Whether it is done for good reasons or bad, plastic surgery plays into the entertainment values and emphasis on looks that have infiltrated the most strict and serious levels of TV journalism, said former network reporter Cynthia Kennard, who is now an assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
"It's all blurred now," Kennard said. "It's so difficult to teach in an environment like that. Here you are in a classroom, and you try to talk to students about ethics and standards and covering your community, your police department and your legislature, and instead, the nation is talking about Greta Van Susteren's eye job. And she's talking about it, too."
In the new era of high-definition TV that shows all, surgery may become more commonplace. And now that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve Botox for cosmetic uses, more frozen faces may appear on TV as traditional cosmetics fail to rise to the challenge.
(Botox is a toxin that, when injected into the skin, temporarily paralyzes some facial muscles, thus reducing the appearance of wrinkles.)
"The medium of television doesn't hide anything," said Jeff Wald, news director at KTLA and a former consultant to newscasters. "If the lighting isn't right or someone had a bad day, you can put on as much makeup as you want, but the camera sees that stuff.
"Now with all the new digital equipment out there, you see everything."
