Posted on 09/03/2004 5:39:09 AM PDT by OESY
On his last night in the anchor chair at a political convention, Tom Brokaw of NBC was feeling resigned. The conventions, he said in an interview on Thursday, were mere "infomercials," with little to interest anyone beyond political partisans.
"These events are managed down to the last semicolon," said Mr. Brokaw, who is retiring after the election. "That's why I find it hard to climb those stairs and get into the anchor chair anymore."
Like Mr. Brokaw, a number of television executives yesterday blamed the Republicans and Democrats for the networks' dwindling convention viewership. But as the Fox News cable channel widened its lead in the convention ratings race, other observers suggested that the networks needed to look within.
While Fox broadcast the convention for much of the day, the three networks covered it only from 10 to 11 p.m.
Dorrance Smith, the longtime former ABC News executive who is now a television consultant to the Republican National Convention, called Fox's dominance in the ratings this week "truly a seminal event," and said that that development could be interpreted as a serious threat to the identities of the broadcast news operations.
"It never ceases to amaze me how the networks can continue to rationalize their ongoing decline in both numbers and relevancy," Mr. Smith said. "The way that we and the Democrats have programmed the 10 p.m. hour has reduced their impact dramatically. By limiting their coverage, they are forced to show what the conventions have programmed, and it has reduced to a bare minimum their ability to react and opine."
Dan Rather, the CBS anchor, said that precisely that kind of stage managing had helped reduce the networks' interest in the conventions. His team, he said, was left to act less like journalists than like sports producers who show up at a prepackaged event and turn on their cameras.
"Actually, in sports you can do more," Mr. Rather said. "You can say the fullback missed a block. Here we don't even get to do that."
After beating the broadcast networks for the first time on Tuesday, Fox News dominated viewership from 10 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, when Vice President Dick Cheney gave his acceptance speech. Fox not only pulled in more viewers than any individual broadcast network, with 5.918 million, but also attracted more viewers than CBS (2.6 million) and ABC (3.3 million) combined. NBC had 4.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
While many network news executives dismissed Fox's success as a function of its warmth toward the Republicans, many admitted that the size of the audience differential on Wednesday was startling.
"Any time you see a number of that magnitude you have to think about it," Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News, said.
Contemplating what the networks might do differently, Mr. Rather said one alternative would be to approach speeches ready to question every fact, figure and charge. Mr. Rather said that some executives at CBS had already suggested another approach this year: reducing coverage from three nights to two. With this week's ratings, he added, talk of further cuts is "in the mix for sure," though he will be opposed. And Mr. Rather said that he would not be surprised if a network started to calculate how much better it could do financially by skipping convention coverage entirely and counter-programming with an entertainment show.
In curtailing convention coverage "the networks are operating as economic institutions and very minimally as public institutions," Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said.
But he argued not to overstate Fox's success this week. "I think it's premature to suggest this is a sign of Fox rising," Mr. Rosenstiel said. He noted that CNN and PBS did far better during the Democratic National Convention and said audiences with strong partisan preferences seemed to be gravitating during the conventions to channels that they were most comfortable with.
The more general news audience, which tunes in to the networks during most breaking-news events, has sensed that the conventions do not provide much news anymore, Mr. Rosenstiel added. "Many have decided not to watch the conventions at all," he said.
Bill Shine, the vice president of production for Fox News, said that Fox was doing better than it had during the Democratic convention in Boston (its audience was up 261 percent on Wednesday versus the third night in Boston) not because of its appeal to partisan Republicans but because "the story is just more interesting than it was a month ago."
Mr. Rather suggested that the ratings may not be ideal for the Republican Party come November.
"I tip my cap to Fox," he said. "I'm sure people in the party are saying that's a great audience and on a channel that's friendly to us. But the wise ones know that this is preaching to the converted. And if they want to reach independent or swing voters, the way to do that is through the over-the-air networks."
The networks wonder why viewers are turning away.
When will the networks rfealize that having one face in the same chair for 30 years does not a winner make. Cronkite overstayed his usefulness and became nothing but a Kennedy shill for the dems.
