Are News Anchors The Best Investigative Reporters?
An investigative reporter and a news anchor are two separate people who carry out two distinct and separate functions. The investigative reporter is the person pounding the pavement, following up leads, and often putting themselves in harms way in order to capture an enthralling story and bring it to the newspapers, TVs, or radios of the general population. The investigative reporters are the workhorses. They are the people in the journalistic trenches who are always searching for the next big headline or breaking news story. It is their job to investigate. Most of the time they are behind the scenes.
The investigative report-s job is different than the news anchor. The news anchor is the person in front of the camera. As the name implies, the news anchor does what the job suggests: anchors the news. The news anchor is the person sitting at the news desk at six o-clock; they are the people who bring the audience the news. The news anchor is a talking head; they are a representation of the news. However, the news anchor may not have had anything to do with gathering the news. Some news anchors are investigative reporters, but not all of them.