Sunday, August 14, 2005
30-Minutes of News is Plenty for Networks
Great editorial in The Keene Sentinel about the network news programs and how they should stay with the 30-minute news format. The writer took several jabs at the cable news channels in the piece as well. Below is an excerpt:
"You don’t hear the news people at ABC, CBS and NBC talking about 60-minute newscasts these days, thanks in part to the impossibility of it all, but also thanks to the proliferation of cable-satellite news channels. For in recent years these channels — CNN, Headline News, MSNBC and Fox News Channel — have shown that longer news programming does not necessarily translate into more complete news programming.
All four of those channels devote substantial time to news each evening, but it’s news infused with — and often obscured by — attitude.
On CNN, anchor Lou Dobbs is conducting a nightly crusade against illegal immigration. That may or may not be a worthy effort, but his program often resembles a tent show more than a newscast.
Also night after night, on the now misnamed Headline News channel, Nancy Grace shrieks her personal prejudices regarding the judicial system. It is a creepy exercise.
Meanwhile, Fox is busy being Fox — expertly putting a right-wing spin on everything in sight. And people on also-ran MSNBC are trying in vain to out-Fox Fox.
For a decade or more, observers have been predicting the demise of the networks’ evening newscasts, and someday those predictions will surely come true. Ratings have been slipping. But for now the programs still command healthy audiences — between 25 million and 30 people collectively each night — figures that dwarf the ratings for the cable shouters.
That’s probably because the network news departments are still able to perform a service in 23 minutes that their cable rivals are unable or unwilling do hour after hour after hour. We hate to say this about the once most trusted man in America, but Walter Cronkite was wrong."
"You don’t hear the news people at ABC, CBS and NBC talking about 60-minute newscasts these days, thanks in part to the impossibility of it all, but also thanks to the proliferation of cable-satellite news channels. For in recent years these channels — CNN, Headline News, MSNBC and Fox News Channel — have shown that longer news programming does not necessarily translate into more complete news programming.
All four of those channels devote substantial time to news each evening, but it’s news infused with — and often obscured by — attitude.
On CNN, anchor Lou Dobbs is conducting a nightly crusade against illegal immigration. That may or may not be a worthy effort, but his program often resembles a tent show more than a newscast.
Also night after night, on the now misnamed Headline News channel, Nancy Grace shrieks her personal prejudices regarding the judicial system. It is a creepy exercise.
Meanwhile, Fox is busy being Fox — expertly putting a right-wing spin on everything in sight. And people on also-ran MSNBC are trying in vain to out-Fox Fox.
For a decade or more, observers have been predicting the demise of the networks’ evening newscasts, and someday those predictions will surely come true. Ratings have been slipping. But for now the programs still command healthy audiences — between 25 million and 30 people collectively each night — figures that dwarf the ratings for the cable shouters.
That’s probably because the network news departments are still able to perform a service in 23 minutes that their cable rivals are unable or unwilling do hour after hour after hour. We hate to say this about the once most trusted man in America, but Walter Cronkite was wrong."
# posted by ATN @ 12:59 PM 
