Thank you, Elizabeth Vargas

On This Week, ABC's national political pundit show for Sunday mornings, there is this segment called "Im Memoriam," in which those who died in the past week are remembered (this includes both celebrities, famous or infamous, as well as American servicemembers). There has been a strange attitude to this segment, sandwiched between "the Roundtable" and "the Sunday Funnies;" the host generally seems to feel that viewers need to be tricked into watching "Im Memoriam" by promising "the Sunday funnies" when "the Roundtable" is over, just before cutting to commercial (regular viewers are of course aware that this is the normal order, contrary to what the host says). This was the case when George Stephanopoulos hosted the show, and it was also the case two Sundays ago when another male ABC anchor hosted.

But yesterday, when Elizabeth Vargas hosted the show, she didn't feel that same need to try to trick viewers into staying tuned for "Im Memoriam." Though she still mentioned "the Sunday Funnies," she clearly stated that after the commercial followed remembrance of a high-ranking female Air Force officer. Admittedly this is a small detail, but on the theory that he who can't be trusted with the small can't be trusted with the large, it is refreshing to see news anchors be honest about small details like program order.