# TV Anchormen (Anchorwomen) Standing And Reading The News **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242 "2010-08-14T13:47:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/1 "2010-08-14T13:47:25Z")
I just realized after watching _the Mary Tyler Moore Show_, Ted Baxter always stands and read the news from the copy Murray writes him. I assume this must’ve been the way it was done back in the 70s, though I can’t recall an instance of news anchors in Chicago standing up and reading the news for the whole 30 minutes. I was alive in the 70s but didn’t really start watching the news regularly until about 1975 or 1976 Do any of you recall instances of anchormen or anchorwomen standing up the whole show and reading the show? If so what TV station was it? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/2 "2010-08-14T14:00:16Z")
No, not unless they had a good reason to stand. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/3 "2010-08-14T14:12:56Z")
As soon as I read the title I thought of Ted Baxter. Ted was pretty full of himself, he may have felt that his voice sounded better when he was standing. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/4 "2010-08-14T15:03:19Z")
I think Rob Johnson in Chicago does the news standing up. Don’t recall which station it is, though. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/5 "2010-08-14T15:11:08Z")
It seems like the network news anchors experimented with this at one time. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/6 "2010-08-14T15:42:53Z")
I could swear Tom Brokaw used to start the broadcast standing, then move to the desk after the first commercial break. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/7 "2010-08-14T16:09:01Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > It seems like the network news anchors experimented with this at one time. Yes, all the network anchors in recent years have tried every possible variation, from standing to sitting behind a desk to sitting on an open chair. Well, not every variation. They haven’t done it crouching or squatting or hanging from a trapeze. Standing has become pretty common, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/8 "2010-08-14T16:12:07Z")
It’s budget cuts. You know how much chairs cost? ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/9 "2010-08-14T16:20:35Z")
Funny to think that meetings are held in swank offices by highly paid people in expensive clothes, where matters like this are contemplated and the decisions are handed down. “Then it’s decided. Tom will stand until the first commercial break, then he moves to the desk. Should be a ratings bonanza!” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/10 "2010-08-14T17:47:54Z")
John Chancellor of “NBC Nightly News” in the 1970s stood up while reading the teleprompter. I remember him expressly his gratitude on air when NBC bought him a chair. > **[John Chancellor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chancellor)** > > John William Chancellor (July 14, 1927 – July 12, 1996) was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News. He is considered a pioneer in television news. Chancellor served as anchor of the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982 and continued to do editorials and commentaries for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw until 1993. > Born in Chicago, Illinois, Chancellor dropped out of high school, worked odd jobs and enlisted in the Army, serving in a public relations unit during World War... ---
**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:** [August 14, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/11 "2010-08-14T18:58:22Z")
Remember Ted also did the sports for a bit and he would stride purposely to stand in front of the sports logo for that bit. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/12 "2010-08-14T19:56:23Z")
Watching KTVO (Kirksville, MO/Ottumwa, IA) back in the early 70s, I think … I recall their news broadcasts had the anchor standing behind a clear plexiglas podium. With a box behind them and to the side that rotated with various graphics and whatnot for the stories. All with a perfectly black and seemingly endless background. It was really kinda creepy now that I recall it. I also remember their early weather radar reports. A dark screen with dots for the area cities, with the sweep going around and smears of brightness that supposedly represented … rain, or snow, or atomic fireflies, or something. Kids today with their Doppler and their color-coded precipitation and their up-to-the-second forecasts just don’t know how good they have it. Anyway, that’s about the time frame of _Mary Tyler Moore_, and I was in the Midwest just a state south of WJM-TV, so maybe it was just something of the time, of the place? Meanwhile, KFXA in Cedar Rapids has their anchors stand during their nine o’clock news. Although that’s not so terribly weird (except for the female anchor’s somewhat avant-garde wardrobe choices), what is freakishly bizarre is the computerized backdrop that they use, which apparently is supposed to make it look like they’re standing in downtown CR, but just looks … wrong. (I could write a book on the sensationalistic, crappy news practices of KFXA and KGAN … yes, the Fox and CBS affiliates share the news departments in Cedar Rapids … but that’s a different topic. But yeah, they still stand up round these parts.) ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-anchormen-anchorwomen-standing-and-reading-the-news/550242/13 "2010-08-14T20:12:46Z")
One of my local TV stations had an anchor who stood at a podium. He was overweight, balding and had a gravely voice, a good and well respected man who unfortunately would never be allowed on the air today.