What I am about to say will bring down the wrath of hordes of harridans on my head.

Nevertheless, in spite of the politically correct culture we endure, I shall stick out my neck and say it.

As television and radio newsreaders, women cannot hack it. Before the skies darken with the cloud of arrows aimed at my heart, I concede there may be one or two honourable exceptions. I shall come to them shortly, but the fact that there is only a handful strengthens my argument that reporting news on camera or microphone makes particular demands. News is not show business.

The heavyweight, on screen authority, the absolute credibility of people like Trevor MacDonald, Peter Sissons and Michael Buerk is a very masculine quality.

My thoughts are prompted by the National Theatre's latest extravaganza "My Fair Lady" - destined to be as big a success as Richard Eyre's revival of "Guys and Dolls" more than a decade ago. Professor Higgins musing about "Why can't a woman be more like a man" precisely addresses the dilemma of the female in TV news.

Have you ever wondered why broadcasting companies rarely employ older women as newsreaders? The brutal fact is that once women have reached a certain age, they are deemed to have lost their most important asset - on screen glamour. As most news producers treat bulletins as light entertainment, this is fatal.

The tiny band who have that rare on screen authority such as Anna Ford and Kate Adie, and here on the coast Sally Taylor and Debbie Thrower, are precisely that - a tiny band.

As for the rest, I am not critical of their journalistic abilities. Some may be fine reporters. Indeed, newspapers and magazines are filled with the work of, and often edited by, superbly professional women. The problems begin when the sound of the voice, the ability to read a script properly and the on screen or on microphone presence are added.

A trawl through some of the news programmes is revealing. Here in the south, Meridian reporters Penny Sylvester, Amy Aitcheson and Sue Greenfield have all adopted the sing-song delivery and emphasis on the wrong words that no one in real life ever uses. South Today's Hannah Laslett does the same. The programme presenter Heather McCarthy has difficulty knowing which words to emphasize and lacks authority. Don't producers ever listen? Is there no one on hand to offer advice? ITN's medical correspondent Sue Saville is also baffled by where to place her emphases and loves to extend the 'eeee' sound at the end of words. Royal correspondent Libby Wiener whines. Arts correspondent Nina Nannar is as lightweight as her BBC opposite number Rosie Millard, and surely something can be done about the strident approach of the political correspondent Laura Trevelyan. The list is a long one.

Professor Higgins had it right. The woman TV news reporter, like dear Eliza Doolittle, is "condemned by every word she utters".