'Anchorwoman': Can Anyone Do the News?

Aug. 20, 2007 — -- It was an experiment in news making. One CBS affiliate in Tyler, Texas, wanted to find out whether anyone could be a news anchor.

Tyler's KYTX-TV put Lauren Jones, a former swimsuit model and World Wrestling diva with no news background, in the 5 p.m. evening anchor chair.

Jones' 30-day news stint ended in July, but she now is prepared to go national as part of the Fox reality series "Anchorwoman," which documented her journey and will debut Wednesday.

Jones said today on "Good Morning America" she hoped the job served as a platform to launch her journalism career.

"Hopefully I'm on the track to becoming a credible journalist," she said. "The reality of the situation is that it's something I've always wanted to do."

But some competitors believe that elevating Jones to the anchor chair was a disservice to other journalists.

"What they're doing is making a mockery of every legitimate local news station in the country, " said Brad Streit, general manager of competitor KLTV-TV.

KYTX-TV general manager Phil Hurley disagreed.

"I found people thinking we took Lauren out of a car and took her bathing suit off of her and made her the 6 [p.m.] and 10 [p.m.] anchor," he said. "That's just not true."

Jones said she did not entirely understand why so many people were flustered over the situation.

"I don't really see what the big deal is," she said. "A lot of people come from nontraditional backgrounds and go into news."

The experience has taught Jones just what goes into being a newsperson. She said she learned good television journalists go out into the field to cover the news and report it to viewers.

She said the most difficult part of the job was building credibility.

While the experience on the job was real, Jones admitted that some portions of the reality show were scripted.

"Certain situations were crafted," she said.

But she said that didn't change how serious she was about her job.

"There were a lot of skeptics coming in," Jones said. "They sort of came around toward the end."