Letter of the Week: Young women paired with older men on TV newscasts feels insulting

I have noticed the changes in recent months to the anchor positions on our local television news. Some stations have replaced seasoned females with very young, inexperienced ones.

Presumably, these stations believe that young, attractive females are a key to higher ratings. What feels uncomfortable is the pairing of these youthful broadcasters with much older male anchors.

Some male anchors have been at their stations for 20 to 30 years, yet we do not have that experience in the female anchor seat. We all understand this is a ploy to grab higher ratings, but this reads like sex and age discrimination and it feels insulting to viewers.

National news providers have successfully employed seasoned female anchors. Are our Kansas City stations still stuck in the past century?

Julie Sherriff of Prairie Village was born on the East Coast and has lived in the area since the 1990s. She and her husband, Bill Sherriff, own a health-care recruitment and consulting company. Both graduated from area colleges. They have two children and three grandchildren.

This story was originally published June 21, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Letter of the Week: Young women paired with older men on TV newscasts feels insulting."