Putting aside the decline of most all TV news these days for a moment, the difference between the current CBS network news branding ("hard-hitting 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is out anchor!", "hey, we're not as silly as Today or GMA in the morning!", etc.) and what Channel 3 does mystifies me.
And also in the same building as CBS 3 News you have KYW Newsradio which keeps its presentation pretty straight forward.
It remains to be seen what they're trying to build over at Channel 10 - lots of new hires - but not all long-time anchors blown out. Seems like Fox 29 is also potentially ready to go through another round of musical anchor chairs. Channel 6, except for the upcoming departure of Rob Jennings, keeps doing mostly what they have been doing with most of the same faces.
Why doesn't CBS 3 take a stab at being the serious news station in the market? It's a niche. At least they might match what is being done, more or less, at the CBS network level and at Newsradio.
I know some people didn't have much to say for Susan Barnett. IMHO, she seemed like a class act, certainly when you compare her to other past and present occupants of the CBS3 anchor chairs. But she's now gone because, reportedly, they wanted to cut her salary. If nothing else, she gave 3's weekday evening newscasts some credibility after the Larry-Alycia scandal. And what do we do with people like that? We try to cut their salaries and let them go out the door.
When I saw the Nicole Brewer-Carol Erickson story online and watched the video, I thought to myself, Brewer is being groomed for the future at Channel 3. (I don't watch the Channel 3 weekend morning news.) I hope she shows more journalistic chops than what is shown in the highly edited pieces that have been splashed all over the Internet in the last couple of days.
Edward R. Murrow is once again turning over in his grave for what passes for news at some CBS local TV O&Os.