But wait . . . if a Cable channel outdrew all the alphabets combined, we must take this fact one step further.
In this "HORRID" economy, where Bush has lost millions of jobs, how can so many Americans AFFORD Cable?????
I thought people were starving in the streets, according to John Edward's vision of Two Americas!
This is great. The liberals don't get it and they blame others like they always do. They cannot look at themselves and see that they are a major turnoff to the American people. I hope they continue to believe this because they will continue to become extinct.
My choice for convention watching was CSPAN or INHD. No commentators. No chyron.
Attention all passengers of the Titanic - It is premature to notice the water level in your cabins.
|
|
DNC |
RNC |
|
Day One |
18.48 Million (13.48 broadcast, 5.0 cable) Bill Clinton |
5.98 Million (5.98 cable) McCain and Guliani |
|
Day Two |
6.1 Million (6.1 cable) Heinz-Kerry and Obama |
22 Million (Drudge) 23.07 Million (Drudge and TV Tracker.com)* (13.9 broadcast, 8.3 cable) Drudge (15.42 broadcast, 7.65 cable) composite Arnie & Laura Bush |
|
Day Three |
17.98 Million (12.06 broadcast, 5.92 cable) Edwards |
Miller & Cheney |
|
Day Four |
24.4 Million (15.6 broadcast, 8.8 cable) Kerry |
Bush |
DNC source: Hollywood Reporter
RNC source: Nielsen overnights from www.drudgereport.com, and www.tvtracker.com.
RNC numbers are subject to change.
My sort-of-liberal friend works for an RV dealership. The other night he was talking about how the economy isn't doing well and he was probably going to vote for Kerry because of that.
I asked what makes you say the economy is bad?
"That's what the news says" (paraphrased)
So your company must be hurting then?
"Oh, we had a great 2nd quarter! The best in years."
Then who's buying RV's if the economy is in the dumper?
"um...hmmmm"
Careful. You might "confuse" him.
"His team, he said, was left to act less like journalists than like sports producers who show up at a prepackaged event and turn on their cameras. "
You reap what you sow. The networks chose to be editorialists for the political left rather than journalists reporting the truth and letting the people decide what they believe.
What they did not anticipate was that with the growing information highway of the internet(invented by Al Gore of course) people can better discern what is truth and what is fiction on a 24x7 basis.
Basically, network news is obsolete. There is a solution, but rather than change, they will slowly be consumed by the world around them and in another 40-50 years be used as the latest fossil fuel.
they get six months of conflict as a candidate is chosen then bitch because the convention isn't a blood bath too. You can't please these people because they love NEGATIVE ACTIONS/COMMENTS not positive results.
Why would ABC, CBS or NBC want to continue showing the conventions, after all their work, the Democrat got no bounce in the polls, and worse, the Republicans did a good job.
Nope we can't have that anymore!
I'm curious as to what CSpan's ratings were. If you want to watch the actual convention, as opposed to people talking about the convention, it's the only way to go.
Brian Williams gave Fox's numbers for the Presidents speech last night and they were phenomenal!!! I see the Times didn't mention that one. IMHO... time for Rather to retire. He is blatantly rooting for the Dems... not even trying to hide it.
George HW Bush was also interviewed on Don Imus -- was a good interview.
I was amazed at how many so-called conservative pundits where wigged out of the Bush daughters speech, thought Zell Miller would cause a backlash, etc. Then there's pat buchanan claiming Islamic Extremists ARE NOT a thread to our nation.
It's time to send the grumpy old men packing.
Or, to put it another way, given their sagging ratings, how can the alphabet networks AFFORD to have so many libs employed by their News Departments?
I agree... it's so frustrating, if it's true the country is really split 50-50 we "could" make a real difference and effect change, but it would never happen... we're not disaplined enough to FYI watch only Fox 24/7 or cSPAN, not read their left-leaning papers, or go to their movies, rent their DVD's or buy their CD's...
I knew a guy who kept explaining that he lost several jobs because his bosses were always asking him to do meaningless tasks which he wouldn't do very well.
He wasn't focused on the fact that many tasks seem meaningless the morning after he'd passed out drunk.
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