Hiring the Intern to Anchor (Correction)

It used to be to land a job in a Top 30 market, you needed to toil away in a small market, earn you experience and work your way up to a mid market and then maybe into the Top 30.  

Now, stations are hiring kids that haven't even completed college yet, to Anchor the news at a Top 30 station. 

Tribune owned (note: and earlier version of this story said Sinclair owned. Sinclair is buying the station) WTIC announced that they have hired University of Connecticut student Ben Goldman as their new Weekend Anchor. 

Now you might be thinking, there is no way this college kid is ready to Anchor the news in a Top 30 market. But the station says that Goldman just completed an internship with Lester Holt at NBC Nightly News.

Oh! Well then, I mean he was an intern at NBC, he's more than ready then.

I wonder if station owners would let a kid that just completed a internship at Johns Hopkins, take out a knife and start preforming surgery on him? 

My guess is no, but yet in the TV profession, you think nothing about hiring a kid to Anchor the news in a top market.

This is not a knock against Goldman, I'm sure he's a fine kid and very bright. But, just because you ran around the halls at NBC, does not make you ready to Anchor the news in Connecticut.

I don't blame this kid, I blame the way stations are run today for continuing to make a mockery of this industry.

Let's face it, you know this Goldman kid is going to be paid peanuts and that is the main reason he was hired. WTIC could have gone out and got an experienced Anchor that was ready to make the step up in markets. 

But, that would have cost them more money and there is no way Tribune, who is watching every penny before their sale is going to do that. 

And now sadly, Ben Goldman is the latest poster boy for all that is wrong in Today's TV news.

Welcome to the business Ben.