Dan Rather Is Right About The State Of Broadcast and Print Journalism

[Mark Giardina]

I am no fan of Dan Rather but I must agree with his assessment of what is happening in the media today when it comes to the coverage of news.

Mr. Rather, who appeared on MSNBC’s morning program, pointed out how the New York Times featured a front page story about (ugh) Paris Hilton, while real news stories were delegated to the second and third pages of the newspaper.

Rather also said that the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric is also trending more and more to entertainment versus hard news.

While saying that he likes Ms. Couric personally, he didn’t have much praise for her job as anchor. And I honestly don’t believe his statement stemmed from jealously.

As I wrote in a previous posting on here the coverage the networks are giving the likes of Paris Hilton crosses the line from news to entertainment. The fault lies with those who are in charge of news at the networks and not necessarily those people (anchors and reporters) who actually perform the work.

Recently a large group of people barraged CBS with petitions, emails, and snail mail, urging the network not to cancel Jericho. That campaign proved successful as the show will return. Maybe if enough people demanded that the news division at CBS return to reporting real hard news, those same executives will get the hint that the viewing public is tired of what is being passed off as news. We can only hope.

In all fairness, CBS isn’t the only network guilty of this practice. The other networks share the blame as well.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I am no fan of Dan Rather but I must agree with his assessment of what is happening in the media today when it comes to the coverage of news.

Mr. Rather, who appeared on MSNBC’s morning program, pointed out how the New York Times featured a front page story about (ugh) Paris Hilton, while real news stories were delegated to the second and third pages of the newspaper.

Rather also said that the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric is also trending more and more to entertainment versus hard news.

While saying that he likes Ms. Couric personally, he didn’t have much praise for her job as anchor. And I honestly don’t believe his statement stemmed from jealously.

As I wrote in a previous posting on here the coverage the networks are giving the likes of Paris Hilton crosses the line from news to entertainment. The fault lies with those who are in charge of news at the networks and not necessarily those people (anchors and reporters) who actually perform the work.

Recently a large group of people barraged CBS with petitions, emails, and snail mail, urging the network not to cancel Jericho. That campaign proved successful as the show will return. Maybe if enough people demanded that the news division at CBS return to reporting real hard news, those same executives will get the hint that the viewing public is tired of what is being passed off as news. We can only hope.

In all fairness, CBS isn’t the only network guilty of this practice. The other networks share the blame as well.

CBS's Les Moonbeam's comments were even better. Standing before microphones, Moonbeam told reporters that Katie's only been on the job for nine months so give her time to build an audience. Excuse me? She had an audience but lost it Les and she is losing more viewers on a weekly basis. The hiring of a so-called ‘hard news’ producer isn't going to help that network either.
Rather might be correct that CBS executives don't know squat about news, but he also has a hidden agenda. Remember it was those same CBS big-wigs that forced Dan out of the anchor chair and the reason being; low ratings. Moonbeam can defend Couric all he wants but eventually if the CBS Evening News continues to hemorrhage viewers Katie Couric will be gone as anchor…period.