Who Watches TV Anchors

A nice post from Ann Althouse on the departure of Brokaw, planned departure of Rather, etc., ending with this:

By the way, I couldn't care less about losing Brokaw and gaining Williams. I don't watch any of the nightly network news shows, and I could easily TiVo them and watch them at my leisure. I dislike the hammy tone of the presentation. I'd rather read the news or just catch up with the news on one of the cable news networks.

Surely this is a thought that unites a lot of folks in the so-called "blogosphere." Who can stand factory-issue TV news any more? Anchors who are idiots, or are trained to sound that way (Rick Salutin has said he has heard of anchors working on getting an appropriately stupid yet engaging expression on their faces); the slowly paced delivery, maddening even without commercials; the inane, programmed variety--one baby animal, one human interest, preferably with females/children/little old lady, sobering/hard news probably leads, with anchor looking like he's going to a funeral.

Who can take this seriously, or believe these overpaid idiots have any kind of authority? Walter Cronkite was a fairly hopeless individual with a pleasant voice, face and manner, who discovered that people were attributing "authority" to him, and who then became a whole-hearted fraud. The same may be true of Edward R. Murrow. David Brinkley had this cynical worldliness about him, but what did it add up to?

When we lived in the States, we had friends who said the only reason to watch Rather was to make sure not to miss the broadcast when he finally does a Howard Beale.

By comparison, the web lets you work pretty much at your own pace, pick and choose stories and features, read as much or as little as you want.

My daily fare? I read the Toronto Star (dead tree) five days a week. I no longer read the Globe and Mail. I surf Drudge, Slate and Instapundit several times a day. From Instapundit, I usually go to Atrios, the Corner, Kevin Drum, Josh Marshall, Hit and Run, and a few others. Two or three times a week I go to Ann Althouse and Colby Cosh.

Through these sources I can usually read the news stories I actually want to read, at length, as well as some commentary from people who are not idiots.

Sat Dec 4, 2004 8:53 pm MST by robertll | Email Article |

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Who Watches TV Anchors