Let’s talk about the nightly news programs on the major networks. Let’s talk about them at least partly because that’s more satisfying than watching them. To put it bluntly, the state of television news has seldom been worse. Maybe back in the 1950s when anchormen (no women back then) smoked the cigarettes of their sponsor as they read the news was worse. But not by a lot.
Consider ABC News these days. Under Diane Sawyer’s watch and now that of pretty boy David Muir, the nightly half-hour newscast has become too much of a touchy-feely program, devoted to self-help items and a kind of “pop” news that downplays hard stories in favor of nice-people stories. The day’s complex, significant stories — think Ukraine, ISIS and the Middle East — get slight shrift at the top of the news while the bulk of the program is given over to stories that are more properly showcased in People magazine. NBC and CBS are better — how could they get worse? — but they have not much more room to proclaim superiority.
As part of their cost-cutting moves, the networks have trimmed the number of foreign correspondents so that they rely on freelancers to cover important stories on a regular basis. The other night on NBC, for instance, we were treated to a story about political unrest in Pakistan as reported by a correspondent in London, about 2,000 miles away. Similar occurrences on other networks suggest we’re not getting the fullest story of anything that doesn’t happen in this country or perhaps London or Paris. (Yes, I know correspondents get to war scenes, but they seldom stay there very long; the network’s bean counters find that is not conducive to the bottom line. And the bottom line is what it’s all about.
The root of a lot of this problem goes back several decades when television stations hired consultants to help them find new audiences. The consultants agreed that news programs needed more accessible, pretty anchors reporting a kinder, gentler sort of news to appeal to a younger audience. Things like serious stories, foreign news, cutting-edge interviews were not appealing and hence could be safely dispensed with. Anything visual — think weather-related stories and crime — would boost ratings. So that’s what everyone did, the networks and their local affiliates. That legacy continues, regrettably.
It’s always been true, and acknowledged by the likes of Walter Cronkite, that you cannot rely solely on network news programs to acquire an understanding of important and world issues. That is even more true today. Those who do so are woefully under-informed about everything that matters. No kidding.
If you believe that awareness of the world around us is important, then you’d better read The New York Times or The Washington Post or one of a small handful of serious daily newspapers (not including USA Today). If you’re not, then you are not a clueless citizen of this country.
And that could mean you’re one of the three co-hosts on the Fox Morning Show. This is surely the stupidest news/entertainment show on television, and that’s saying something the low, low bar. The other day those three shamefully dumb people laughed off the Ray Rice woman-beating video which occurred in an elevator by suggesting everyone should learn to use the stairs where there’s no video. There ought to be a way to put people like this out of their self-imposed misery. Everyone could start by turning off their program.