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Banfield gets NBC's bad news (Ashleigh's been fired)
New York Daily News ^
| 3.26.04
| Lloyd Grove
Posted on 03/26/2004 8:25:18 AM PST by mhking
Onetime cable television star Ashleigh Banfield - a publicity magnet even before she achieved celebrity in the aftermath of 9/11 - is out at NBC News.
The 36-year-old former rock singer - once a fashion icon for her blond tresses and her ever-present on-air glasses, but whose career took a slide after she dyed her hair dark brown - joined the network's MSNBC outlet four years ago, and has been working without a contract since late January.
"Regrettably, we were unable to agree on a new assignment for her," an NBC News spokeswoman told me yesterday. "We thank her for her hard work and wish her well."
The native Canadian was a controversial figure at NBC, where detractors spread rumors of diva-like behavior and sniped at her supposed journalistic deficiencies.
Banfield didn't try to butter up colleagues and supervisors, and instead cast herself as an enemy of the Establishment. She once showed up for anchor duties at MSNBC's Secaucus studios in New Jersey sporting a T-shirt that shouted, in garish glitter: "Starf--r."
But on camera, the message was discreetly concealed by a conservative jacket.
On Sept. 11, 2001, her dramatic reports from Ground Zero won her star status and her own nightly live show from Afghanistan and Pakistan, "A Region in Conflict" (for which she wore a burka and dyed her hair) and, later, "Ashleigh Banfield: On Location."
But in due course, her star dimmed.
Banfield's manager, Alfred Geller, told me: "Since her contract expired, we have been exploring with a variety of NBC components the possibility of future activity that would include cable and network. At the end of these explorations, we were mutually unable to come to an accommodation that was okay with everybody. It didn't work. Life marches on."
Geller said Banfield, who didn't return my calls, is looking at syndication, as well as other network and cable television possibilities. "She will be just fine, thank you very much."
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ashleighbanfield; femalegeraldo; msnbc; nbcnews; soover
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To: mhking
Isn't she the brilliant one who asked why crews didn't go check their targets for innocent civilians before firing artillery?
41
posted on
03/26/2004 8:56:11 AM PST
by
theDentist
(JOHN KERRY never saw a TAX he would not HIKE !)
To: finnman69
42
posted on
03/26/2004 8:56:26 AM PST
by
finnman69
(cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
To: jalisco555; Shermy
Ritter was scheduled to speak at a few of the colleges in NY and in the surrounding states until his side hungers at Burger King were published.
43
posted on
03/26/2004 8:57:00 AM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(Krazy Kaddaffi: "I will do whatever the Americans want. I saw what happened in Iraq. I was scared!)
To: mwl1
Normally, Buchanan is either limp or off the reservation... publicly disagrees with Bush on most issues -- particularly the economy. And he's no match for Bill Press. Some defender.It IS rather weird to watch Bill Press defend the Administration's position on many issues.
But that's what you get when you elect a left-leaning corporate neocon instead of a true conservative.
To: GSWarrior
But on camera, the message was discreetly concealed by a conservative jacket. This labeling of all things conservative or liberal has to stop.
Why? Do you think the jacket was offended?
45
posted on
03/26/2004 8:57:26 AM PST
by
fml
( You can twist perception, reality won't budge. -RUSH)
To: mhking
Does she get to keep the bus?
46
posted on
03/26/2004 8:58:12 AM PST
by
Redcoat LI
("help to drive the left one into the insanity.")
To: theDentist
I hear she is going to start a late night show with Arthur Kent...the Scud Stud.
"Paging Ms. Banfield....your 15 minutes are up....Paging Ms Banfield, your 15 minutes are up. Please insert some talent to continue...."
47
posted on
03/26/2004 8:58:39 AM PST
by
Vermont Lt
(I am not from Vermont. I lived there for four years and that was enough.)
To: Grampa Dave
Don't know but they kill two birds with 1 stone when they are paid to spew. The Liberal Plantation which is US Academia is a large Plantation with many intricate webs of reward (and I am sure punishment if you do not plow the furrowed fields for the Plantation owner).
Commencement 2004:
University of Pennsylvania- Bono : http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/4056acbc4429f
Middlebury College- Christopher Reeve
Berkely- Ted Koppel: http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=14574
Lani Guinier University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/03/1113commence.html
Smith College- Judy Woodruff: http://www.smith.edu/commencement/speaker.php
Cornell= Clinton
Duke- Albright
Wellsley- Toni Morrison: http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Releases/2004/030504.html
Hobart and William Smith: Chris Matthews
48
posted on
03/26/2004 9:03:00 AM PST
by
Helms
To: mhking
Big Deal. Write it down now. She is already at the Salon, going back to blonde. IN 2 years, she will be the Second wife of some Dem politicain, and in 25 months, she will be back on the air....lol
49
posted on
03/26/2004 9:05:59 AM PST
by
hobbes1
(Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you don't have to" ;)
To: Helms; Miss Marple
50
posted on
03/26/2004 9:10:28 AM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(Krazy Kaddaffi: "I will do whatever the Americans want. I saw what happened in Iraq. I was scared!)
To: Hand em their arse
I second your feelings on Banfield being one of the hottest women on TV. Of course, it was probably that whole "conservative librarian" look that did it for me. Here's hoping she takes the next logical step and appears in Playboy.
51
posted on
03/26/2004 9:17:55 AM PST
by
LanPB01
To: Helms
"Now she can go on a highly paid speaking tour at liberal colleges complaining about the sexist tv news industry. " She can join Bill Cosby < the Liberals touchstone in all matters of Racial Equality>as well as the touring Clintonistas.
Whoa what a racket the Liberals have put in place.
Rick Kaplan is coming to speak at Chapel Hill. Thomas Freidman comes through here often. Albright is giving the Commencement address at Duke this spring. The SPEW just won't stop.
Here's the scary part: The spew would stop if people didn't want to hear it. Just like the garbage on TV. The supply is driven by the demand.
52
posted on
03/26/2004 9:23:51 AM PST
by
brownsfan
(I didn't leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.)
To: KellyAdmirer
On 4/24/03, Ashleigh Banfield made a speech at Kansas State University, which resulted in her being reprimanded by her bosses at MSNBC in what was characterized as "A trip to the woodshed." In the speech, she criticized MSNBC for hiring Michael Savage, mentioned that Fox News had taken viewers away from MSNBC and CNN and criticized the news media for wrapping themselves in the American flag and patriotism. It was a foolish move for her to publicly criticize her employer, and in doing so, she sabotaged her own career at MSNBC.
To: martin_fierro
"Starf--r." Starfour? Starfurr? You need two more letters to decode this high class babe's T-shirt message. They are "-" and "-".
To: Helms; Miss Marple
55
posted on
03/26/2004 9:28:25 AM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(Krazy Kaddaffi: "I will do whatever the Americans want. I saw what happened in Iraq. I was scared!)
To: Semi Civil Servant
Oh, now I get it.
<|:)~
To: LanPB01
That is EXACTLY IT!! The librarian thing, quiet on the outside but behind closed doors...... Hey, stop that!!!
I also would encourage her to take the next "logical step" as well!!
Comment #58 Removed by Moderator
To: 19th LA Inf
I think she was the co-anchor on the 10:00 news for the local Fox or CBS affiliate for a while (97-98??). I remember that in the usual closing banter they would talk about how Ashleigh liked to stop at night clubs on the way home and sing a few songs.
To: ken in texas
It doesn't help that she is really old-looking below the chin. Worse that Couric
60
posted on
03/26/2004 10:28:31 AM PST
by
AppyPappy
(If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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