All the News That’s Fit to Flaunt

There she was, sensuously writhing on the bar in a bare midriff outfit--a sequence that could easily be found in a sequel to the movie “Coyote Ugly” or the Pamela Anderson costume-design showcase “V.I.P.”

Yet it wasn’t an actress, not officially anyway, but rather KTLA anchor Sharon Tay, as part of a segment in which she giddily tried on costumes from the WB network series “Charmed,” reenacting scenes from that night’s episode in an extended promotional tie-in during the WB-affiliated “KTLA Morning News.”

Given that Tay looked pretty fabulous in that Nov. 1 broadcast, many will no doubt invoke the dreaded term “party pooper” to describe journalistic purists who might question a news anchor participating in a routine that wouldn’t look out of place in a darkened club with men tossing dollar bills at her. At the least, it’s hard to imagine KTLA’s Hal Fishman in a similar position, assuming Fishman could actually get into a similar position without straining something.

Still, Tay’s walk on the wild side was hardly an anomaly. In fact, this month alone one can find KTLA entertainment reporter Mindy Burbano pouting seductively on the cover of OYE magazine, in keeping with her wannabe-Spice Girl image; and E! Entertainment Television news anchor Jules As- ner baring almost all for the not-quite-nude men’s magazine Maxim.

Hiring attractive people is certainly nothing new in television, but the premium on Barbie-doll looks seems more pronounced than ever, with newswomen overtly trading on their sexuality as a come-on to viewers.

Consider Jillian Barberie, whose unabashed flaunting of her assets has taken her from KTTV’s local “Good Day LA”--which will soon be given a test run in other selected cities as “Good Day Live”--to the network’s football pre-game show to the FX late-night series “The Test.” So far, Fox executives appear intent on bouncing Barberie from show to show until America is as hot for her as they are.

In similar fashion, clotheshorses such as Asner, KTTV entertainment reporter Lisa Joyner and “Access Hollywood’s” Nancy O’Dell could easily be mistaken for stars themselves at any event they cover. There is even a relatively new emphasis on sports reporters becoming eye candy for that mostly male audience, from Fox’s Lisa Guerrero to “Monday Night Football’s” Melissa Stark.

One has to wonder what message this trend delivers to aspiring female journalists. Should they include evening gown and swimsuit photos along with their broadcast reels and resumes? And if resembling Malibu Beach Barbie is truly a job requirement, then what kind of career longevity can these women aspire to when someone is sure to come along in a few years who looks better in a bustier?

Judith Marlane, professor in the department of radio, television and film at Cal State Northridge and author of the book “Women in Television News Revisited,” said the tendency to display women in TV news so provocatively represents a step backward gender-wise and a concession to entertainment values.

“From a credibility standpoint, it really shows we are regressing,” Marlane said. “The fights for acceptance of the past 25 years have really been ignored.”

As for the standard excuse stations use--namely, that entertainment, sports or weather personalities adhere to different standards than hard-news anchors--Marlane suggested that for any women within newscasts to be presented as “pieces of fluff” is not only “embarrassing and demeaning” but also undermines their primary function, which is ostensibly to convey information. Moreover, in recent weeks viewers have seen how quickly a lighthearted morning show can be asked to transition to breaking news, where credibility does matter.

“You should not interfere with the message,” Marlane said. “The way you dress should be in the background, not the foreground.”

Martha Lauzen, a professor at San Diego State University who has monitored roles for women in prime-time entertainment, sees some of the same issues affecting news. Lauzen has found that the number of women working behind the scenes on television series invariably influences women’s on-screen status, both in raw numbers and in the manner in which they’re depicted. In other words, the path to equality in front of the camera usually begins behind it.

“Many of the things we can say about women in entertainment programming apply to women in news programming, which is their underrepresentation and misrepresentation as well as their trivialization,” she said.

Though the obsession with youth has spilled over to men in certain arenas, it’s hard to argue that a double standard exists in news, where the general norm for local anchor teams involves pairing a stately looking, middle-aged or older male with a young, attractive female. And one might point out that Asner’s male counterparts peddling entertainment news haven’t been lining up to appear on the cover of Playgirl.

“KTLA Morning News” executive producer Marcia Brandwynne, who spent time as a local anchor at KCBS-TV and KTTV, expressed her own misgivings about the level of preening going on in television news.

“I think it sends a terrible message,” she said. “If I were coming up now, I would never get hired. There is something [unfortunate] about having to be totally beautiful and totally sexy to be a newsreader.”

Brandwynne also acknowledged she was unhappy with the KTLA segment in which Tay modeled the “Charmed” wardrobe, saying it was inappropriate. “I don’t want to see her [presented] like that,” Brandwynne said. “She’s our early-morning anchor.... We made a mistake.” (KTLA is owned by the Tribune Co., as is the Los Angeles Times.)

Then again, pleading guilty to such a misdemeanor sounds almost quaint given the gale-force winds blowing in that direction. It’s a sweeps month, after all, which may explain why the “Victoria’s Secret” fashion show will make its network debut Thursday, as ABC has perhaps appropriately chosen it to counter-program Fox’s “Temptation Island 2.”

It’s no secret, of course, what young women need do to thrive in the world of broadcast news, where the current rules only demand that they be energetic, astonishingly beautiful and never, ever grow old.

An udder humiliation: A handful of readers noticed an embarrassing misstatement in last week’s column, which mentioned that a cow punctured in the neck during “Survivor: Africa” was killed, which is untrue. I confess having tuned out before that precise moment, basing the reference on correspondence from a few squeamish viewers, which I should not have done.

Beyond regretting the error, I would particularly like to apologize to the cow and any damage that might have been done to her career prospects. After all, everyone knows how hard it is to land that first big break in Hollywood, what with all the pigs, wolves and jackals out there.

Brian Lowry’s column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached via e-mail at brian.lowry@latimes .com.