Everyday Canvas

Erin Burnett: The News Personality I Like

Talk about your favorite woman journalist either from print media or television. Why do you respond to the way she tells a story?

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If this question was asked two to three decades ago, I would have a different answer because this personality in the TV news industry was probably still a child as she is only 39 now. At this point, however, I would have to say, Erin Burnett, the host of 7 P.M. CNN show, Out Front is my favorite female news-show host.

I started watching Erin Burnett on CNBC, on Squawk on the Street, before she was in the later CNN cast. I found her style to be unique and not an imitation of any other famous news personality, as some women news people do: I can think of a very famous woman who reports business news and who is still imitating Barbara Walters, all the way to her lisp.

Erin Burnett is not like that. She is her own person as a sincere, casual, very smart, polite, and soft-spoken yet confident young woman. She was this way while on CNBC, and now, still is on CNN.

Being on TV and acquiring fame as a news personality can be exciting and fast-paced. It needs hard work, dealing with deadlines, and the ability to make the most difficult people comfortable. Then, in spite of the teleprompters, having a good memory and being authoritative in speech as an articulate speaker whose projection, enunciation, and inflection are good-to-excellent can be very attractive to viewers. Looking good on camera does help, too, especially when the person such as Erin Burnett has charisma, confidence, a pleasant voice and a special way about her.

In short, Erin Burnett has all of the above positive qualities plus superb people skills. In addition, even though she had once told her political affiliation while on CNBC, I find her to be totally free from bias and her slant toward a certain party cannot be detected in her work; this is an asset even the more famous and possibly better-paid news people lack.