By ADAM BUCKMAN

Lauren Jones, 24, is a bikini model who has appeared on "Price is Right" and WWE's "Smackdown." She'll try her hand at news in Fox's "Anchorwoman."

Stormy, a cuddly mixed-breed who serves as an on-air mascot for CBS affiliate KYTX/Ch. 19 in Tyler, Texas, is no longer top dog at the station now that a bikini model with no journalism experience has taken up residence as a co-anchor on the station's 5 p.m. news.

And it's all being filmed for an unscripted Fox series billed by the network as "a comedy/reality hybrid" and titled "Anchorwoman," scheduled to premiere Aug. 21.

The hiring of curvaceous blonde Lauren Jones, 24 - bikini model, magazine pin-up, one-time "Price is Right" spokesmodel, WWE "Smackdown" diva and, now, fledgling news-babe - is getting thumbs-down reactions from rival news organizations and feminists.

One Texas newspaper - the Midland Reporter-Telegram - blasted the station on Friday, just five days after Jones started working on-air.

"CBS affiliate KYTX of Tyler is another example of bringing journalism integrity to a new low in Texas," the paper editorialized. "We wish KYTX would reconsider allowing Fox to use its station for this counterproductive endeavor. But that's probably not going to happen. After all, this is the same station that features 'Stormy the Weather Dog' in every newscast."

Closer to home, Jones' hiring has attracted the attention of feminist watchdog groups such as Women in Media & News, based in Brooklyn.

"Regular readers of this blog know that two of my biggest pet peeves about the media are sexism in the reality TV genre, and marginalization of women in the news biz," wrote Jennifer Pozner, founder of WIMN, last week on her blog on huffingtonpost.com.

"Turns out Fox has figured out a way to pinch both of those nerves with the production of 'Anchorwoman'."

Officials of KYTX and Fox were not making Jones available for interviews. Today she starts her second week on the air and her third week at the station. She is contracted to work for the station for only a month, while the reality show is being filmed.

She spent her first week learning the ropes, according to Phil Hurley, the station's president and general manager who defended his station's hiring of Jones and its participation in the Fox show.

He explained that KYTX was launched as a new CBS affiliate only four years ago. And, as the newest station among four serving Tyler and the surrounding area, the station needed to find something to help it stand out.

"When you start one of these monsters [nowadays], you're looking for as fast a ramp-up of eyeballs as you can get and that's the main reason we did it was to create some promotability of the station and create some sampling as being the new guys in town," Hurley said, adding that those who are already criticizing Jones are "prejudging her before they see her."

As for Jones' lack of experience, Hurley pointed out that stations in smaller markets such as his (the Tyler-Longview, Texas, market is ranked 111th out of 210 TV markets recognized by Nielsen, with 259,000 TV homes) often find themselves training newspeople with little or no prior experience.

"We train new anchors and reporters everyday and so to train one that comes from another field of work [is not unusual for KYTX]," Hurley said.