Summary: Oh, Steve Doocy. I'll admit that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is one of the funniest movies I've seen in the past few years. But when Mr. Burgundy and the boys objectified women, it was done as a joke about how wrong such objectification is.
You're not actually supposed to suggest that your female co-anchor get a 976 sex-hotline number.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: What would (voice cracks)...sorry for my voice. I apologize. I'm talking too much. What would...
STEVE DOOCY: You should get a 976 number today.
LANNY DAVIS: (laughs)
OFF-SCREEN FOX EMPLOYEE: (seeming to realize what's wrong) Whoa.
STEVE DOOCY: That's right. If you'd like to hear Alyson Camerota read you the news...(sound effect) for $2.99...
(garbled)
ALISYN CAMEROTA: I'm hoping it's translating as sexy and not just annoying.
I can't be certain, but watching how quickly Ms. Camerota tried to get back on topic (watch her face), she didn't seem too happy. And just for some historical perspective, this comes from a Media Matters article about Bill O'Reilly:
On the November 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News' The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, during a segment on a telecommunications executive who spent $250,000 in one night at a New York strip club, host Bill O'Reilly asked co-host Lis Wiehl if "it might be worth learning how" to dance for a $10,000 tip, adding, "You're [Wiehl] a good-looking girl. I mean, if you haven't seen Lis on TV, she's a good-looking blonde."
Wiehl, a Harvard-trained law professor and Fox News legal analyst, has faced similar comments from O'Reilly in the recent past. On the November 3 broadcast of The Radio Factor, O'Reilly called for a "full-body search" of Wiehl, adding that "she asked for it"; on the October 26 broadcast of the radio show, O'Reilly asked Wiehl to protest outside of CBS studios in a bikini; on the June 24, 2004, broadcast, O'Reilly referred to Wiehl as "eye-candy."
Add this to Mr. Cavuto's fixation on sexy women who have nothing to do with the business that his show is supposed to cover (News Hounds is good for covering this), and you've got yourself a pattern.
