this says it better than I:
In case you missed it, Rather said the CBS Evening News is in a tailspin because CBS (CBS) tried "to bring the 'Today' show ethos to the 'Evening News,' and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience." It is understandable why Moonves dismissed these remarks as sexist, and it's also understandable why Rather wants to believe that things would have been different if he hadn't blown himself up in the Bush-National Guard forgery fracas. But the argument is a sideshow. Moonves is right that unless CBS can find ways to skew the Evening News audience under 60 years old, the show is toast. He's wrong, however, when he implies that the choice of the right anchor, or style, will accomplish this. The evening news shows are dying for the same reason the newspapers are dying: the next generation of viewers/readers are getting their news online (or from Jon Stewart). Because the online medium is simply a better medium for delivering news, nothing the TV networks do will change this trend.
Moonves is right that unless CBS can find ways to skew the Evening News audience under 60 years old, the show is toast. He's wrong, however, when he implies that the choice of the right anchor, or style, will accomplish this.
The evening news shows are dying for the same reason the newspapers are dying: the next generation of viewers/readers are getting their news online (or from Jon Stewart). Because the online medium is simply a better medium for delivering news, nothing the TV networks do will change this trend.
As the people who want news abandon the broadcast medium the "News" shows have moved into Infotainment, a market not noted for its heights of intellectual discourse. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
jon keeps you guessing, then goes for the throat, then doesn't...
he does encourage us to take the news with a pinch of salt, er, make that a kilo, and goddess knows we need some laughs when you see the crap they want us to believe...
'do you buy that?' has even become shorthand for 'do you believe that?'
do you invest valuable trust in that, really?
it's hard to respect yourself when being gulled, so dignity demands verification and critical thinking.
and since self-respect is the deepest human need, it goes without saying that we need to be vigilant and not just suck up the pablum wholesale.
jon is great, he really makes me laugh, and that weird english sidekick he has lately is coming on well as comedy partner.
remember ed mcmahon?
say n'more The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
