Speaker 1: Hey, folks, A news anchor's wardrobe choices while covering the
Speaker 1: LA fires has the Internet buzzing. Some of it's funny,
Speaker 1: some of it's petty, some of it's uncalled for, but
Speaker 1: it might be giving us a little more insight into
Speaker 1: the anger, frustration, and pain people in LA are experiencing
Speaker 1: right now. With that, Welcome to this episode of Amy
Speaker 1: and TJ Rolds. We debated about getting into this conversation
Speaker 1: at all, but what we're talking about here is a
Speaker 1: guy that we know pretty well, you better than I,
Speaker 1: but a former colleague who's choice of jacket and how
Speaker 1: he was wearing it has everybody talking, So please do explain.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: So, the anchor of ABC World News tonight, David Muir,
Speaker 3: who often jumps on planes and heads straight into breaking
Speaker 3: news tragedies. I've been on those planes with him, and
Speaker 3: I've stood right next to him covering a lot of
Speaker 3: this sort of news story, and I can attest to
Speaker 3: the fact that he is a consummate professional. He takes
Speaker 3: his job very seriously, and he works very hard not
Speaker 3: just to get the information right, but to present it
Speaker 3: in the best way possible. And look, he was covering
Speaker 3: the wildfires, and there were hurricane force winds described as
Speaker 3: almost tornatic. So he sinched his jacket, as many of
Speaker 3: us have done in the field and on the set,
Speaker 3: to create a cleaner line.
Speaker 1: Wait, ropes, this is what we're talking about. This guy
Speaker 1: is covered, this is the story, guys covering the fire,
Speaker 1: people losing homes. He's standing on camera, he turns. People
Speaker 1: see that he's sensed his jacket, and they're saying, he's
Speaker 1: only doing this as a matter of vanity. That's where
Speaker 1: we are. We're not talking about this stuff. You're doing
Speaker 1: the studio. But I'm saying I'm trying to establish here
Speaker 1: that that he is being gripped for that reason. Should
Speaker 1: he be or should he not be, we'll discuss. But
Speaker 1: that's what it is. He got busted sinching his jacket.
Speaker 1: And when people do that, they're usually trying to do.
Speaker 3: What they are, trying to create a slimmer line. Look,
Speaker 3: television is one of those. It's a visual medium. And
Speaker 3: so yes, I have cinched my jacket. Have you sinched
Speaker 3: your jacket?
Speaker 1: Not once ever, and certainly not in the field. But
Speaker 1: I've had plenty of people suggested, and I've had wardrobe
Speaker 1: folks come out Janetta. If I'm wearing a sweater, She'll
Speaker 1: even offer to do it. But no, I've never thought
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 3: I'm actually I'm trying to think if I ever did
Speaker 3: it in the field. I definitely, one hundred percent did
Speaker 3: it on set. So you've got a boxy jacket, you
Speaker 3: have like.
Speaker 2: A sweater, yes, and it looks a little large.
Speaker 3: So I've had and I had a stylist and she
Speaker 3: would come up behind me and she would since I
Speaker 3: actually used a clothespin or a hairpin to since it.
Speaker 2: I didn't do it. Someone did it for me.
Speaker 3: I don't believe I've ever done it in the field,
Speaker 3: just because I've never had people to even check things out.
Speaker 3: I really thought about it, and I think maybe that's
Speaker 3: part of it too, just the thought that went into
Speaker 3: the look of something. When you have a massive tragedy
Speaker 3: unfolding behind you, with flames, people's homes, belongings, lives being lost,
Speaker 3: to even be concerned about how you look seems like
Speaker 3: a slap in the face to people who are dealing
Speaker 3: with the worst possible situation. So I understand the anger
Speaker 3: and the fact that they're hurling it at him because
Speaker 3: they by seeing that clothespin. It looks like his focus
Speaker 3: was on himself instead of on the story he was covering.
Speaker 1: That's understandable. And the son of Ozzy Osborne, Jack Osbourne,
Speaker 1: was somebody who got a lot of attention for posting
Speaker 1: this on Twitter on X and he said, nice jacket, bro,
Speaker 1: glad you look nice andce felt with those clothesline pegs
Speaker 1: while our city burns to the ground. That's kind of
Speaker 1: the sentiment. Some people are being a little funnier about it.
