I was listening to an excellent interview Howard Stern did with former CBS Nightly News anchor Dan Rather earlier in the week, and was struck by a comment Dan Rather made about the current state of television news. He said it drove him crazy that a network news channel would put four talking heads into a panel to discuss something about say, the Russian invasion of Crimea. All these idiots yell and shout over each other... and not a single one has ever walked that ground they are discussing or been in the heat of battle, euphemistically-speaking. He said this is how the consolidation of the media has led to tighter corporate control over newsrooms and a slashing of budgets has led to closing of overseas news bureaus. To fill the 24-hour news gap, these networks use talking heads to offer an incessant stream of opinions instead of news. To me, I think Dan Rather hit the nail on the head. We have seen most networks largely substitute sensationalism and theatrics for solid journalism and feet-on-the-ground reporting. And we lost something in the process. That is honestly one of the reasons why I appreciate NPR News so much: they still have news bureaus around the world and have reporters giving first-hand reports from the ground level. Facts, not opinions. Journalism has changed and at least in television news... not for the better.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 11:19:04 +0000
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