Tom Leaves, Network News Prematurely Declared Dead Tom Brokaw's departure tonight seems to be an opportunity for the press to stage a funeral-by-proxy for network news as a whole. With Rather leaving CBS in March, Peter Jennings will be the last of the three greats. All three started the same year and if you believe the Times, Fox News, The Post, or well- us bloggers, it's sunset for big-time anchors. Some of this is true. The network news will never again be the sole authority of the day's events, but to claim their irrelevance is premature. More people still tune into the network news than any other news source, be it print, web or cable. Sure, the audience is older, but so is the nation. The backlash against cable news networks has already begun. John Stewart has been crowned the new Howard Beale for his blistering appearance on Crossfire, Fox News' biased reporting style has been the subject of two documentaries and Larry King has been dead for years and is being played by a robot. Just as some people read the Times and some people read The Post, network news will remain important because it offers something that cable networks don't have— authority. Despite the best efforts of right-wing demagouges, the nightly network news are still the most respected institutions of broadcast journalism. Critics point to Dan Rather's 20/20 broadcast fiasco and claim that the news is unreliable and biased. Bullshit. Should Rather have personally vetted the documents he disclosed? In a perfect world, sure, but to call it an act politically motivated and sinister is ludicrous. All three major network news divisions chose to sit on politically sensitive news stories that might hurt the President until after the election, much to the chagrin of liberals. As long as both conservatives ad liberals both feel that the network news is biased in their opponents favor, the rest of us can breathe easy. As far as the power of the blogosphere goes, face it—we're not journalists. Rumors and overheard conversation does not a reporter make. It is the code of journalistic ethics and commitment to fact-checking that make the news simply more than gossip. In our nation's inexplicable obsession with turning populism into a celebration of the lowest common denominator, we are apt to forget that the reason we turn to elite and authoritative sources is because that they are superior. The network news serves a valuable function in our society and while it's easy to cynically declare them dead, we should think twice before doing so; imagine a world without them. As for what the future holds, here's what Tom said this morning on NPR: "We really are at the beginning here, of some changes of great magnitude in how we get information, exchange it, transmit it and I think it's very exciting. I'm only sorry it didn't happen twenty years ago so I could have been a different age and ridden the wave a little bit longer."

posted by Japhy at 12/01/2004 08:48:00 AM || #