Kirby's revenge
Haven't been paying much attention to this fired-anchor thing with Williams. TV is purely outside my world. Since the entire job of an anchor is to tell 100% lies, I didn't see why an off-camera lie was "harmful to his reputation". It would seem to improve his consistency. Figured there must be a more ordinary reason behind this "scandal". Either his second-in-command was pulling some blackmail strings to take over, or management was pulling the strings because Williams was just not performing well.

If NPR can be believed, it's the latter. Apparently Williams has been uninterested in anchoring, not giving full force, because he really wants to work in the branch of genocidal lies called "comedy" instead of the branch of genocidal lies called "news".

Probably not a wise career move.

Couldn't sleep last night, ended up listening to a part of the OTR playlist that normally happens while I'm blank. It included this 1944 broadcast of CBS news sponsored by Crisco. The most interesting aspect is the female anchor Bernadine Flynn. WHAT? NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! ALL WYYYMMMYYNNS WERE BAREFOOT, PREGNANT AND IN THE KITCHEN UNTIL OUR LORDESS AND SAVIORESS BETTY FRIED[m]AN FREED THEM FROM THEIR CHAINS!

Along with the impossible and non-existent female anchor, the co-anchor was Durward Kirby. Yup, the same dude who submissively clowned for Garry Moore and various game shows in the '50s. As newsreader, Kirby was the consummate professional. His voice was authoritative and pleasant, his English diction and syntax were perfect but not obtrusively so, his pronunciation of foreign names was perfect but not fake foreignish. Gold standard. Best in the business.

I don't know if Kirby had a similar desire to get out of news and into entertainment, but that's definitely what happened to him. And now we remember him as a clown instead of The Perfect Newsreader.

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Sidenote: Bernadine Flynn was primarily an all-purpose utility actress, not 'officially' a newsreader or a reporter ... but nevertheless she was the anchor of the Crisco news segment.
  ¶ 5:08 PM