The Death of Network News

In case you haven’t been paying attention, network news is collapsing. The latest in a series of announced cutbacks comes from ABC News which announced that it is closing all of its physical news bureaus across the country except for the one in Washington. It will keep a minimum staff at various locations relying on the local affiliates for staff and bricks and mortar support.

This follows an announcement by CBS News, until recently the gold standard for network news, that it will lay off hundreds of employees. The biggest casualty will most likely be anchor Katie Couric, whose contract is expiring. Word has it that CBS is talking to Anderson Cooper to replace her at a substantially lesser salary.

The networks claim that this is the result of a proliferation of news sources including the likes of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, other cable television outlets, the internet, yada yada yada. That, obviously, is a great part of the problem. Back in the day, Americans would gather around their television set to watch Walter Cronkite or Huntley Brinkley to get a full thirty minute dose of news. The network news folks would run specials during the week; but for the most part, collateral news information was limited to programs like 60 Minutes, Nightline, and Meet the Press. Heavy duty political analysis and commentary was relegated to Sunday mornings.

All that has changed over the last ten years. News junkies like myself can get a fix whenever we want. I can’t remember the last time I watched the 6:30 news on any of the major networks. I scan between Fox, CNN, and CNBC. In the morning I might take a peek at the Today show. For print media, I read The Drudge Report, bias to the right with inflammatory headlines, and Real Clear Politics (both of which are news consolidators from other primary sources), the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times online. Let’s not forget the Vindy on line for local news.

Currently the three major networks share a total viewership of 22 million viewers, down from approximately 50 million in 1980. That spells a rapid decline in ad revenue. They simply can’t survive with those kinds of numbers. You can see some of the results with ABC commentators appearing both on Fox News and Bloomberg Television. CBS has made over overtures to CNN to possibly merge the news operations. It is a little bit disconcerting to see the chief political correspondent for ABC being interviewed on Fox, with the credentials clearly displayed on the screen caption. Look for more of these kinds of alliances.

No doubt the proliferation of news sources is probably the primary reason for the decline of network news, just like they claim. But I can’t help but think a good part of it is due to sloppy reporting, and overtly bias political opinions being mixed in with the hard news. Dan Rather is probably the most blatant example with his bogus Bush draft dodging story. It’s fun to watch some of these guys have to interview folks with a conservative point of view. You can see the contempt, and almost total disdain, for having to cover a political point of view anathema to their own political perspective. Chris Matthews with chills running up and down his leg watching Obama just doesn’t do it for me.

And it isn’t that these guys like Rather and Matthews are bias. It's that they are being passed off as objective, neutral reporters. Just watch Wolfe Blitzer or Rick Sanchez on CNN, or Matt Lauer on NBC…their bias jumps out off the screen, still pretending to be “objective.” It was the 2008 Presidential election which put the final nail in the coffin. All of the major networks were in the tank for Obama, and did little to hide it. NOT A GOOD MOVE WHEN THE COUNTRY IS CENTER RIGHT. Now that the public realizes the emperor has no clothes, they have tuned out and switched off.

That being said, it is sad to see what used to be the country’s great unifiers reach such an ignoble end. We watched the Kennedy/Nixon debates launch the role of television in elections. We mourned as a nation watching Walter Cronkite report the assassination of President Kennedy. We were awe struck watching Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon. We learned together about civil rights and war protestors, and the horrors of war in Viet Nam. We watched the Detroit and Los Angeles riots. We watched Nixon self destruct and Reagan become a political icon. We watched the Berlin wall fall while remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis. We experienced all of the above without Twitter or Facebook or Blackberries. The days of those kinds of common experiences are over.

On the plus side, the outlets for information are available to anyone taking the time to look, read, and learn. My bias is to the right, but I make sure to read both the liberal and conservative editorials presented on Real Clear Politics, read both conservative and liberal blogs, and watch CNN and Fox News to compare and contrast. What I usually find is that the truth to a news story is somewhere in between what these guys report.

Still, there was something comforting about Walter Cronkite. And that’s the way it is….