(Roger) Mudd questions the need for a network evening newscast (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Poyneter Online ^ | November 19, 2009 | Sam McDonald

[abb]

"Most Americans probably already know pretty much what's happened by the time they get home at night, with radio and the Internet and iPods," says retired TV newsman Roger Mudd. "So at 6:30 p.m., they don't want to sit in front of television for a half hour and have someone tell them what they already know."

[abb]

"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator

[abb]

Here is link to complete article.

http://www.dailypress.com/features/family/dp-life_rogermudd_1119nov19,0,3279453.story
Retired newsman Roger Mudd to give lecture today at CNU

[Oratam]

The evening newscasts are like bedtime stories for elderly retirees.

[all the best]

I would guess that it’s mostly people who watch it out of habit, ritual. Older people who have been doing it for decades. The comfort of the familiar. And the audience is not being replenished.

[sr4402]

"So at 6:30 p.m., they don't want to sit in front of television for a half hour and have someone tell them what they already know."

Or be propagandized or have themselves spun by journalists.

[abb]

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Television_44/Pondering_the_ills_and_promise_of_NBC.asp
Pondering the ills and promise of NBC
The ills are many, essentially its entire primetime

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-16/the-crash-of-the-britney-economy/
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http://www.wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/steiner-exits-vogue-2375839?page=2
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http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/inside-word-hollywood-reporter-deal-may-close-friday-10389
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[abb]

I would guess that it’s mostly people who watch it out of habit, ritual. Older people who have been doing it for decades. The comfort of the familiar. And the audience is not being replenished.

IIRC, the average age of the viewers is about 60. Most of the ad spots are for "Depends" and "Poly-Grip."

[Buckeye McFrog]

careful, Roger, or you’ll end up in the leper colony just like Bernie Goldberg....

[sr4402]

the average age of the viewers is about 60

Both set of parents are over that age and neither will listen when I talk about the news being spun or hyped. They pretty much believe anything on CCN or 60 Minutes.

[abb]

I was lucky. I can remember as clear as day forty-five years ago my Dad talking back the TV - saying Walter Cronkite and Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid were lying SOB’s. That they were telling only their side of the story.

He was so, so right...

[jws3sticks]

With shallow Charlie and Katie (”who?”), you can shut them down yesterday, as far as I am concerned.

End of a story, end of a saga and end of a line of crap!

To those currently producing the "crapola" called the "Evening News", I say: "Good night, and good luck."

[ml/nj]

He's probably right. But I wonder if things would be different if they told the truth.

ML/NJ

[oldmomster]

“So at 6:30 p.m., they don’t want to sit in front of television for a half hour and have someone tell them what they already know.”

No, we’d rather sit in front of the TV for the evening and have someone tell us the truth about what was on mainstream radio during the day!

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004044372
AP Guild Layoff Count Rises to 71

[1776 Reborn]

The half hour news casts, minus 10 minutes of commercials, have always been a joke anyway. All we get are a few Tic-Tacs.

[Landru]

"I can remember as clear as day forty-five years ago my Dad talking back the TV - saying Walter Cronkite and Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid were lying SOB’s. That they were telling only their side of the story."

BWWHHAAAAAAAA!!!!
Would you believe my old man routinely did the exact same thing? As a kid I'd [carefully] look at 'em with one eyebrow raised. And abb? My old man was "old" Democrat. BIG labor; in fact, he was at the top of the labor food chain in his little pond and even HE w/could see the baloney. LOL

"He was so, so right..."

Sure were, both of 'em.
More & more as our time's twisted into unrecognizable distortions to suite America's crazies I long for the ol' boy to be around. Just to hear his horse sense take on it all, one more time again.

In any event if ol' Roger doesn't watch his step?
He'll windup marooned on Memory Alpha with his cousin, Harcourt Fenton. LOL

[fieldmarshaldj]

I forgot where I saw this cartoon, perhaps it was in Playboy magazine, years ago, some guy was watching Cronkite and he’s shouting at the tv, “No, Walter, that’s NOT the way it is !”

[abb]

“No, Walter, that’s NOT the way it is !”

My Dad's almost exact words...

[what's up]

I watched a roundtable of 3 veteran newspaper men a few years ago on Cspan.

2 of them were liberals, one fairly conservative. They all agreed that Mudd should have gotten the CBS anchor job after Cronkite stepped down because Mudd was a real newsman.

None of them liked Dan Rather, thinking he was not a hard newsman, just a blowhard. Thought that was kinda interesting.

[CodeToad]

“No, we’d rather sit in front of the TV for the evening and have someone tell us the truth about what was on mainstream radio during the day!”

You forgot the sarcasm tag.