The Girls of Network News

By Anastasia Toufexis

When Vicki Gordon, a producer of CBS's trendy magazine show West 57th, opened this month's issue of Esquire, she was horrified. There on page 142 was a scorching picture of Meredith Vieira, one of the show's on-air correspondents, seated in a chair, head shyly hidden in folded arms -- and pink taffeta skirt hiked up, revealing an extravagance of thighs and a beauty mark on the inside | of her knee. Gordon promptly called the magazine to protest. To her chagrin, she soon learned that Vieira herself was unruffled. Indeed, the 34-year-old journalist had happily posed for the photo. Says she: "I don't think they did me wrong." Nor was Vieira offended by Television Critic Tom Shales' accompanying mash note that begins by comparing her to a car ("luxurious appointments, high performance") and ends with an ecstatic gush ("Baby, baby, gimme some news!"). Her reaction: "Very sweet."

The provocative pose, however, immediately raised questions of both propriety and professionalism. "Coy, pretentious, self-conscious," sniffed Mademoiselle Editor in Chief Amy Levin Cooper. "It's about as appropriate as anchormen appearing in beefcake pictures," declared CBS News', Mike Wallace. Lamented Feminist Betty Friedan: "It reinforces the idea that to get ahead, women have to define themselves as sex objects."

Others cheered Vieira's attitude. Said Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan: "I've been defending the idea for years that you could be womanly, interested in sex and still be a serious achiever." Declared Andrew Lack, executive producer of West 57th: "I think Meredith is a fascinating woman, and that was reflected in the piece. Being sexy does not compromise your journalistic values."

Vieira is just one of a handful of successful journalists who have recently flouted their images as serious professional women by flaunting their glamour and sex appeal. NBC's Maria Shriver, decked out in a strapless evening gown, dallied mischievously with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Vanity Fair shortly before their April 1986 wedding; this month the 32-year-old TV reporter's make-up routine is featured in a stunning photo sequence in Harper's Bazaar. And CBS Superstar Diane Sawyer, 42, radiated Hollywood-star presence in a set of sultry photographs in last September's Vanity Fair.

Why are these high-powered women indulging in such dazzling displays? "I am a journalist, and I take that very seriously," explains Vieira. "But I don't think being serious means that you can't show different facets of yourself. This was for fun. That's the spirit in which I took it, and the spirit in which I wish anybody else would take it." Others, though, see subtler motivations. Sociologist Arlie Hochschild of the University of California, Berkeley cautions that some women may feel less feminine the higher up the ladder they go and thus have a greater need to advertise their attractiveness. "It's almost an unconscious way of balancing their act," she says.

Few dispute that the glitzy publicity is a slick promotional tool. "It's an opportunity to market themselves," says NBC Producer Linda Ellman, who worked with Maria Shriver in Los Angeles. "The more publicity they get, the more people are likely to watch them." The strongest detractors contend that any benefits may be illusory. By playing at being sex objects, they warn, even the most successful women run the risk of eroding their hard-earned credibility.

In fact, some network insiders believe Diane Sawyer's chances of becoming a CBS anchorwoman dimmed with publication of the glamour-girl shots. Vieira admits that she weighed the negative reception to Sawyer's pictures before accepting Esquire's proposal. Still, Vieira and others are convinced that the new sensual high gloss will not obscure established professional reputations. As TV people know too well, it is images that count most.

With reporting by D. Blake Hallanan/San Francisco and Naushad S. Mehta/New York