Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, directed and written by Adam McKay of Saturday Night Live fame, purports to be the story of the first female to anchor the television newscast of a major city in the 1970s but ends up as a farcical story about male chauvinism carried to such extremes that filmviewers will doubt the authenticity of the true story on which the screenplay is supposedly based. Certainly, the politically incorrect title gives a clue about the movie. When the film begins, Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) goes about town as a media celebrity, based on his number one rated evening newscast. His news team consists entirely of men, who at one point come to blows with the four other lower-rated news teams. Soon, his boss Ed Harken (played by Fred Willard) informs him that, in the interests of "diversity," a new employee will be working for the team, namely Veronica Corningstone (played by Christina Applegate), who comes from the network affiliate in Ashville, North Carolina. (Why a top-rated rather than a lower-ranked news show would do so already strains credulity.) When she arrives, the men are instantly attracted to her beauty and treat her as fair game for various stunts, but Burgundy dates her to show her around town as a professional courtesy and succeeds in seducing her, a fact that he broadcasts not only to the newsroom but also on his news program. Veronica is infuriated. She retaliates by changing the closing words on his teleprompter that have become his signature--from "stay classy, San Diego" to "go fuck yourself, San Diego." Since the F word is forbidden on radio and television, Burgundy's boss fires him, and Veronica becomes the first female anchor. Then Burgundy sinks into despair. Three months later, a male chauvinist a local public television newscast anchor pushes Veronica into the bear exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, so she is not available to anchor the evening news. Accordingly, Harken recalls Burgundy to resume his former position. But Burgundy rescues Veronica, and the happy ending is that the two become co-anchors. Nevertheless, the film consists of juvenile slapstick comedy that might titillate preteens and teenagers but may offend females over eighteen unless they are already inured to tasteless Saturday Night Live satire. Even Archie Bunker exhibited more respect for his wife than the crude, vulgar manner in which Veronica is treated. As for authenticity, four longtime news anchors were reportedly consulted to verify that male chauvinism indeed reigned supreme; everyone was then trying to emulate Walter Cronkite as the "most trusted man in America." The first female news anchor, of course, did not appear in San Diego. Although film critic Roger Ebert has nominated a Chicago TV station for that distinction, there would be much irony, as voiceovers come from Bill Kurtis, who dominated Chicago TV news during that era. Ordinarily, such a film would not merit attention in the Political Film Review, but there are two points worth noting. First, the newscasters clearly have very low intelligence. Second, what they consider "news" are stories about animals--a cat fashion show and the birth of a Panda baby. In short, the reason why newscasts have degenerated into infotainment is traced to the fact that those on camera, who are treated as celebrities, have very little interest in or understanding of the major events of the day. By failing to enlighten, they are manufacturing consent to those who seek to hijack democracy in the United States, but those points are made more eloquently elsewhere, notably in Noam Chomsky's 1998 book and 1992 film Manufacturing Consent. MH
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