CHRISTINE CRAFT: An Anchorwoman's Story

Craft burst into the public consciousness in 1983 when Metromedia fired her from her co-anchor position at KMBC in Kansas City, citing a media survey that found her ""too old, too unattractive, and not sufficiently deferential to men."" Taking her case to Federal Court, she won an award of $500,000 [her salary was only $35,000], which was promptly overruled in appeals court. Going back to court, she was awarded $350,000, only to again have her victory nullified in the appellate process. While the merits of her case are fairly self-evident, Craft does herself an injustice by taking it to print, for there she comes across as vapid. Her manuscript overflows with such drivel as ""Mother dear lent me her Saks charge card for some new outfits,"" and (upon separating from her husband) ""He wound up getting custody of our two. . .cats. . .we agreed that you shouldn't split up a good pair of cats."" Her enemies invariably appear puffing great streams of cigar smoke, or with ""enthusiastic collections of spittle"" forming at both corners of their mouths. A tedious re-run of a made-for-TV movie about ""a hot topic"": the melodramatics overshadow the importance.