RUSH: Steve in Middleburg, Virginia, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: And I’d skip work for you, too. The thing I wanted to ask on a lighter note, it’s about the Chinese girls getting switched, you know, at the Olympics.
RUSH: Yeah. They got rid of the bucktoothed babe that actually sang the song, the hymn to the motherland, and they replaced her with this really cute little girl with pigtails that lip-synced. Yes. It’s almost as big a controversy as the fact that the Chinese are cheating on the age of their female gymnasts.
CALLER: Right, right, that’s what I wanted to ask you about. I was wondering if you think they’re taking a cue from the American TV news media which seem to always give the job to the prettiest girl. Have you noticed the trend in TV news lately? Do you see the same irony that I do? Is that hypocrisy?
RUSH: I’d be less than honest were I to admit that I failed to notice the relative attractiveness of most of the female info babes on cable TV, yeah. Are you suggesting to me that cable news networks are just as disingenuous as the ChiComs are because they’re putting people that really may not have any qualifications at all to anchor the news, the only thing is that they look good?
CALLER: I’m suggesting that 95% of women in TV news wouldn’t have their jobs if it weren’t for their personal appearance.
RUSH: Now, that’s going far.
CALLER: That doesn’t say they’re not qualified.
RUSH: That’s going a little far, 95%? I’d put it more at 80.
CALLER: Maybe so. That’s possible, but I still think there’s a trend here that’s developed, and I don’t think it’s a good one. I don’t mean to say women on TV news aren’t qualified to do their jobs. I’m just saying that given the choice between a very attractive person who’s qualified and a not attractive person who’s just as qualified, the pretty girl will get the job.
RUSH: That’s why there are magazines and newspapers. That’s why you very seldom see anybody from the New York Times on TV.
CALLER: Very good.
RUSH: No, that is. Look, they’re in the visual business. Do you think they should put ugly people on to read the news?
RUSH: Well, I think they should put competent people to read the news. I understand physical appearance in relation to TV shows and movies and things like that, but there should be a level of competence and merit.
RUSH: How do you know that there’s not? How do you know that these lookers are not competent?
CALLER: Oh, no, I’m not saying that they’re not. I’m just saying that I suspect that, given the same level of competency, a pretty girl will get the job. Now, you know that doesn’t apply to men very often, because Alan Colmes is on TV, not that I mean to personalize this on or anything, but you know what I’m saying though, right?
RUSH: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got it. I totally get it.