# Preponderence of young, attractive women on NPR? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478 "2013-07-25T14:25:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/1 "2013-07-25T14:25:53Z")
Is there a reason that young, attractive female journalists tend to get jobs as NPR correspondents? I listen to NPR every morning on the way to work and most of the stories are done by young women. I’ve looked up a few of their pictures on the interwebs and they all seem to be extremely good-looking. Any particular reason why they go to NPR? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/2 "2013-07-25T14:34:22Z")
There are young, attractive female journalists in all media (Fox seems to seek them out). NPR would attract younger journalists because they probably don’t pay as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/3 "2013-07-25T14:39:54Z")
I’ll admit it, they do have very nice voices. I caught myself dwelling on how one correspondent said the word ‘Smurfs’ this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/4 "2013-07-25T14:40:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There are young, attractive female journalists in all media (Fox seems to seek them out). > > NPR would attract younger journalists because they probably don’t pay as well. Perhaps it’s confirmation bias, but the correspondents I’ve seen on major networks such as Fox or MSNBC tend to be forty- to fifty-something males. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/5 "2013-07-25T20:23:15Z")
Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/6 "2013-07-25T20:36:55Z")
😕 \ :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/7 "2013-07-25T20:50:01Z")
The really well paid, prestigious journalism jobs are on TV, and for those it helps very much to be good looking (probably much more important than actual journalistic talent) and, for women particularly, young and good looking. (For men, looks probably matter a tiny bit less, and age a good deal less as handsome men are traditionally considered to remain handsome until a much greater age tahn beautiful women remain beautiful. Furthermore, being older can give a male journalist more gravitas, so age for a man, but not a woman, has its advantages.) For a young woman who is beautiful and also intelligent and competent, broadcast journalism is a very tempting career choice, with much less of a glass ceiling than she might encounter in other careers, and her beauty being much more of an advantage. For just this reason, however, it is, just for that reason, very competitive. Most of the young women on NPR are almost certainly hoping to eventually work their way up to positions on network TV (or, at lest, they originally embarked on their journalistic career with that hope). Of course, most of them won’t make it, but that is the nature of very competitive businesses. NPR does not pay very well, but it carries a lot of prestige, and a woman can establish herself there as being much more than a pretty face. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/8 "2013-07-25T21:05:11Z")
My impression is that there are both young and older male broadcast journalists and young female journalists–but very few older female journalists. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/9 "2013-07-25T21:14:36Z")
I think some of it is because NPR pays pretty poorly, so it is a place where a lot of younger people break in to the business before going somewhere else. Some of these younger people are women. As to why they are attractive, their young, and probably grew up with access to good nutrition and health care. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/10 "2013-07-25T21:15:43Z")
How old are you? As far as I can tell, as I get older, my opinions of what is attractive seems to be getting broader, and youth is definitely attractive when you’re not young; girls I thought were no great shakes in college look awfully good in old photos now that I’m 40. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/11 "2013-07-25T22:21:23Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Is there a reason that young, attractive female journalists tend to get jobs as NPR correspondents? I listen to NPR every morning on the way to work and most of the stories are done by young women. I’ve looked up a few of their pictures on the interwebs and they all seem to be extremely good-looking. > > Any particular reason why they go to NPR? I want to seduce Sylvia Poggioli and Opheibia Kwist-Arcton, but they aren’t Fox Blondes by any stretch. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/12 "2013-07-25T22:59:47Z")
Here’s [people at NPR](http://www.npr.org/series/6000/people-at-npr) I don’t notice any overabundence of females, and while they aren’t ugly or anything, the woman listed as correspondents seem to be pretty average looking, and not particularly young. Certainly nothing like the stable of interchangeable blondes at Fox ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/13 "2013-07-26T03:34:35Z")
Where are Edward Murrow and Walter Cronkite when we need them? ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/14 "2013-07-26T03:47:07Z")
> [@bump](#): > > How old are you? As far as I can tell, as I get older, my opinions of what is attractive seems to be getting broader, and youth is definitely attractive when you’re not young; girls I thought were no great shakes in college look awfully good in old photos now that I’m 40. Yep this seems logical.. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/15 "2013-07-26T15:40:48Z")
I love how you guys single out Fox, as if CNN didn’t have a preponderance of attractive female reporters. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/16 "2013-07-26T16:06:40Z")
All three of the network news programs have these outrageously attractive women in the positions of business and weather persons. I think it started with Maria Bartiromo on CNN, but they all seem to be providing cheesecake nowadays. Not that they’re not competent, intelligent women, but it seems obvious that the networks are trying to attract male viewers. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/17 "2013-07-26T17:03:21Z")
Yea, I’m not noticing a preponderance of stunners on NPR’s lineup. I have seen some offices like that though. One place I visited had about 9 females in the office, they were all mid-20s. 7 of them were gorgeous and the other 2 were above average. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the hiring manager was male. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/18 "2013-07-26T17:03:37Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Here’s [people at NPR](http://www.npr.org/series/6000/people-at-npr) I don’t notice any overabundence of females, and while they aren’t ugly or anything, the woman listed as correspondents seem to be pretty average looking, and not particularly young. Certainly nothing like the stable of interchangeable blondes at Fox Yeah, I couldn’t tell you what 95% of NPR people look like, but clicking on the names I recognize from that list (Audie Cornish, Lakshmi Singh, Michelle Keleman, Diane Rehm, Margot Adler, Eleanor Beardsley, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, Gwen Macsai [that one I had to look up separately]), they all look like pretty normal women, and most seem to be at least 30 years old. I’m actually not sure who we are talking about here. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/19 "2013-07-26T17:38:06Z")
When I think of NPR women, I think of [Terry Gross](http://www.whyy.org/about/pressroom/images/terrygross.jpg). While I respect the woman’s tradecraft, she’s not what I would call “young hottie.” In the interest of equal time for the ladies, has anyone noticed the [preponderence of young attractive men on NPR?](https://www.google.com/search?q=ari+shapiro&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=dLPyUcL1HKWuigLj5oDoAw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=914) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478/20 "2013-07-26T17:56:55Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > When I think of NPR women, I think of [Terry Gross](http://www.whyy.org/about/pressroom/images/terrygross.jpg). While I respect the woman’s tradecraft, she’s not what I would call “young hottie.” Boy, did she look different in my imagination. Wish I could have that back. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preponderence-of-young-attractive-women-on-npr/664478.md?page=2)