Does anyone else notice an inverse relationship between the quality of mainstream news and the sexual attractiveness of the newscasters?

This lady is sexxxxx-e, but if I had heard this interview on the radio, I would not have been impressed.

This was a very quiet interview. If you have ever seen her report from Iraq (I didn't even know she covered Afghanistan), she is incredible. She is smart, knowledgeable, very direct and outspoken and compassionate. I always hope she will get more attention to her point of view (which I would characterize as sane and non-@sskissing) because she is so pretty but, perhaps she's actually dismissed more because of it??

I've never seen her outside this interview, but judging it alone I found her apparent admiration for "embedded journalism," (which is, in the end, journalism remaining carefully in the control of the US military) and the way she switches the subject from dead Iraqis to dead American soldiers to be disquieting. Not that that there are many other journalists in the US who adopt a more skeptical note, unfortunately...

This person is a true world citizen and a true national treasure.

I agree with jillbryant2003: I've seen some of Logan's reportage, and it's passionate and informed, nearly on the level of Christianne Amanpour . . . maybe even better, because it's clear Logan is touched by the events on which she reports.

This interview wasn't great, though: a couple of cringe-worthy jokes about suicide bombs, and a joke using British English that Jon either missed or chose to ignore ("Mullah Bin Shagged"). I'd love to see her become a regular guest, like Fareed Zakaria, because I think she'd warm up to the format and provide some great commentary.

Here's a link to a piece with Logan speaking at an awards dinner: http://tinyurl.com/4e8j2t. It gives a better sense of her delivery. She showed a bit of her passion at the end of her interview, as Jon was having to wrap it up.

Sorry: URL appears to be a dead link. Try http://preview.tinyurl.com/4e8j2t

She clearly doesn't belong on the Daily Show trying to sneak a little reality in, under the radar, wrapped in lame attempts at some cheap laughs.

The shows she belongs on don't exist, because News is only presented if people want to know. And they don't. I'm not sure if they ever did, I can't see how they ever will.

"I'd blow my brains out" wasn't a joke. I didn't laugh.

This isn't funny.

Hmm. Interesting reactions. She's good. So is Jon. As for the suggestion that she's sexy, that is subjective. That somehow that is relevant to her performance as a journalist, that is sexism.

Because of her hotness she would be offered a position at Fox News. But when they found out she had brains as well then she had to go look for work elsewhere.

I thought this chick was incredible. A great though sobering interview.

My sexism emerged while I watched, and I had to repress it in order to see the reporter as a reasonably objective person whose energy and awareness are fettered by the bonds of "embedded journalism," government censorship, and the limitations of main stream media.

Phidippides:

Thanks for the link- much better delivery there. Clearly, this isn't another "Fox News Bimbo", but a serious journalist.

Perhaps TDS format is not for her.

Another clip of Logan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3N-RhEoirs

In this one she rebuffs a remark made by Bill'O quite splendidly.

Zaphod - Here is one of her reports back in April which shows how she gives a lot of insight into what's going on...there might be something more recent but this is just another example of what a great reporter she is. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/06/face-the-nation-lara-logan-gains-of-the-surge-have-almost-disapeared/

Sorry for the late reply, but thanks for the follow up links.

Frenetic said:

I'd blow my brains out" wasn't a joke. I didn't laugh.

This isn't funny

I agree. What a tacky comment and not at all professional.

I agree. What a tacky comment and not at all professional.

No, I meant Logan's comment wasn't a joke as in: the reason she was compelled to say it wasn't a humorous one. Indeed, she said what she said in order to try and communicate something.

Considering all the horrors she's sure to have seen and recorded, and the way the Western industrialized world reacts to such things, does it not become obvious that "I'd blow my brains out" was more than just a flippant remark?

That people have interpreted her nigh-suicidal frustrations as just a joke is itself a symptom of the very problem she is commenting on.

Frenetic,

Okay, I understand where you're coming from. However, she could have been a tad more sophisticated in getting across her point. She's not just some silly blogger after all. And this flippant remark is more of the same. Over and over again, important topics are allotted a few minutes of some flippant remark instead of any in-depth analysis.

Yeah, perhaps she could have been more "sophisticated". But she was on the Daily Show, what was she supposed to do? I'm guessing she was just working with what little she had been given.

She witnesses the death, misery and violence the leaders of our prosperous nations have wrought up close and at her own peril. Then she attempts to report it to a populace who for the most part couldn't care less, via a conduit arbited by selfish, mindless corporations.

I think anyone who does this for a job deserves some credit, eh?

And I agree with Phidippides: "it's clear Logan is touched by the events on which she reports", and that means something to me. In a medium otherwise devoid of authentic depth and emotion, her attitude communicates something to me that words cannot.

Anyways, her remark may have been "flippant", but it had a certain truth to it, and sometimes the truth ain't "sophisticated".