Speaker 1: But if you're out there in LA and you don't know,
Speaker 1: if you're on the run and you see this guy
Speaker 1: on TV and it comes off, there's no question that's
Speaker 1: it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of somebody
Speaker 1: who is going through what they're going through in LA.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I'll go further here in a second and possibly defend David,
Speaker 1: but there is no I can't explain that away. I understand,
Speaker 1: I get it. I got to understand that frustrations, but
Speaker 1: he lives out there and this guy is wait a minute,
Speaker 1: you're worried about that. Everybody has those jackets on, they're big,
Speaker 1: they're boxing. I don't know, now, what did ABC say
Speaker 1: or excuse me that there is no official statement. There
Speaker 1: is no official statement, I should make that clear, but
Speaker 1: there are rumblings out there about it why he might
Speaker 1: have done this.
Speaker 3: Well, as as we've pointed out, you know, anytime, especially
Speaker 3: when it comes to a news organization, no one's going
Speaker 3: to put their name behind it because they'd be fired
Speaker 3: if they were talking to press about people who they
Speaker 3: work with or for. But insiders inside ABC have reportedly
Speaker 3: given quotes to different news outlets or different entertainment outlets
Speaker 3: saying that yes, he's a combination of Zoolander meets Anchorman
Speaker 3: and that you're seeing the real David when you see
Speaker 3: his vanity on full display. He didn't mean for you
Speaker 3: to see it because he turned to reference burning massive
Speaker 3: flames taking over a home, and when he did the turn,
Speaker 3: you could see the clothespin. So they were kind of saying, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's been exposed something we've all known for a very
Speaker 3: long time, and now you all get to see it.
Speaker 3: So yes, people absolutely taking the opportunity to then say
Speaker 3: how they really feel about him or what they really
Speaker 3: think this means, and what people are seeing is actually
Speaker 3: what they've witnessed for years.
Speaker 1: Look, some give you a more idea of what's out there. Now.
Speaker 1: That quote I gave you was from the Twitter or
Speaker 1: that tweet we still come tweets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's X but we can say they tweet.
Speaker 1: It still tweets. David Muir of ABC cares more about
Speaker 1: how he looks than reporting the news. Mainstream media are scum.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are obviously taking advantage or
Speaker 1: taking the opportunity to take shots at the media. And
Speaker 1: it's a lot of left and right kind of stuff
Speaker 1: out there. But I mean, he gave him some low
Speaker 1: hanging group.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump Junior even jumped in saying, David Muir, the
Speaker 3: supposed moderator of my father's presidential debate who instead chose
Speaker 3: to be a participant, is so vain that as people
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles are losing everything, he used clothes pins
Speaker 3: to make his fake fireman's jacket more form fitting. Sick
Speaker 3: And then he went on to say, David Muir, Oh,
Speaker 3: is this is someone else? David Muir is a national
Speaker 3: embarrassment that's from someone else, But people are piling on,
Speaker 3: jumping on and well hurling shots at him.
Speaker 1: ABC News reporter David Muir's top priority during the fires
Speaker 1: in California was apparently looking good on TV. No matter
Speaker 1: how much you hate the media, it's not enough. These
Speaker 1: people are disgusting the other. The frustration is understandable. I mean,
Speaker 1: upset at the governor, at the mayor. They're upset at
Speaker 1: then upset of the firefighters. Those guys are out there,
Speaker 1: guys and gals are out their busts and their butts.
Speaker 1: But there's frustration to seeing your life go up in flames.
Speaker 1: Or a guy like Billy Crystal. I'm just only saying
Speaker 1: him because I remember he's talking about forty six years
Speaker 1: in a home and it's gone. Now you have people
Speaker 1: who have lost everything. They don't have anything except whatever
Speaker 1: they ran out of that house with. And for a story,
Speaker 1: it just stings. It has to hurt to some degree.
Speaker 1: But the perspective might be missing if you're just reading tweets,
Speaker 1: the perspective might be missing in that oftentimes, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if he does travel with a producer or
Speaker 1: even a wardrobe person sometimes whose job is you might
Speaker 1: be looking at your phone getting the latest, or on
Speaker 1: the phone, or looking at notes or doing something and
Speaker 1: people are pulling and plugging things onto you. The mic
Speaker 1: and the IFB and all these things. You don't even
Speaker 1: know what's happening to you, and someone could have made
Speaker 1: the decision to just let me do this with the jacket.
Speaker 1: We just don't know. But just a little context. The
Speaker 1: guy works his butt off. If you don't like what
Speaker 1: he did, find it just this is a lot to
Speaker 1: be piling on to.
