Krista Roberts

When I'm out cruising for news, I want both a rudder & an anchor.

In the 1980s, Kansas City's KSHB experimented with an "anchorless" newscast, producing a nightly 15-minute newsbrief called "41 Express." Featuring a series of video stories strung together with a disembodied voice narrating, it was supposed to be edgy and ground-breaking -- just the kind of thing the station thought hip, young viewers wanted.

But the station missed the mark. It discovered that with enough rocks (stories) you could build a pretty good wall (newscast), but without the mortar (anchor), it just didn't hold together. So the now-defunct "41 Express" is left to Wikipedia lore.

I know we've come a long way since the '80s. I have no desire to return to "mall bangs","parachute pants" or anchorless news. Anchors play a substantial role in the news flow.

That said, I have a big problem with anchor intros. I can't stand the sloppy way most are written. If I got a dime for every anchor intro that ended with, so and so "has the story," I'd never have to work again.

That isn't the way it should be. The anchor intro is the start of the story. It should be the first thing a reporter writes. All too often, as Sir Dropham Pants points out, it isn't.

Anchors are there for a reason. They guide us through the news like a rudder guides a boat. Get rid of them and news consumers may still be able to steer, but it's going to be a lot more work.