Sharyn Alfonsi On ABC ‘World News’ – A Loss For CBS

I decided to watch ‘World News’ tonight on this night of the important Potomac Primaries. My post isn’t about the election but about Sharyn Alfoni who recently left CBS for the more highly rated ‘World News.’ She never really stood out to me as an occasional viewer of the ‘CBS Evening News with Katie Couric’. She led the broadcast often when Bob Scheiffer anchored. Perhaps she was overshadowed by the hoopla around Couric and Dan Rather.

Now on ABC, she pops of the screen! Sure, tonight’s report about severe weather across the country was pedestrian journalism at most, she made the content appealing to watch. Let’s be honest. She’s beautiful. But, her delivery, her style, her tone and inflection, her content wrapped by Charlie Gibson… all seemed so much more appealing than anything I ever saw on CBS. Yes, she reported major stories to lead ‘Evening News’. But tonight for some reason, she just popped off the screen. ABC has a good find. I hope though that she doesn’t fall into the trap that many good reporters do… and that is “I need to anchor’. I’m sure she would be great behind the anchor desk. But she also lends a lot of credibility to a broadcast with her reporting. Big gain for ‘World News’… big loss for ‘Evening News’.

By the way, as I searched for some background on Alfonsi for the post, I found this interest bit from Newsblues (it’s paid site). “Alfonsi worked her way up the broadcast ladder the hard way, starting as a news reporter, weekend weather anchor, photographer, and editor at KHBS-40-ABC in Ft. Smith, AR (Market #102). She covered the military at Belo's WVEC-13-ABC in Norfolk (Market #42), jumped to KIRO-7-CBS in Seattle (Market #13), and reported and anchored weekends at CBS-owned WBZ-4 in Boston (Market #7) before joining CBS News as a freelancer and eventually as a correspondent in 2004. She left CBS in June when her 3-year contract expired.” Check out the site if you can.