With the death of Pope John Paul II this past weekend, everyone is heading to Rome. Anchormen, fluff-show hosts, everyone seems to be on a plane to Rome to host their shows from there. Even local radio and television stations are shoving anchors on jets to “report” from St. Peter’s Square.

Who are the “consultants” who are telling everyone this is a good idea, and will someone please strangle them in their sleep?

I realize using common sense is a “radical” way of looking at things, but let me tell you what we need as news consumers. We do not need anchors who still think they are reporters; they aren’t, and they need to just get over it. If you want to report, then quit the anchor desk and go back to the field (without waiting for a scandle to send you there)…the last thing we as news consumers need is a bunch of yahoos trying to reclaim their youth jumping into the middle of a story they do not understand. Seriously, guys…sit at your desk, introduce a story by someone who does know what they are talking about, get out of the way of the information coming to us, and stop trying to be something you aren’t. You’re paid the big bucks to be an anchor…so anchor already. And please…don’t “interview” the reporters on-scene. Force these reporters to actually file stories, well-researched and on-point, instead of this nonsense of an anchor debriefing a reporter on-screen or on-mic. Drives me crazy…I don’t want a reporter to be treated as an expert (he ain’t), I want to see and hear the reporter interviewing a real expert in the field.

It’s this same misplaced sense of needing anchors to “report” that caused NPR last year to fire the only decent host Morning Edition ever had so that two bland quasi-”reporters” could waste our time pretending to understand stories they parachute into. When that last bastion of “legitimate news” in this country bails out on us and starts following the highly-paid and brain-damaged “consultants” into dumbing-down our news instead of giving us what we want and need, it’s time to start listening to the BBC World Service and stop supporting the system that is more interested in ratings than in giving us solidly-reported news by professionals, anchored by someone we can trust.