Speaker 2: This, That's what I was trying to allude to.
Speaker 3: I guess starting it out just with the perspective of
Speaker 3: knowing him personally and knowing how hard he works and
Speaker 3: how much he does care about the stories he reports on,
Speaker 3: and also making note of the fact that this is
Speaker 3: a visual medium.
Speaker 2: And I was telling you, you.
Speaker 3: Know, look when we're when we're in tragedies and I'm
Speaker 3: out in the field, and I have certainly covered more
Speaker 3: than I even care to remember of the worst possible
Speaker 3: types of stories. You know, I ended up slicking my
Speaker 3: hair back in a pony tail because I didn't want
Speaker 3: to have a distracted like hair style like you know
Speaker 3: you where I was aware at least, and I think
Speaker 3: most of us are aware that heavy makeup and overdone
Speaker 3: hair and worrying about your wardrobe when you're talking about
Speaker 3: mass shootings or a yes. In this case, a massive
Speaker 3: wildfire taking lives and homes and property and destroying people's.
Speaker 2: Entire communities.
Speaker 3: You would hope that journalists wouldn't really be thinking too
Speaker 3: much about how they look in that moment and care
Speaker 3: more about getting crucial, potentially life saving information to folks.
Speaker 2: And at least, I mean, you think about this.
Speaker 3: If you're home, you've had to evacuate, you don't know
Speaker 3: what's going on, you can't get close to your home.
Speaker 3: A lot of these folks who are directly affected are
Speaker 3: watching the TV NonStop. They are glued to their televisions
Speaker 3: trying to see if they can get a glimpse of
Speaker 3: their community, their street, their friends and neighbors, and their homes.
Speaker 3: So they're watching and looking at every detail, trying to
Speaker 3: see if they can get an idea of what's going on.
Speaker 3: And then they see someone who is supposed to be
Speaker 3: there helping get that information to them seemingly care more
Speaker 3: about his presentation and how he looks than what's actually
Speaker 3: going on behind him.
Speaker 2: And I think you know, and I understand that, and
Speaker 2: I know you have to take great care.
Speaker 3: I have taken great care as a journalist to not
Speaker 3: seem as though I'm concerned about how I look in
Speaker 3: that moment. We all look different on the scene of
Speaker 3: these sorts of tragedies than.
Speaker 2: We do on the set.
Speaker 3: On the set, we've got hair and makeup and nice
Speaker 3: suits and fitted clothing. But when you're out there, it's
Speaker 3: just a very different environment.
Speaker 1: But you use several words that I would love to unpack,
Speaker 1: as you hate when it's said, but you said, we
Speaker 1: said the word seemingly care more about use the word
Speaker 1: if an acre is worried, more about how they look,
Speaker 1: the seeming and the worry that coming off, as if
Speaker 1: you care about your appearance, versus caring about your appearance
Speaker 1: every single person. Every place I've ever been, I've been
Speaker 1: out there in the middle of a tornado or something,
Speaker 1: and in the mids's about to go live, and I
Speaker 1: walk past the live truck and I'll still kind of
Speaker 1: look in at the reflection out of the window, just
Speaker 1: to see if my jacket is on straight or something.
Speaker 1: So the idea that people are even in the midst
Speaker 1: of a tragedy or about to anchor a main evening broadcast,
Speaker 1: wouldn't give a damn about how they look. It's just
Speaker 1: unreasonable now to what degree should they care is the issue,
Speaker 1: and then to what degree should they come off like
Speaker 1: they caring is then a separate issue. But of course
Speaker 1: he has to pay attention and care about how he
Speaker 1: looks before he goes on TV. But if you saw
Speaker 1: a guy your house is on fire, and you see
Speaker 1: a guy over there with a mirror brushing his hair,
Speaker 1: and the I'm doing all this before he goes on
Speaker 1: and reports about your tragedy, that's gonna pis you off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes total sense. Yeah, it was funny when
Speaker 2: you said that.
Speaker 3: I remember I have because when you're out in the field,
Speaker 3: you don't necessarily well, you don't have any of the
Speaker 3: normal sorts of either the people to help you make
Speaker 3: sure you're not disheveled. So yeah, I've actually looked in
Speaker 3: the lens of the camera before I went on because
Speaker 3: it's slightly reflective to make sure that my hair wasn't
Speaker 3: sticking out crazy, especially if there are high winds. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've reported on too many hurricanes to even count, And yeah,
Speaker 3: you've got winds whipping and rain in your face, Like,
Speaker 3: do I have mascara like falling down my face? Is
Speaker 3: my hair like in a crazy place? Because or like
Speaker 3: literally the reflection of the camera lens, just to make
Speaker 3: sure that I'm not looking disheveled.
