We call them Twinkies. You ve seen them on television<br > acting the news， modeling and fracturing the news<br > while you wonder whether they ve read the news--or if<br > they ve blow-dried their brains， too. I make my living<br > as a reporter and sometimes-anchorwoman on network<br > television and， like almost everyone in my business，<br > I ve an overdeveloped ego and a case of galloping am-<br >bition. Some of my colleagues want to be The Anchor-<br >man on the Mount. Others see themselves as the Ace<br >Reporter. Because of 60 Minutes， there s a whole herd<br >of them determined to be The Grand Inquisitor， and<br >because of the way ratings affect our jobs， a heady<br >number want only to be The Friendliest Anchor on the<br >Block. At least one wants to be Jesus. Me， I just didn t<br >want to be thought of as a Twinkie.<br > By 1978， I was sure I d escaped， that<br >breed of television journalist， that I was kr<br >um， skill. After all， wasn t I in New York t<br >coanchor the NBC News magazine Weeket<br >everybody say Weekend was a writers pro~<br >be a hell of a writer. And didn t everyboc<br >end was a program where eloquent use<br >counted as much as words? I must be a visL<br >was clear: using nothing but my little w~<br >tures， I would push the frontiers of televis~<br >only trouble， as I saw it， was that too r<br >failed to spot how special I was. They see1<br >that because I was a television anchorwom<br >a Twinkie.<br > Take what happened with my neighl:<br >found a place to live in Greenwich Villag<br >moved in， she introduced herself and aske.<br >I told her about Weekend， how fine it was，<br >was， and when I was done， she said， "O1~<br >mean you re a television anchorwoman.<br >dear."<br > She said I must meet a certain tenant in<br >because the tenant and I would have so<br >about. I asked what the tenant did and wa<br >the moment the tenant was cutting ha<br >dresser? This woman wasn t paying attel<br >clined， explaining I couldn t see how the<br >had much to say to each other， not that I i<br >against cutting hair but I was， I hinted， ir<br >portant stuff. My hair was not a concern;<br >nalist.<br ><br ><br >