2006, ratings began a steady decline. Katie was blamed, and it really looked like she was going to be fired in the spring of 2008. Now, however, she is more popular than ever, and that is thanks (at least in part) to her interview with Ms. Palin.

Governor Palin has accused Katie of "exploiting" her, but in last week's LA TImes Couric responded to this claim: "I felt bad about that, because I have been very circumspect about the whole thing. So I don't really understand what she meant." Even though we think Sarah Palin is full of shit, there is no denying that Couric's ratings went up because of the interview. During the last five weeks, her program has been up 7%, and during the inauguration week, Katie was hard at work interviewing Michelle Obama and covering the inauguration ceremonies.

Couric also has some new projects in the works. She has teamed up with Susan Zirinsky, CBS news producer, for several different shows. In an article that somewhat condescendingly begins: "How about a big hand for the little lady?", today's The Washington Post discusses Couric's most recent "exclusive" project. Last night, Couric headed up a special edition of the "CBS Evening News," where she was "very much the activist-anchor":

Couric reported Part 1 of an "exclusive" shocker series about domestic violence committed against spouses and girlfriends by troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. She gave this troubling story not "a woman's touch" but the attention of a good reporter. The segment was labeled "Katie Couric Investigates" to help raise her profile even higher.

Although The Washington Post speculates on the role of the "woman's touch," writer Tom Shales makes it clear that Couric is such a benevolent presence because of "16 years of goodwill" and her role as "Americas sweetheart" (which, one could argue, is by definition a woman's position- one that would certainly contribute to the myth of a "woman's touch").

Weirdly enough, Couric is also going to be a big part of the Grammy Awards this year. She is to host an hour-long prime-time special featuring "freestylin' interviews" with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Lil Wayne, airing February 4th. In an interview with the Observer Zirinsky explains her new found appreciation for the self-proclaimed feminist anchor: "She's a powerhouse. The more venues we can have her on, letting Katie be Katie, the better it plays for us." Although the whole discussion of a "woman's touch" is somewhat irksome, it is great to see a network let Katie be Katie, and celebrate her hard-won position among what is typically a bit of a boy's club. Couric has shown America that she can be a serious reporter, and we will now see whether she can hold her own with Lil Wayne. Our money's on Katie.

Good News, at Last [Washington Post]
A Newswoman's Journey to the Anchor Seat [Washington Post]
Not-So-Suddenly Susan! [The New York Observer]
CBS Puts Its Prime Time in the Service of Couric [New York Times]
Katie Couric in no hurry for change [LA Times]

Related: Katie Couric Flies Her Feminist Flag

This very scientific test was ostensibly performed to determine whether men or women have a higher pain threshol, but sometimes we wonder if the GMA producers just have it in for Diane. They seem to delight in finding humiliating assignments for her, such as the time she was given a fish pedicure, or when she had to watch a Baby Alive doll "poop" in a toilet. Clip at left.

• Meanwhile, women in India are being trained as security guards to fulfill an increasing demand for female guards in retail shops, malls, and on the subway. • A new study has linked music taste to particular personality traits and found that metal fans are gentle, indie rock listeners lack self-esteem, and pop lovers are uncreative. • Yuriko Koike, the former defense minister of Japan and current contender for the prime minister (which would make her the first female PM in Japan) says that Japan doesn't have a "glass ceiling" but an "iron plate" against female advancement. • Policy Exchange, a think tank favored by Tory party leaders, recommends that the government give tax benefits to the tune of about $1,000 a month to women who chose to stay home with their newborn children instead of working. • Meanwhile, Steve Biddulph, an "expert on parenting" in Australia says that the government should adopt a paid 1-year maternity leave for new mothers to encourage new mothers to avoid child care. • With so many male Asian American designers being shown this week at New York Fashion Week (Phillip Lim, Peter Som, Derek Lam, Alexander Wang, to name a few) it is hard to remember that the first Asian designers to take over the Western market were mostly women, including Vera Wang, Vivienne Tam, and Anna Sui. • This season Broadway will focus more on the psyche of dudes with revivals and musicals like A Man For All Seasons, Equus, and All My Sons. • The Australian-born feminist, Germaine Greer laments the lack of "proper" statues of famous women in England. • A new study has found that women over 70 who sleep no more than 5 hours a night have a 50% increased risk of falling down two or more times during the year. • Sad! Bella, a labrador from England who was believed to be the world's oldest dog died on Saturday at the age of 29. •

I think Katie is temperamentally wrong as an evening news anchor — the position stifles her exuberance — but I do think CBS News bears much of the blame. First of all, though the Journal claims that "CBS had hoped to recast Ms. Couric this year as a populist political anchor", the multimillionaire is about as much of a populist at this point as 10,700-square-foot-mansion-owning John Edwards is. (I know that she probably had a big working class female audience as an anchor on Today, but her semi-recent glamorous makeover and the big bucks she's making at CBS make her "populism" a difficult product to sell to the people.) The Journal also reports that CBS CEO Les Moonves "vowed to dedicate more money to the broadcast and to build up its Web presence," and lured Katie to the job by saying he would structure the program around her skills. But where are those skills and where is evidence that CBS played to them? Couric always seems to be behaving the way she thinks an anchor should behave like as opposed to just being herself. It makes me wonder whether the fact that she's a woman in a largely male-dominated field is influencing how she presents herself, or, gender aside, she was simply the wrong person for the job.

CBS News, Katie Couric Are Likely To Part Ways [Wall Street Journal]
Katie Couric's Future As CBS Anchor Under Discussion [Washington Post]

Katie Couric: Probs A Bitch, Definitely A Slapper

As Laura Flanders writes on the Nation website, "Leave it to the Girls" consisted of a "panel of celebrity women (who) fired questions at a guy. For Meet the Press (which she also hosted on radio before moving to TV,) Rountree and producer Lawrence Spivak, replaced the women with a panel of journalists." (Probably male!). Oh well, At least Fox News is focusing on its female employees' assets: the right-wing, Murdoch-owned news cabler seems to be overly concerned with making sure its graphics aren't covering the cleavage of lady guests and anchors!

Meet The Press And Leave It To The Girls. [The Nation]
Chyron of the Day: Boobs [Huffington Post]
The Latest Washingtonian [Mediabistro]

Earlier: Elle Investigates The Tyranny Of Paula Zahn Highlights