Speaker 2: I was telling you this.
Speaker 3: Someone once said, don't ever apologize for just doing that
Speaker 3: one last check to make sure you don't.
Speaker 2: Have something sticking out or something looking.
Speaker 3: Strange, because if you do, this is the truth, folks
Speaker 3: at home who are watching will go, oh my god,
Speaker 3: look at her hair or what's going on with her face,
Speaker 3: and they won't hear anything you said. And so I
Speaker 3: was told, just make sure your appearance isn't a distraction.
Speaker 3: And so that was kind of the lane I tried
Speaker 3: to stay in when I was covering these things. It's
Speaker 3: not about looking good or looking glamorous in any way,
Speaker 3: or looking like thin, whatever you want an adjective you.
Speaker 2: Want to put on there.
Speaker 3: It was about not being a distraction. And that was
Speaker 3: kind of what I always thought about before. I want
Speaker 3: to just make sure nothing I'm wearing or nothing about
Speaker 3: my appearance is distracting.
Speaker 1: Good or bad. Actually, because there have been some distractions
Speaker 1: that people have done, like that's not a good jacket.
Speaker 1: Why does she go with that? Like intentional?
Speaker 3: They'll be just appropriate.
Speaker 2: Clothing is a huge part of it.
Speaker 3: You don't want to wear a bright color when you're
Speaker 3: talking about something sad like. There were all these things
Speaker 3: that go into consideration when you're covering things that are
Speaker 3: heavy and tough and scary and important.
Speaker 2: You don't your.
Speaker 3: Clothing choices, how you wear your hair, how much makeup
Speaker 3: you have on. All of that is considered before you
Speaker 3: get in front of the camera.
Speaker 1: I do want to give credit to this. I don't
Speaker 1: know who this young lady is. I should looked at
Speaker 1: a profile. Maybe she was a comedian, but her response
Speaker 1: in a tweet about was oh my god, leave David
Speaker 1: and you're alone. His felt figure and Miss America hands
Speaker 1: maybe the only sliver of happiness people see amongst the
Speaker 1: horrific devastation of this catastrophe. Soften the blow, people, soften
Speaker 1: the blow.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's some humorous perspective there. And the one
Speaker 3: thing I you and I have discussed this, the one
Speaker 3: thing that did not ring true for me that I
Speaker 3: didn't love seeing as a potential response or defense, was
Speaker 3: that somehow using the clothes pin to tighten his jacket
Speaker 3: helped with the audio that for me didn't really ring true.
Speaker 3: I have been in plenty of hurricanes, I know you
Speaker 3: have done a lot of tornado coverage in your days.
Speaker 2: I've never ever pinned a jacket because of the wind.
Speaker 3: You could have maybe I've actually had like a necklace
Speaker 3: or something kind of bang on the you know that.
Speaker 3: Can you take that necklace off because it might hit
Speaker 3: the microphone? Certainly there are things to conc with the microphone,
Speaker 3: and a wind guard.
Speaker 2: Is really usually good enough.
Speaker 3: So we all, when we're all reporting in whether of
Speaker 3: any kind, our amazing audio guys and gals will give
Speaker 3: us a windscreen and you put that on top of
Speaker 3: the mic, or if you're holding a mic.
Speaker 1: It wind what was the wind gonna it is gonna
Speaker 1: be flapping too loud?
Speaker 3: That is that is simply a response that did not
Speaker 3: ring true for me, and that was I think unfortunate
Speaker 3: because that seemed like a desperate attempt to explain away
Speaker 3: something that we all know the truth to. He wanted
Speaker 3: his or someone wanted his jacket to not be his
Speaker 3: boxy for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you directly, if he asked for it
Speaker 1: to be pinned for that specific reason, should we still
Speaker 1: be taking him.
Speaker 3: I don't think he deserves the hate he's getting. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm looking at some of the stuff on Twitter, the
Speaker 3: new face of being a douche. The next one, as
Speaker 3: I've been saying for a while now, David Muir is
Speaker 3: a douche. I don't think that that is fair or
Speaker 3: appropriate in any way, and especially from people who've never
Speaker 3: actually had to be on television every day where your image,
Speaker 3: your looks are constantly being critiqued or acknowledged, and so
Speaker 3: you might have a hyper awareness about that, and so
Speaker 3: he wanted his jacket to fit better.
