CBS Controversy Comes As Network Nightly News Shows Are Losing Clout

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | 9/22/04 | BROOKS BARNES and JOE FLINT

[Cableguy]

For years, veterans of the news divisions at the traditional broadcast TV networks have grumbled about their eroding clout, eaten away by budget pressures, cable rivals and a general retreat from investigative stories and other ambitious undertakings.

CBS's recent admission that it botched a story challenging President Bush's National Guard service comes against this uncomfortable backdrop.

As the scandal plays out over the weeks to come, the embarrassment and possible damage to the credibility of CBS icons such as "60 Minutes" and anchor Dan Rather raise concerns that the network news divisions could be further marginalized. Within the large corporations that hold the pursestrings, incidents like these could make it harder for tradition-minded news executives to hold the line.

Mr. Rather, 72 years old, and "60 Minutes," on which the National Guard story appeared, are relics of the Golden Age of TV news that predates 24-hour cable channels, the Internet and budget-cutting at network news units caused by consolidation and profit pressures. They are the keepers of the flame of CBS's legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow and the era when Walter Cronkite and others were the official chroniclers of world events. NBC's Tom Brokaw, 64, ABC's Peter Jennings, 66, and Ted Koppel, 64, also are part of these aging ranks.

[Cableguy]

[EagleUSA]

It is payback time. It is LONG OVERDUE. The elitist media is finished as a CREDIBLE news source. The public is wising up quickly to their spun, manipulated and manufactured news, all to promote thier leftist agenda.

Crash and burn boys! You deserve everything you get, AND MORE!

[bobo1]

CBS may disclose as early as today the members of a panel it has created to review the reporting process of the story, which involved now-disputed documents purported to have been written by a National Guard officer who supervised "Mr. Bush".

THAT IS PRESIDENT BUSH!

Blessings, Bobo

[Tall_Texan]

Personally, I think the New York Times will go out of business before the network news divisions. If television networks are a dying bread, newsprint is an even deader one.

It will a long slow choke. It won't disappear overnight. Think about when you heard the news on 9-11. Where did you turn to watch it? CNN? FNC? For most, it was one of the three old stand-bys...ABC, NBC or CBS. Why? Because we know that when there is a major immediate news story, these are the ones with the resources to tell us what is happening right now.

Sure, they are biased. Sure, their potency is shrinking by the month. But when something like 9-11 or the Challenger disaster happens, people know the networks will stop everything and show what is going on. If it happens on a weekend, FNC is AWOL. If it happens in the middle of Larry King Live, CNN will mention it at the bottom of the hour.

The networks have acceeded the more mundane news stories to the all-news channels. But there is still a sizeable audience that has no cable (either they don't want it or can't get it), so the nets will still be the place folks go when there is a major immediate news story.

Maybe in another 20-30 years, this won't be so. But then we may not even be the same United States in 20-30 years.

[supercat]

CBS may disclose as early as today the members of a panel it has created to review the reporting process of the story, which involved now-disputed documents purported to have been written by a National Guard officer who supervised "Mr. Bush".

At the time, he was being supervised by Mr. Killian, he was "Mr. Bush" or "1^st Luitenant Bush", was he not?

[hawkiye]

Not true FNC and CNN covered 9/11 just like the big three. I know because that morning I watched it on FNC mostly and occasionally flipped to CNN to see their angle.

The old media is history and good riddance

[mrsmel]

Wouldn't it have to be a while longer before the internet can completely take the place of traditional news sources,simply because they are still the ones who have the access to the political figures and events,that make the news? Maybe the White House should give internet representatives a place at the press conferences.

[Mo1]

budget pressures ???

They can't do their job properly because of budget pressures???

Ummm ... I know Perky Katie makes 13 MILLION per year .... How much a year does Danny Boy make??

[bobo1]

Either or. 1LT Bush or President Bush. We are talking in the now. If we regress it would be 1LT Bush. It irritates me that the Prez is not properly addressed.

blessings, Bobo

[Tall_Texan]

Good point. Could you imagine the day when Matt Drudge takes Helen Thomas' place as senior member of the White House correspondents?

[noutopia]

Mr is not used in the USAF.

[Paleo Conservative]

Viacom owner of C^BS: MTV Running Ad Saying Kids Will Be Drafted!!"

