I mean, yes, there are a couple TV shows that started out in some sort of Web incarnation. The formerly syndicated CNET show that's now a shadow of itself on CNBC, for example. That irritating Technews thing that I can't remember the name of. But they've all been geek stuff or business stuff, really. Shows that try to bring business or technology into a more general area.
Naked newscasters are something entirely different. Thing is, I can see that watching naked people reading news on the web can be amusing, in and of itself, but I can't imagine that its web viewers either want or expect it to be at all arousing. It's just an idle amusement. It's news reading, for heaven's sake; what's sexy about that? However, someone watching Viewer's Choice Canada is, in fact, watching a television channel purely for its wank value. They may not quite appreciate going from, say, a somewhat censored version of "Sorority Babes in Space" (well, or whatever) to hearing about the problems that the European Union is having getting businesses to use the Euro, or about Brazilian inmates giving up their lunches to homeless children, or the arrest of a serial killer charged among other things with the death of a pregnant woman and her fetus. The context could be a tad ... offputting.
And entirely as a side note: apparently Lucas Tyler has gotten much more comfortable with his role on the show. Seldom have I seen a newscaster report a bombing in Belfast with such exuberance and enthusiasm! (But he still can't figure out what to do with his hands.)
And another side note: watching a debate about whether and why people may prefer male newsreaders to female -- it's the voice, apparently -- on a site where 80% of its users watch its female news feeds in preference to the male ones, and the draw has nothing to do with their voices or authoritativeness in the first place, AND they're naked ... well, it's just bizarre.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!