Speaker 2: That is what I believe happened.
Speaker 1: And both of those things can be true. That you
Speaker 1: care about your appearance while also caring about the story
Speaker 1: you're doing and busting your butt on the story you're doing.
Speaker 1: Those both two things can be true. But we have
Speaker 1: to I still will acknowledge. It looks bad now, understand
Speaker 1: for people, especially those out there who are going through
Speaker 1: that hell. I understand, you know what.
Speaker 3: I wanted to share something that I experienced very early
Speaker 3: on in my career, and it's not exactly the same situation,
Speaker 3: but it makes sense to me. When people are living
Speaker 3: through the worst moments of their life, that's all they're
Speaker 3: thinking about, that's all they care about, and that's understandable.
Speaker 3: I was in bond court and we were there covering
Speaker 3: and waiting for a specific prisoner to come out. He
Speaker 3: was accused of something horrific. But when you're in bond court,
Speaker 3: there are a lot of people, family members even, who
Speaker 3: are there waiting to see their loved ones come out
Speaker 3: because they've been accused of a crime. We were in
Speaker 3: the hallway, a bunch of US reporters and cameramen waiting
Speaker 3: for this particular person to come out, and you know,
Speaker 3: someone had told a joke about something that happened the
Speaker 3: night before, and we were laughing. We were just in
Speaker 3: our own world and we were walking into the bond court,
Speaker 3: into the courtroom, and I was laughing at something that
Speaker 3: someone else had said. A woman stood up and said,
Speaker 3: you think this is funny, You think this is funny.
Speaker 3: And I think she believed that we were there for
Speaker 3: her or her loved one, and she actually jumped on me,
Speaker 3: knocked me to the ground and almost threw a punch
Speaker 3: in my face, except for the bailiff was able to
Speaker 3: pull her out and the judge got involved, and anyway,
Speaker 3: it was fine. I didn't get hit, but with my
Speaker 3: heart was pounding, I was just like, how dare this woman?
Speaker 3: And then I stepped back to think about it in
Speaker 3: her mind, in her world, we were laughing when she
Speaker 3: was in pain. We weren't being considerate of where she
Speaker 3: was in her life, in her world in that courtroom,
Speaker 3: and it was lost on me in that moment I
Speaker 3: wasn't on camera. But still sometimes as journalist we don't
Speaker 3: realize just how impacted people feel when they see something
Speaker 3: that we're doing that we don't realize is somehow, in
Speaker 3: some way offending them.
Speaker 1: I get that. I'm just going back to David and
Speaker 1: the offense. Is it still an insight told if nobody
Speaker 1: knew about it, Is he still disrespecting the community, if
Speaker 1: he made sure he looked a certain way or the
Speaker 1: way he wanted to look on TV? I don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to that. I'm just saying those are the
Speaker 1: things we are now debating in the that Like you say,
Speaker 1: to your point, that woman in that room, these folks
Speaker 1: in California, this is this is my time, in one
Speaker 1: of the worst days of my life, and whatever's going
Speaker 1: on in your world right now, you need to be
Speaker 1: respectful because I'm having the worst day than you are.
Speaker 2: And you know what I think that's what it is.
Speaker 3: You nailed it, and we all see things through our
Speaker 3: own lens. David sees things through his lens that he
Speaker 3: wanted to be presentable, He wanted to look his best,
Speaker 3: even though obviously people were dealing with their worst. People
Speaker 3: who are the victims of this fire are seeing things
Speaker 3: through their perspective, through their lens, and they it's it's
Speaker 3: unthinkable to them that someone could even be considering their
Speaker 3: appearance in the middle of all of this chaos, in
Speaker 3: the middle of all of this tragedy, and that's unthinkable
Speaker 3: to them. But it's I think we can all give
Speaker 3: each other a break if you acknowledge that this is
Speaker 3: about perspective, It's about your frame of reference, and the
Speaker 3: fire victim's frame of reference is understandably vastly different than
Speaker 3: David or any other reporter's frame of reference.
Speaker 2: They have a job to do.
Speaker 1: Well, folks, stay with us here when we come back, Robes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you this, would this story be
Speaker 1: different if that anchor was a woman? All right, Welcome back, folks.