Viacom lie debunked here on Snopes.com

[Blacktide]

You know as much as I enjoy the site of seeing Rather Crash and burn, I do think I ought to interject a bit of realism.

One of the reasons Rush does so well is that he gives his audience what they want. A spin of the world that conforms to their own. (Note I said 1 of the reasons, others being he is right, and he is dang entertaining)

People who have differing viewpoints will continue to tune in to the big 3, and to the Clinton News Network, just as they have for years. They spew a view of the world that conforms to how these Libbys think it should be, and to a libby, or even a conservative seeing people who agree with you is comforting.

Look at how well Michael Moores propaganda movie did. You know that pretty much the only people who bothered to see it were the pundits who had to, and the nutjobs who agreed with him. He made 100 Million on the "Documentary". Look at all the folks who buy Billaries books. My Lie and Rewriting History...

My point is, that as sad as it is, there will always be a demand for their tripe, fortunatly there are now alternatives where I can actually get the news.

[NYCVirago]

Already, there is concern by some observers that CBS's gaffe will cause other networks to think twice about pursuing high-stakes scoops.

"People in the network news organizations who are looking for a rationale to soften up have found it," says Todd Gitlin, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York. "They weren't taking too many risks even before this, and they will take even fewer now."

Good. Are we supposed to feel bad that a one-sided report with phony documents is being frowned upon? I noticed that the media coverage on Kitty Kelley's book was a lot tougher than it would have been if Rathergate hadn't happened. Of course, Todd Gitlin thinks that kind of coverage is a bad thing.

[geros]

The WSJ had a very interesting article last week Thursday about the Nielsen ratings: turns out these are done on paper, error-prone, and hinted that as a result the ratings for network watching are probably very inflated (the impression I got from the article was that the type of people who are willing to do the nightly Nielsen paperwork are people who have a lot of time on their hand, and therefore not 'average' Americans, are not too aware of what's going on, and many probably don't even have cable or satellite). The networks probably have much fewer viewers than they are letting on right now.

[BlessedBeGod]

That Nielsen paperwork is a pain in the you-know-what. I only had to do it for a week, but it was awful. I'm surprised anyone bothers to fill it out at all.

[guitfiddlist]

I think it's highly generational. For older people who grew up with the networks - they still have that routine of tuning into the 6:30 Dinosaur displays. But younger working people don't have time for that fixed half hour - and the pompous melodrama of these idiots turns off sentient viewers of all persuasions.

[OESY]

CONCLUSION:



Even though the evening news broadcasts are profitable, their audience is aging and dwindling as cable and Internet news alternatives explode. Viewership of ABC's "World News Tonight" has fallen to about nine million people a day from 13.6 million in 1991, according to VNU NV's Nielsen Media Research.

The traditional networks took a hit to the jaw this summer when News Corp.'s Fox News Channel drew a bigger audience than they did during head-to-head coverage of the Republican National Convention. Fox gives conservative commentators more prominence than do its rivals, so analysts expected it to do well covering the Republican convention, but by beating the broadcast networks outright -- a first for a cable news channel -- the industry viewed it as an indication of how a wide audience is shifting its allegiance away from the networks. Time Warner Inc.'s Cable News Network, which for years hewed more closely to the traditional network-news model, also has fallen behind Fox.

"The ability for the news operations to withstand these kinds of bodypunches is diminished," says Frank Sesno, a professor at George Mason University who was CNN's Washington bureau chief in the late 1990s.

Walter Isaacson, former chairman of CNN, says: "Every time there's a mistake that blows up into a controversy there's a danger of editors saying a tough story isn't worth the trouble."

The network news presidents dismiss such fretting. "The CBS story doesn't mean that people should or will back away from smart, investigative reporting," says Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, adding that the only restriction GE "has ever given me is to get it right."



COMMENT:
Institutional bias and Old Media hubris will blind the MSM to what is happening, as revealed by Shapiro's incredibly naive statement (above) "The CBS story doesn't mean that people should or will back away from smart, investigative reporting."

The Pajamascenti will increasingly run circles around the network dinosaurs because the PJs are not isolated from public scrutiny and can self-adjust to get the story right -- quickly, cheaply, reliably. Interactive collaboration produces the best news product while democratizing the process as we have never before seen.

[OESY]

The Pajamascenti would make Socrates proud.