Is CBS Evening News Really #2?

[nathannah]

Tom Taylor's blog at radio-info said on Thursday that the CBS Evening News telecast is now the #2-rated evening newscast. I haven't seen that elsewhere yet. Can anybody provide a source for that statement? (This is not to indicate that I do not trust Tom; just checking).

I can believe it, if only to note how well Scott Pelley has stabilized that program. It really does have the feel of a daily 60 Minutes because of his presentation, and it works.

It also has the true feeling of an evening newscast where both international and national stories both get equal time, more so on the former lately (in the last few days CBS has gone 15 minutes about international issues before moving to domestic issues). With ABC it just seems now like a rehash of the same story structure that was on the local news a half-hour earlier (gas prices first, then politics, then health news and a few other stories), and NBC is waaay too hard politics lately.

And with ABC, the issue is the December 2010 layoffs absolutely gutted the organization and left in the kind of low-paid staff you'd see on a tabloid newscast in the 90's. GMA alone, which is pushing things like the scuba death trial only the HLN followers give any care about and did a silent movie skit this morning with their anchors, is enough to make me question who they're actually chasing; Today, or the morning zoo antics of The Daily Buzz.

 

[recto101]

I remember when Charles Gibson did ABC World News in 2006-2009 it was mainly concentrated on Politics and CBS Evening News was more modeled on being soft.

 

[recto101]

Charlie Rose is doing a credible job on "CBS This Morning" as well. It's a whole lot better than the sappy pair on The Today Show (Matt playing a conservative; Ann playing the emotional liberal) or the trainwreck on GMA (seems like a slick, tabloid-like local newscast).

Its interesting that Charlie Rose manages to be on PBS and Bloomberg at the same time as doing his CBS show. I do remember Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes in 2000 when Mike Wallace was there but his commitments to his PBS show got in the way and a deal to air his show on Bloomberg was in process.

 

[LKellerIII]

CBS and Scott Pelley just appear as the lesser of the stench that is television "journalism" today.

After years of liberal lightning-rods Dan Rather and Katie Couric, I think Pelley was hired because he offends absolutely no one. He could be compared to Roger Mudd, another decent-but-unexciting news anchor who got the job done without much fanfare. But neither could be compared to Uncle Walter.

I'm surprised that you didn't call Uncle Walter a "liberal" as well. :

He was, and was man enough to admit it. But with one notable exception, he kept his personal views out of his newscasts, as did the conservative Chet Huntley.

Dan Rather was a lightning rod due to his own sometimes-irresponsible actions (you don't mouth off to a President during his press conference). So was Katie Couric to a certain extent, mostly due to her unabashed idolatry of the Clintons (especially Hillary) during her Today Show tenure. She tried to tone that down during her anchor stint, but sometimes it didn't work.

That said, it's sad that we think of news in political terms. Arguably, a boring, objective newscast should be the gold standard. But, then, nobody would watch.

That's been a problem ever since guys like Cronkite, Huntley, and Howard K. Smith left their respective anchor chairs. None of them never went after a President, like Rather did twice (Nixon and Daddy Bush), AFAIK. They were from a different era, when news anchor just read the news but you knew that they knew what they were talking about. Later generations wanted to be the next Edward R. Murrow, not the next Chet Huntley.

In any case, how many people younger than about 60 watch the network newscasts anyway? This is yet another old-tyme format that is winding down with the passing of the WW2/Korean War generation. Anyone with an internet connection or cable can get national/international news any time they want. And, at least in my time zone, CBS, NBC. and ABC are delayed 2 hours anyway. I can read their websites for updates.

Just a historical note- Edward R. Murrow famously attacked Senator Joe McCarthy on air. While Murrow was right to do so (McCarthy was a lying scumbag), it could be said that Murrow was showing a "liberal bias."

Poor Joe. He died a discredited alcoholic. these days, he'd probably be a highly paid Fox News pundit.

 

[chrish]

It's funny you don't remember when the Soviet Union collapsed and much KGB information was finally released it turned out that though Joe McCarthy may have been obnoxious his credibility was not that far off or is your a bit memory selective, for example the Rosenbergs and David Greenglass and many many more were communist spies and were guilty as sin

 

[benwolf]

Congrats to the CBS Evening News...and CBS Sunday Morning making #1. Quality still draws an audience.

 

[landtuna]

It's funny you don't remember when the Soviet Union collapsed and much KGB information was finally released it turned out that though Joe McCarthy may have been obnoxious his credibility was not that far off or is your a bit memory selective, for example the Rosenbergs and David Greenglass and many many more were communist spies and were guilty as sin

You'd be correct if McCarthy's "list of Communists in the State Department" actually contained those names. Unfortunately it seemed to be all innuendo as the list, IIRC, was empty.

 

[searadiofreak]

Recently, I noted that a day or two after Whitney Houston's death, both NBC and ABC led with it. CBS did not.

I think that kind of says it all here in February 2012.

 

[KeithE4]

Just a historical note- Edward R. Murrow famously attacked Senator Joe McCarthy on air. While Murrow was right to do so (McCarthy was a lying scumbag), it could be said that Murrow was showing a "liberal bias."