Speaker 1: Here discussing what is being discussed in many circles, in
Speaker 1: many places on social media, on the Internet, and very
Speaker 1: much a fiery way. A lot of people talking about
Speaker 1: ABC News anchor David Muir was seen on air having
Speaker 1: the back of his fire jacket, since people thought he
Speaker 1: cared more about his appearance than the people who are
Speaker 1: losing everything there, but just was a bad look at
Speaker 1: the time. But robe we were talking about this, I
Speaker 1: think in an elevator earlier today, what if this story,
Speaker 1: what if that had been a woman, a female anchor
Speaker 1: out there covering the same story, the same spot, doing
Speaker 1: the same thing, and that had been seen on the air,
Speaker 1: You think this would be any different.
Speaker 2: I do think it would be different.
Speaker 3: I do think that people almost it sounds awful, but
Speaker 3: I think they expect women to be vain in a
Speaker 3: way that they don't expect men to be. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know, from makeup to hair, you know, hair and makeup,
Speaker 3: that's something that women do to present themselves in a
Speaker 3: more glamorous way or in a more beautiful way. So
Speaker 3: to since your jacket would make sense because that's also
Speaker 3: you doing kind of the same thing as putting lipstick on,
Speaker 3: putting you know. Someone even pointed out in their criticism
Speaker 3: of David that he looked like he had a bunch
Speaker 3: of makeup on, So no one would say that to
Speaker 3: a woman.
Speaker 2: No one would say that.
Speaker 3: To a woman who was covering a tragedy and had
Speaker 3: mascara on. I've even noted, you know, I've seen women
Speaker 3: reporting on very serious stories with massive false eyelashes on.
Speaker 2: No one points that out.
Speaker 3: So I do think if we're all being honest, I
Speaker 3: don't think that people might have pointed it out, and
Speaker 3: it might have been a little something. I don't think
Speaker 3: we would have seen anywhere near the level of hate
Speaker 3: and vitriol that we have seen leveled or hurled against
Speaker 3: David if it were a female.
Speaker 1: Even possible this would have been a non story if
Speaker 1: it was one.
Speaker 2: I think it is possible.
Speaker 3: I think it is absolutely possible that it would be
Speaker 3: a non story if it were a woman. A man
Speaker 3: seeming to be vain for whatever reason is far more
Speaker 3: offensive than a woman appearing to be vain.
Speaker 2: That's my opinion.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Well, I've I couldn't get my seeing,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing the story. Honestly, It's never crossed my
Speaker 1: mind to do anything like that. When I've been out
Speaker 1: in the field my entire career. I've not just reportings
Speaker 1: at times, I've anchored tons of stuff all over the
Speaker 1: world and been on the air on anchor type situations
Speaker 1: in coats, and I have never crossed my mind to
Speaker 1: do that. I've been in fire jackets, I've been in
Speaker 1: I've never thought to do that. That's fine, So it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to understand. I guess some difference in vanity.
Speaker 1: You know this about why I'll go out in the
Speaker 1: field no makeup, they would always offer. I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to even going on the air if
Speaker 1: I'm just doing a story and not if I'm anchoring,
Speaker 1: they'll put some powder on me. But if I am
Speaker 1: just gonna step out and do a report that day,
Speaker 1: I'm only going to be on a second on air
Speaker 1: for a minute or so, no need for makeup.
Speaker 3: But you're you're the rarity because I have worked with
Speaker 3: plenty of men in this business for decades, and almost
Speaker 3: all of them wear makeup.
Speaker 1: Well, I were make up when I anchor, So I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to.
Speaker 3: Say studio lights, studio lights, Okay, Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 3: wear minimal makeup in the field, minimal because of that
Speaker 3: very reason.
Speaker 1: But to that point, it always seemed to me that
Speaker 1: there was I work in TV. So I understand seeing
Speaker 1: a guy where they're putting on a lot of makeup,
Speaker 1: putting on his own makeup or caring about his makeup,
Speaker 1: or in the mirror with his hair is just the
Speaker 1: normal thing to me. So I don't think anything of
Speaker 1: it when I see guys doing things like that that
Speaker 1: come off as vain.
