Ashleigh Banfield Joins ABC News

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In 2001 and 2002 Ashleigh Banfield was a hot correspondent for MSNBC and its parent, NBC. Banfield’s name was talked up as heir-apparent to Katie Couric and eventually Tom Brokaw.

Banfield was a star reporter from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, talking to Americans covered with ash and dust, after running away from a crashing North Tower.

A few days later, Ashleigh Banfield was anchoring “A Region in Conflict” from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ms. Banfield is widely considered within NBC News to be unusually gifted in front of the camera, with the sort of confidence and genuine delivery that is shared by an elite few in television news,” reported the New York Times.

Not everyone liked listening to the brainiac Banfield, a naturalized US citizen born in Canada. Because she talked to Arabs about the war from their perspective, she was considered to be unpatriotic by some, making her the target of other newscasters and pundits.

Her most virulent critic, the conservative talk-radio star Michael Savage, hosted a weekly TV show on Banfield’s own network. Incredibly, on the air, Savage called her “the mind-slut with a big pair of glasses” who “looks like she went from porno into reporting.”

Stunned, Banfield complained but her bosses did nothing.

Increasingly concerned about the highly patriotic coverage of the Iraq war, Banfield made several public comments that got her in very big trouble.

Ashleigh Banfield Comments on Her Interview with Iman Abu Hamza

The most ironic of Banfield’s observations turned out to be this: “So many voices were silent in this war.… Free speech is a wonderful thing, it’s what we fight for, but the minute it’s unpalatable we fight against it for some reason.”

NBC removed Banfield from the air and put her in a broom closet. For days she arrived at work with no desk, asking where she should sit that day. NBC refused to let her out of her contract. 

The experience didn’t break Banfield. Fast-forward a marriage, two kids, and a gig at Court TV since 2005. The charismatic newscaster is losing her job at Court TV, one of 65 being cut at Time Warner’s truTV.

This is not the end of the Ashleigh Banfield story.

Without advising what she will be doing, but saying that she will not replace Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America,” ABC News has confirmed that Banfield will be joining the network in early 2010. via Media Bistro

Knowing what they’re getting into, ABC News said:  “We like Ashleigh Banfield and admire her work.” 

Ashleigh Banfield Predicting WTC7 Collapse

I never knew what happened to media superstar Banfield. When the MSNBC anchor left the air, it was swift and with little comment. Her story is well told in Truth and Consequences in Moffley Ledia, via Huff Po.

This story is a lesson in how a high-profile, talented woman can tough it out in the workplace, staying professional in truly adverse circumstances.

As a devoted Ashleigh Banfield watcher,  I believed she was headed for a great career in TV journalism. And then pouf! It all ended.

But perhaps not. Good luck Ashleigh. We’ll be watching you. Anne