Hold The Curry

Why does Nightly News insist on using Ann Curry as a substitute anchor? To put it bluntly, she's not up to the task. I understand that being a news reader takes a certain amount of skill. Not everyone can do it. But on the other hand, it's not exactly brain surgery. The title is self-explanatory. News reader. Read the news. The words come across the teleprompter, and the news reader reads them. But Curry can't seem to manage this task. Each time she anchors, Curry commits a litany of flubs, gaffes and mispronunciations. She often skips syllables, merges words or omits them altogether. On Friday's broadcast, the phrase "Obama administration" became "Obaministration". When she introduced Pete Williams, the phrase "justice correspondent" became "just correspon". She regularly pronounces "Brian Williams" as "Brian Wi'ms", and "CNBC" becomes "CBC". Curry also regularly cuts off other NBC correspondents because she's so eager to get the microphone back. On Friday, she cut off Trish Regan in mid-sentence. And what's with her obsequious thank-yous? I once heard her thank Kelly O'Donnell three times in five seconds. NBC seems to have no shortage of young attractive anchor-types with good hair. So why do they continue to use Ann Curry?