I don’t think I’ll forget Ted Como’s criticism of CBS one day after a staff meeting. I was talking about Dan Rather and Ted scoffed at the network referring to their three letter acronym as the “Communist Broadcasting Service.”
I’ve smiled a long time about that comment and I’m sure Ted still remembers that because he still doesn’t care too much about the network.
I also remember the Dan Rather blowout on CBS when he was duped by a blogger and under fire for credibility and perhaps because of his rambling anecdotes too, they let him go. Rather has gone on to Mark Cuban‘s new HD Network and the man at the very least deserves applause for reinventing himself (at age 75) despite the controversy. His old-school journalism deserves plenty of respect too and besides that, Dan seems like a gracious Texas gentleman and he’s still a provacative reporter even into his senior years.
After a short round with Bob Schieffer on the air, Katie Couric was brought to the evening news at CBS and despite the fanfare, she never was able to get the numbers back up to what they were. I continued to watch for a while, but I’ve finally made a switch to NBC, especially now that Michael Douglas joins the cast.
There are a few reasons why I’ve changed my routine. The first is the fact that NBC has jumped ahead of CBS with the presentation of their news broadcast in High-Def. Not every report is presented this way, but there’s something more engaging about seeing your news on a high-def screen – even Brian Williams is refreshing (though he might use a better dentist).
NBC has younger reporters, a quicker pace that delivers more news and with less depth and that may be a winning combination. Their new studio in New York is bright with lots of LEDs and shiny backdrops and this past week they turned a corner with their new “voice” for Nightly News.
Sure. It was a bit silly to break a news story about the actor who played in ‘Fatal Attraction,” “Wall Street” and ‘Romancing The Stone.” Michael Douglas only has a few words to say, but it’s much like trying to figure out the voice of the latest animated cartoon characters. There’s something very familiar about this voice and it’s refreshing to hear a pop-icon as part of the news – it seems hip – in a way.
Walter Cronkite was once my favorite broadcaster because he’s the black and white face with horn-rimmed glasses I grew up with. However, his voice before CBS News with Katie Couric reminds me of Coke Classic and I had to switch to Diet many years ago.
Another thing that seems to stand out between these two Networks is the programming differences between the two. If anything CBS is programming to ‘Boomer Plus.” At times, it seems they start off every broadcast with a health concern, senior scam or other conservative middle of the road news clip. Even their commercials support their programming as each break has two to three drug company commercials back to back. I will have to give Steve Hartman a prop because I still like his work with ‘Assignment America,’ but CBS has way too much senior programming these days.
I still switch back and form, but NBC is the new preference at my place and I’m glad the “peacock” is trying new ideas. They still haven’t seen the light about the Internet as they continue to try to holdout from You Tube and other social websites. However, they seem a “little” bit modern in their approach and that was never more obvious than when Brian Williams took the stage on Saturday Night Live. Times are a changing and as usual, I’m glad.
Oh. One more thing. Who is ABC? Are they still on UHF?