William Hurt Syndrome…
I’m in a mischievious mood so I’m going to throw out a poll. Which news anchor bears the closest resemblance to William Hurt’s character in the 1980s movie “Broadcast News”? To muddy the waters I put up every major male straight news non-business anchor operating on the national level.
Bonus question: Which anchor would be the one I’d pick? And I do have a clear cut winner here…
Inside Cable News 
June 18, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I picked Greg Jarrett. Figured you’d pick Rick Sanchez.
June 18, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Coop. He’s the guy that would set up a separate camera shot to catch the tear in his eye. I think Spud picked him, too.
June 18, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Coop fits. Hemmer even looks like him.
June 18, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Any adult with the name ”T.J.” has to get more than one vote.
June 18, 2010 at 10:50 pm
I think for alot of voters (judging by who has gotten some votes so far) SPUD should have explained what William Hurts character represented in the movie.
Here’s a hint. A female perfect example would be: Courtney Friel.
June 18, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Too simplistic, Star. Hurt’s character was presented as gloss over substance, but it was more of a choice on his part, whereas Friel is simply not very deep.
June 18, 2010 at 11:00 pm
…and my choice of AC represents the dramatic flair that he adds to his journalism, which was a trick up Hurt’s sleeve. AC tells the story by investing in it emotionally, and expecting you to go for the ride.
June 18, 2010 at 11:24 pm
I’ll take back Friel because he could read a teleprompter well and she can’t =)
I too voted for Anderson “The Mole” Cooper
June 18, 2010 at 11:30 pm
The Mole! He’ll never live that down..
June 18, 2010 at 11:42 pm
I forgot how great this movie is.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092699/quotes
June 19, 2010 at 7:29 am
I am having a difficult time chosing – that’s not a good sign for the current crop of talking heads 😉
June 19, 2010 at 7:38 am
I don’t know, I may have to close my eyes, and point my mouse 🙂
Brian Williams is a bit of ham…..
June 19, 2010 at 8:28 am
A female perfect example would be: Courtney Friel.
You already retracted that Star but I’m not letting you off that easy. Friel? No way. Joe nails it in his description of Hurt’s character…
June 19, 2010 at 9:11 am
Hurt’s character was presented as gloss over substance, but it was more of a choice on his part
As I remember the Hurt character, Joe got it right.
Hurt was a serious journalist – or one capable of real reporting – but he caved in to fake emotion (he did a piece where he staged tears after an interview and then added it in later) in order to get ahead.
I can imagine Sanchez doing something like that but he’s not capable of quality journalism. So, he doesn’t fit the “Hurt standard.”
Cooper comes closest. Smith not far behind.
June 19, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Hurt was a lot like Palin. Not so much dumb, but uninterested in applying too much of an effort to something. Certainly not if a smile will do.
June 19, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hmm, now that I re-read the plotline of “Broadcast News” I got the Hurt character almost all wrong.
He really wasn’t capable of doing serious journalism (not on the national network level) since he had no interest in doing so. And he had no interest because he knew he couldn’t. He chose style over substance because he couldn’t succeed just doing substance.
This is tough one. I’m interested in who Spud selected.
June 19, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Yet another movie to put in my Netflix queue. It’s been forever since I’ve seen it. That said, Anderson Cooper is Tom Grunick to the T.
June 19, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Juliet Huddy! Oh, right..
June 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Hemmer is 45 ?!? Life is not fair.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/daring_worldly_and_single_165128.asp
June 19, 2010 at 4:34 pm
That said, Anderson Cooper is Tom Grunick to the T.
That’s what I said at first and then second-guessed myself after re-reading the storyline. My recall was that the Hurt character was smarmier than he actually was.
As they used to tell us about taking tests, go with the first answer.
June 20, 2010 at 9:02 am
stevemg Says:
June 19, 2010 at 2:45 pm
William Hurt’s character faked the substance part when on air…..it’s a tuff call.
Bill Hemmer, maybe, I always thought when Megyn Kelly was poking him good naturedly, that his reaction was telling, she was exposing his lack of depth.
June 20, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I’m interested in who Spud selected.
I’m sure you are…
June 20, 2010 at 7:43 pm
just watched it. Coop. They have the same expressions!
June 21, 2010 at 10:01 am
The depiction of the New Age anchor replacement for Jack Nicholson (Dan Rather?) in Broadcast News was more subtle than the fact that he was superficial, glib and out of his depth.
Those were the attributes that the movie appears to consign to him, because we are led to look at the network news operation through the eyes of Albert Brooks (Aaron Brown?).
But the Hurt character trips us up — and Brooks and Hunter too — with a couple of insights.
First, he understands that Old Media news was too male oriented. He covers a story on date rape and intuitively understands that there is an entire range of topics that were hitherto taboo that can make a female audience feel its agenda is being attended to. The personal is political, as it were.
Second, he is able to project a sense of calm and proportion and intelligence in a breaking news crisis — without having a flop sweat. Brooks says the words into a telephone, they travel into an earpiece, and come out of the anchor’s mouth. Cool under fire.
So skills that seemed superficial and glib to the old school journalist turned out to be insights of the new school.
My vote is for Brian Williams.
February 7, 2015 at 10:39 pm
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