Speaker 3: I don't think because we've seen it for so many
Speaker 3: years in newsrooms and out in the field. I've witnessed
Speaker 3: it myself now I like I have. Yeah, I'm with
Speaker 3: you in the field. I I don't think I've ever
Speaker 3: thought about pinning a jacket or any of that sort
Speaker 3: of thing. However, I have had in the studio. More
Speaker 3: often than not, it's someone else who says, can I
Speaker 3: pin this jack for you? Because they're seeing that it
Speaker 3: doesn't look right or it's not hanging correctly. I mean, look,
Speaker 3: when you see mannequins when you're walking down the street,
Speaker 3: the outfits look so amazing, right, and then you turn around,
Speaker 3: you get into the store, and you see they all
Speaker 3: have been pinned because it looks better, It looks it
Speaker 3: makes you look thinner, it makes you look more athletic.
Speaker 3: You know, that is what you see in all of
Speaker 3: the storefront windows. None of those clothing almost always are
Speaker 3: just hanging. They are pinned and designed to look and
Speaker 3: fit a certain way.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 3: I've had people offer to and do that for me
Speaker 3: on the set, but in the field, I just don't.
Speaker 3: I never had people. I wasn't important enough to have
Speaker 3: people in the field with me. So perhaps if I
Speaker 3: were in the field and I had a wardrobe person
Speaker 3: traveling with me and they said let me pin this,
Speaker 3: I'd probably say, okay, you know best.
Speaker 2: You're looking at it.
Speaker 3: You know. I've had them look at the camera and
Speaker 3: then come around and say you need this. So that
Speaker 3: very well may have been what happened with David. Someone
Speaker 3: who he traveled with, who is responsible for him looking
Speaker 3: a certain way he can't trust, yeah, and he might
Speaker 3: not certainly could not be focused on that. I think
Speaker 3: that's the criticism that instead of being focused on what
Speaker 3: was happening, he was focused on how he looked.
Speaker 2: But it could be people.
Speaker 3: It could be that people around him were looking at
Speaker 3: that for him and making that decision on his behalf.
Speaker 3: But please just acknowledge that it was an aesthetic. It
Speaker 3: was not about the audio. That's all I ask because
Speaker 3: you know what, I think people know when they hear
Speaker 3: something that's true, and they know when they hear something
Speaker 3: that sounds like a phony defense. And that did sound
Speaker 3: like a phony defense. Now it did not come from David,
Speaker 3: to be clear, it came from a source, which yes,
Speaker 3: I'll roll my eyes on that, but someone trying to
Speaker 3: give another explanation other than vanity why that might have
Speaker 3: been taking place.
Speaker 1: This story will be you've forgotten soon enough, but it's
Speaker 1: in the cycle now, and not for no reason. I
Speaker 1: get it. I mean, some of the stuff is silly,
Speaker 1: and it's petty, and it's unnecessary. Some people add a
Speaker 1: little levity to it. I don't mind that necessarily, but
Speaker 1: a legitimate frustration at seeing something like that is understandable.
Speaker 1: Can't take any issue with anybody who who's wondering if
Speaker 1: their home is still standing and looking up at this
Speaker 1: gallo TV and that's just a bad look, period, point blank.
Speaker 1: But we don't know exactly what happened. We don't exactly
Speaker 1: know who asked for it and why and all that.
Speaker 1: But even if it was to make it look a
Speaker 1: little better, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's hard for a lot of us to know
Speaker 3: how the sausage is made. You know that people say
Speaker 3: you don't want to know. You know, this is common practice.
Speaker 3: It just is behind the scenes. And when you are
Speaker 3: at a certain level and you do have enough people
Speaker 3: around you, you do trust their calls sometime in those
Speaker 3: moments about what's best and what's not best. And you
Speaker 3: know what, I love something you pointed out earlier, which
Speaker 3: was if no one had ever seen the clothespin, if
Speaker 3: you had just seen his fitted jacket, it wouldn't have
Speaker 3: been a story, it wouldn't have been an issue, it
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been anything. I don't believe anyone would have
Speaker 3: picked up on or pointed out. So it was just
Speaker 3: the turn and the exposure of what was really going
Speaker 3: on in the back that created the look that you
Speaker 3: saw in the front. And that's unfortunate. And I you know,
Speaker 3: you google David Muir and the first thing you see
Speaker 3: is David Muir fire jacket, you know. And it will
Speaker 3: go away and it will get better, and we understand
Speaker 3: what headlines are. But I just wanted to say that
Speaker 3: it is a shame because I do think that he
Speaker 3: is an excellent reporter and puts himself out there, puts
Speaker 3: himself in plenty of and has put himself in plenty.
Speaker 1: Of situations, works really.
