Posted on 12/27/2017 6:03:08 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, and Bill O’Reilly’s careers ended dramatically this year, mired in scandal. With them, the era of the multimillion-dollar news anchor may also be over.
The heyday of alpha anchor appears to be finished, along with the cherished belief of television executives that it’s necessary to cater to coddled stars in the service of ratings and revenue.
The waning days of 2017 feature a growing number of industry insiders who say good riddance to overpaid rubbish.
“The emperor has no clothes,” network news analyst Andrew Tyndall told The Daily Beast. He was not referring to Charlie Rose parading naked in front of young female underlings, but instead to the thorough debunking of a TV truism: “It’s just not true that the reason why people watch television is to watch celebrities, and the only way you get celebrities is by paying them disproportionate amounts of money over what they’re worth,” Tyndall said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
O’Reilly a news anchor?? Not true while he was on Fox.
These days it’s Jeff Glor and David Muir. Spare me.
I miss Huntley-Brinkley...
Bill Oreilly?
I always marveled how anchors could stretch their tenures, years into decades (like an east-bloc premier), as if it made their lies any more palatable. Popular shows would come and go, but Cronkite, Reasoner, Brinkley, Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, and McNeil-Lehrer would just drone on and on, night after night.
Huntley was a great newsman. Brinkley, not so much. Plus, he talked out of the side of his mouth.
If you’re like me, and if you’re posting here you probably are, the mere idea of being told what to think is risible. Being comfortable with, even eager, to be told what to think is even more risible.
Yet millions of Americans now and over the decades were quite content to have newsreaders (for that’s all they were) assume an air of authority, even moral rectitude. To this day 20/20 and 60 Minutes are still popular with people who should know better.
If you’re like me, and if you’re posting here you probably are, the mere idea of being told what to think is risible. Being comfortable with, even eager, to be told what to think is even more risible.
Yet millions of Americans now and over the decades were quite content to have newsreaders (for that’s all they were) assume an air of authority, even moral rectitude. To this day 20/20 and 60 Minutes are still popular with people who should know better.
Brett Baier
David Brinkley had no daughters, just 2 sons.
Don’t suppose weather girls in bikinis are on the horizon.
Sigh.
Frankly, I am looking forward to the news robot.
I don’t think Brinkley graduated high school.
He wrote a couple of books, tho...
The photo is of Ted Baxter (played by Ted Knight) on the Mary Tyler Moore show. I meant my post to be for a laugh, concerning news anchors.
Dishonest demogogues, yes, and in the case of Cronkite a closet Communist throughout his career. Cronkite only admitted it after he retired and during an interview on the old CNN Larry King show.
“Don’t suppose weather girls in bikinis are on the horizon.”
Funny story. My buddy was watching the spanish weather channel one night in his den. The weather babe was well endowed, and dressed to highlight the fact.
His wife came into the room, watched for a few seconds, then muted the TV and stood in front of the screen.
She asked “What’s the weather going to be this week?”
He had no idea.
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