Murrow was not a news anchor. The successor to his work was 60 Minutes, not The CBS Evening News. He certainly had a liberal bias for his day, but his work wasn't directly related to the nightly network newscast.

Poor Joe. He died a discredited alcoholic. these days, he'd probably be a highly paid Fox News pundit.

You're probably right, unfortunately. While there were, as mentioned in another post, confirmed Soviet spies in the US, McCarthy's 1950 "list" was 100% bogus. But if he was around today, he would get at least a common-tater position on FNC, as well as guest spots on most of the other networks, broadcast and cable.

 

[radiofan11]

In any case, how many people younger than about 60 watch the network newscasts anyway?

I turned 23 last month and I watch the evening news. Even though I skew to the right, I do like CBS News. Why? Unlike everyone else, they do give you a fairly balanced idea of what's going on in the world on all of their news programs. Pelley is also a welcome change; he may not be "Uncle Walter" but on TV right now he's as good as they get. I don't watch the morning news much, so I can't comment on the new "This Morning" show.

 

[recto101]

In any case, how many people younger than about 60 watch the network newscasts anyway?

I turned 23 last month and I watch the evening news. Even though I skew to the right, I do like CBS News. Why? Unlike everyone else, they do give you a fairly balanced idea of what's going on in the world on all of their news programs. Pelley is also a welcome change; he may not be "Uncle Walter" but on TV right now he's as good as they get. I don't watch the morning news much, so I can't comment on the new "This Morning" show.

Hey I'm 25 and I like CBS Evening News because look CNN, Fox News and MSNBC is mainly propaganda for politicians and lobbyists. HLN is basically "News of the World on TV" without Murdoch in the drivers seat and a bit of TMZ. I used to be a fan of ABC World News in the Peter Jennings era. he was the Walter Cronkite for people who were born in the Reagan Era. Charles Gibson era of World News was mainly politics and now Diane Sawyer on World News it is now a rehash of what HLN and TMZ did earlier in the day. CBS Evening News with Pelly does some of the stories that the PBS NewsHour would do but in less time.

 

[theradiokid]

I'm 26, and I watch the evening news whenever possible. I used to watch CBS when Bob Shefer was on, but switched to ABC when Katie came into the picture because she was, in my opinion, nothing more than an entertainment reporter trying to do news. I liked Charlie, and even stuck with ABC when they switched to Dianne, because I didn't like the conservative slant of NBC, and I refused to watch CBS with Katie Curick there. However, now that Scott Pelly is doing the news, I've switched back to CBS, and it is a refreshing breeze. I also really like CBS this morning, and it's hard news presentation. It's much better than GMA, which I felt I had no choice but to watch because of the entertainment-news style of Today and The Early Show. Watching all of CBS's news products now is like getting a morning paper (CBS This Morning), an evening paper (The Evening News), an arts magazine (Sunday Morning), an investigative tabloid (Sixty Minutes), and the Congressional Quarterly (Face The Nation), all in one place.

--The Radio Kid
(Oswego, NY.)
My email: [email protected].

 

[formeraa]

...which all goes to show that "kids" in their mid-20's can't spell!

 

[therealjm12]

Neither can the "kids" in their 60's. Personally, spell check is a close friend.

 

[FreddyE1977]

...which all goes to show that "kids" in their mid-20's can't spell!

Which is why they drive me nuts when they land jobs writing those screen scrawls for
the cable networks.

 

[fybush]

...which all goes to show that "kids" in their mid-20's can't spell!

If you're referring to Radio Kid, you might want to know that he's blind (as are several other wel-known posters on these boards); perhaps that might affect your criticism?

 

[FreddyE1977]

If all of these people under 30 are watching The CBS Evening News, how come all
the ad buys are still for Geritol and Metamucil? ???

 

[landtuna]

Here in Phoenix the CBS affiliate airs the network evening news at 6PM. NBC and ABC both air theirs at 5:30. ABC and NBC locals are both airing their local news programs (for the second time) again at 6. By 6PM the indies here are into their syndicated programming (Two and a Half Men, BBT etc.) and I suspect that would draw viewers away from the CBS news program.

OTOH, most workers are probably not home by 5:30 but might be by 6 so CBS could catch the day workers.

Personally, I haven't found any network's evening news to be "must see TV" in many years.

 

[recto101]

If all of these people under 30 are watching The CBS Evening News, how come all
the ad buys are still for Geritol and Metamucil? ???

Well the older audience would see the CBS Evening news live on TV. Look at younger audiences between 20-40 years old we tend to watch the CBS Evening News on CBS News website or in some cases listen to the CBS Evening News on FM radio like KCBS 106.9 in SFO or via (CBS Owned) radio.com and the ads on radio would tend to be download an app from a CBS owned website. Or a movie that is sponsoring the CBS Evening News.

 

[searadiofreak]

NY and LA ran the network casts at 7pm in the 60's and 70's. Of course, that time slot is much too valuable to run network news today.