Speaker 3: Hard, tirelessly to make sure that people understand what's going on,
Speaker 3: to bring people the latest and greatest and important information.
Speaker 3: So I just I would hate for him to somehow
Speaker 3: appear as though he has no value, no journalistic integrity.
Speaker 2: That's not fair.
Speaker 3: This is something that was pointed out and something that
Speaker 3: people can have their feelings about. But I would hate
Speaker 3: to think that one moment defines an entire career or
Speaker 3: just puts into question someone's integrity. I think that's the
Speaker 3: hard pill to swallow for him and for people who
Speaker 3: have worked alongside him, that's not fair. I would just
Speaker 3: say it's not fair to take one moment or just
Speaker 3: the fact that he is yes concerned about how he
Speaker 3: looks in front of the camera, and that's true. And
Speaker 3: I cared about how I looked in front of the camera.
Speaker 1: And every single person you have ever seen on TV.
Speaker 1: Folks cares about what they look like on camera. Even
Speaker 1: if you look up at them and say, wow, they
Speaker 1: look a mess, they still cared about what they looked like.
Speaker 1: Every single person. If this is bothering you that much
Speaker 1: about these clips, y'all couldn't handle so many other stuff
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that goes on as you don't see,
Speaker 1: so many tricks and this and to make this look
Speaker 1: better and prop this up and ooh, it's crazy behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, and we're we're.
Speaker 3: You know, David Muir is a human being, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure he will not be doing this again.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure every single reporter who has.
Speaker 3: Seen this happen thinks, WHOA, I am absolutely not going
Speaker 3: to do this again.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've stood on boxes to be taller.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: There are lots of things you do for an esthetic
Speaker 3: on the television so that one person isn't super short
Speaker 3: and one person isn't super tall, Like there are lots
Speaker 3: of things that you don't see at home that we're
Speaker 3: doing that if you actually took a we call it
Speaker 3: a dirty shot, but a shot of all the equipment
Speaker 3: and all the things that are happening, the bounce lights
Speaker 3: that are on you to make you look better, you know,
Speaker 3: so that you don't look harsh. I mean, there are
Speaker 3: all sorts of tricks and aesthetics that are going on
Speaker 3: behind the scenes to make the reporter look more pleasant,
Speaker 3: perhaps even in incredibly unpleasant circum stances.
Speaker 1: But folks out there in California. I mean, we are
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on it, We're thinking about you constantly.
Speaker 1: This is a historic tragedy at this point. And hats
Speaker 1: off to all those reporters out there who are in
Speaker 1: some very dangerous situations. We've seen, I guess Nick Watson
Speaker 1: one that's gotten a lot of attention, almost getting hit
Speaker 1: by debris while he was out there reporting. And they
Speaker 1: are just those hot spots. These things can pop up anywhere,
Speaker 1: so even it's not a fire right next to him,
Speaker 1: they're still under threat. Always applaud the reporters who put
Speaker 1: themselves in harm's way and covering these stories.
Speaker 3: And they are the lens by which people see what's happening.
Speaker 3: They are when you hear these stories and when you
Speaker 3: see these stories, and these reporters who are bringing them
Speaker 3: to you, and not just the reporters, the cameramen, the
Speaker 3: audio camera people. I shouldn't say cameramen, photographers, maybe that's
Speaker 3: a better way to put it. The audio personnel, the producers,
Speaker 3: the live truck operators, the SAT truck operators, all of
Speaker 3: the people who who are there away from their families,
Speaker 3: working crazy long hours. It is to make sure that
Speaker 3: all of us who aren't there can see what's happening.
Speaker 3: It inspires people to open their wallets, It inspires people
Speaker 3: to help, It sends prayer chains a buzz. You know,
Speaker 3: all of this information is super important and you have
Speaker 3: to have those folks on the ground bringing it to you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they may not be saving lives directly, of course, but
Speaker 3: they are helping get really important information to people who
Speaker 3: need it the most and also letting all of us
Speaker 3: know how we can help, and that's all incredibly important
Speaker 3: in times like these and tragedies like these.
Speaker 1: So, folks, we always, as always, we appreciate you spending
Speaker 1: some time with us. We will see you back here
Speaker 1: on Amy and TJ soon enough, but will of course
Speaker 1: continue to see you for the daily morning run. Well,
Speaker 1: for now, I'm TJ Holt.
Speaker 2: And I'm Amy Roboch. Have a great day, everyone,