Invasion of the TV News Blondes!

Jack Shafer of Slate presents a very funny slideshow that illustrates the proliferation of blonde hair -- natural and otherwise -- into the TV news business. In the slideshow, he muses on why the women on network and cable news feel compelled to "hit the bottle," causing them to have mounds of unnatural-looking yellow hair atop their heads. Men aren't immune to Shafer's criticism, either: he criticizes sixty-something pundits Chris Matthews and Lou Dobbs (whom he dubs "thinning and thinninger.") for not letting themselves go dignifyingly gray. He even imagines what my girl Campbell Brown might look like if she were asked by her agent to go blonde!

The last panel, where he describes "Fox Lips" as being the new blonde, is a riot.

One thing I don't like about the article is that he doesn't give enough credit to the women who have made it to prominent news positions while steadfastly hanging on to their dark locks: Soledad O'Brien, Ann Curry, Robin Roberts, Julie Chen, Elizabeth Vargas, Natalie Morales (so far), and Hannah Storm, to name a few. But the article is entertaining, and a perfect way to kill time before you leave work.