NP body parts, the Tube, & the news

[Doug Millison]

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/05/world/05RUSS.html

excerpt:
This is "The Naked Truth," 13 minutes of usually sober and 
straight-faced newscasting delivered by young women who are either 
undressing, being undressed or already in the altogether. It is not 
so much must-see TV as can't-avert-your-eyes TV. Needless to say, 
scores of thousands of Muscovites either cannot or do not want to 
avert their
eyes: "The Naked Truth" is a hit. And for better or worse, it has 
established channel M1, a little two-studio station that not so long 
ago was the broadcast equivalent of cold kasha, as the home of the 
offbeat and unexpected. The offbeat includes another news program, 
"In Time," in which the newscasters wear clothes but describe the 
week's events with strings of double entendres, and yet another, 
"Yellowness," which covers Moscow's robust collection of rumor- 
mongering newspapers. There also is a coming Larry King-style 
program, "Natural Selection," whose title is a subtle giveaway to its 
theme. [....] But each time "The Naked Truth" also has a story line, 
albeit one fittingly brief for a 13-minute program. In one episode, 
Ms. Pecotska delivers the news while dancing an effusive tango with a 
curly-locked admirer. In another, she discovers a hole in her 
stocking, worries with it throughout the newscast, and concludes with 
both feet on the anchor desk. In still another, she plods obliviously 
through the week's events while a pair of hands undresses her from 
behind and ties a bow tie around her neck. And in a fourth, she plays 
a game of chess during the newscast - fully clothed - while the 
camera slowly pulls back to reveal a naked opponent. [....] "Why does 
this program seem funny?" he asked. "The point is, if I turn off the 
video and leave only the sound, it's absolutely no different from any 
other news program anywhere - in the U.S., in England, in Russia. If 
I turn off the sound and leave the video on, it's just an erotic 
program or a humor program.
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