Eric Alterman on the destruction of TV news departments

[tpsbmam]

Eric Alterman in The Nation

(snips)

On February 23 the New York Times reported that ABC News had decided to reduce its staff by a whopping 300 to 400 people, or approximately a quarter of its workforce. Three days later, the paper ran a full-page ad featuring a Photoshopped crowd of the network's biggest and best-compensated celebrities. It included the stars of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy alongside newly promoted newscasters Evening News anchor Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos.

Viewed side by side, the advertisement and the news story led to an obvious conclusion: ABC is looting its news division to invest in its stars. CBS did much the same when it enticed Katie Couric away from NBC with a promise of a reported $15 million annual payday plus promotional advertising worth at least another $10 million. Sawyer's and Stephanopoulos's new compensation packages are not public, but in 2006 Sawyer was already reportedly making $12 million a year in the job Stephanopoulos now has. When Peter Jennings died five years ago, he left an estate valued at $54 million. (Morning show hosts are paid like anchors because, while less prominent in the media, their shows rake in the big bucks from advertisers.) And yet despite the implications of ABC's advertising campaign, it is the network's news rather than its entertainment division that must carry the weight of these salaries. Can it be mere coincidence that the network cannot afford actual journalists anymore?

The news business is everywhere in crisis. CBS's news division is losing around 6 percent of its staff, and NBC has also made significant cuts, despite its being buoyed by the ability to amortize its costs across MSNBC, CNBC and MSNBC.com. Ironically, given the timing, ABC News president David Westin recently received the Radio-Television Digital News Foundation's First Amendment Leadership Award. Referring to the "wave after wave" of network cuts, he warned fellow broadcasters, "I can see no greater challenge to the First Amendment than the threats that are being faced by so many of our news organizations...threats to their ability to have the wherewithal to employ reporters and support them with the resources that they need."

Well, I have an idea. Imagine a world in which evening anchors, morning hosts (and even network news division presidents) were paid like journalists instead of hedge-fund managers. How many "resources" would that free up to invest in genuine news-gathering operations?......

More at link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100329/alterman
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Why would GE, Viacom, Time Warner, etc want the REAL news to get out, for god's sake. This is the way it should be......if you're a Republican interested in the continued dumbing down & ignorance of the masses.

[Echo In Light]

1. k/r - link to his book, What Liberal Media?

http://www.whatliberalmedia.com/

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Exactly right tpsbmam!

n/t

[PSPS]

3. "The good old days" - check out this 1986 CBS "Christmas Card"

This used to be an annual tradition at CBS every Christmas. Here's one from 1986:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M33x28wNQI

While noteworthy in that it shows the depth of the organization's international infrastructure, earlier years ran a minute longer because they had an even larger number of bureaus throughout the world which insured both a thorough and accurate newscast.

Today, sadly, it's all gone. Only infotainment makes it on the air anymore.

[tpsbmam]

5. Nostalgia.....

Man, that made me sad. Boy do I miss Rather, Cronkite, and some of the great investigative journalists of the past. I miss watching the evening news -- I no longer bother. I've tried but it was just too frustrating. Sigh.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I grew up on Cronkite, and even knew who Murrow was.

Without fail, we sat and watched the CBS news in my family.
And I mean family. It was on at my Grandmother's house, my aunts and uncles houses, etc.
And no was was allowed to talk when the news was on.

Later, Woodward and Bernstein were followed closely.
but...in the late 70's, NPR was thought, in my now adult circle, to be more reliable.
boy, that sure has changed.

TV news now? Mythical, for the most part.
Any Goodman being an exception.

[Echo In Light]

6. Bump