For the three decades between 1956 and 1986, the dominant trend in television had been the expansion of news programming, 'New York' magazine reported. Along with Peter Jennings at ABC and Dan Rather at CBS, NBC's Tom Brokaw transformed the role of news anchor, 'Fortune' website added. 'Rolling Stone' pointed out, "The common perception is that what we see is what we get, that we know our anchormen, with their instantly recognizable faces, that we can call them by their first names: Peter, Dan and Tom."
When Peter and Tom took over as anchors in 1983, the three network evening newscasts had a combined average of 43 million viewers (some 84% of the viewing audience). 'The New York Times' explained, "In their role as anchors of the network evening news, the three have come to symbolize continuity and order in the face of sometimes shattering news events."
As "communicators" presenting the world to a vast audience (mainly adults 25-54 – the key news demo) at dinner hour (6:30pm), 'Channels' magazine editor Les Brown observed, "They want it to be a reassuring view of the world." Each weeknight Peter, Dan and Tom were familiar guests in those roughly 40 million American households delivering the news.
After eight minutes for commercials had been subtracted, each newscast had 22 minutes of stories to tell. Usually, the newscasts featured the same general rotation of the news — Washington (White House and Congress), War Zones (South Africa and the Middle East), American Heartland (tornadoes, drought, farm foreclosures, 30-car pileups on California highways) and Human or Animal Interest (the boy who fell through the ice, the baby born to the brain-dead mom, Bambi's mother and lost whales).
At the time, a short segment on 'World News Tonight' could take over two minutes in the broadcast. An extraordinarily long segment could run up to four minutes. Each minute represented roughly 160 spoken words, and as reported, the total number of words on a newscast could fill over half of a typical newspaper page. It was also mentioned about 15% of each network's news content was not covered by the others at all.
Like town criers, Richard S. Salant told 'The New York Times', the anchors offered proof each night that 'the world's still here and there's going to be another day." Andrew Heyward made the point in 2002, ''The founding fathers had a town meeting in mind where we'd develop a rough consensus. An audience of one is a different model. How do we have a national dialogue on which to base decisions for democracy? Maybe the hearth of the evening news will grow more important. There's a human desire to gather around the fire - there always has been.''
As reported at the time, "The present three-way split in the news audience among Jennings, Rather and Brokaw serves them well, still keeps them in power. But as the local and cable alternatives present themselves, the anchors' constituencies may further weaken. Change wrought by technology - particularly readily available satellite transmission - is another of the principal pressures the anchors and their programs face."
'Entertainment Weekly' reported in 1991, "During the Persian Gulf War's (codenamed Operation Desert Shield) first three days, ABC News drew more viewers than any other network, solidifying its position as TV's best and most popular news division. NBC's coverage, which placed second in the ratings for the war’s first five days, was generally efficient.
"Meanwhile, from the first moments of the war, CBS was hampered by technical disasters — notably the loss of contact with Allen Pizzey in Baghdad — that caused it to lag badly in the war’s early days; half a dozen affiliates even dropped CBS temporarily in favor of CNN. In a medium where public perceptions quickly harden into fact, CBS lost early and thus lost big; when it declined to follow ABC and NBC and expand its nightly newscast to an hour, CBS virtually took itself out of the race."
'Rolling Stone' continued, "TV news is divided into two historic periods — the years B.C., Before Cronkite, and the modern era. From the late Sixties until 1981, there has been only one proto-anchor, and his name is Walter Cronkite. A lot of Sixties viewers were older folks. News watching, like voting in elections, has traditionally been a middle-aged activity, and CBS’s prime-time entertainment schedule appealed to older rural and small-town audiences. This was the era of 'The Beverly Hillbillies', 'Green Acres' and 'Hee Haw'. The mass audience then became younger and less middle-class and white."
Peter Jennings saw himself as an internationalist who viewed the world as a global village. Dan Rather stated, "I am the keeper of the flame of Ed Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Douglas Edwards." Tom Brokaw's kind of news was regarded centrist. Together, Peter, Dan and Tom were said formed a three-way mirror of America that told viewers where the country was at the time and where the country was heading in the future.
On ABC, Peter Jennings was described as urban, projecting an image with which a more youthful market could identify. On CBS, Dan Rather appealed to an older, idealized America of the imagination. Tom positioned himself somewhere in between, in the middle. The quarter-century between 1981 and 2005, the three were regarded an embodiment of broadcast news.
Peter Jennings had said that educating viewers about issues, especially those concerning international affairs, was his greatest satisfaction as a journalist. Rep. Bill Shuster told 'New Yorker', "For the entirety of his career, Rather has allowed his liberal bias to shape the news rather than report it." Tom Brokaw made known, "I don't get up in the morning and bury my head in my hands. My instincts are as a reporter. I have a story to tell.''
When Peter and Tom took over as anchors in 1983, the three network evening newscasts had a combined average of 43 million viewers (some 84% of the viewing audience). 'The New York Times' explained, "In their role as anchors of the network evening news, the three have come to symbolize continuity and order in the face of sometimes shattering news events."
As "communicators" presenting the world to a vast audience (mainly adults 25-54 – the key news demo) at dinner hour (6:30pm), 'Channels' magazine editor Les Brown observed, "They want it to be a reassuring view of the world." Each weeknight Peter, Dan and Tom were familiar guests in those roughly 40 million American households delivering the news.
After eight minutes for commercials had been subtracted, each newscast had 22 minutes of stories to tell. Usually, the newscasts featured the same general rotation of the news — Washington (White House and Congress), War Zones (South Africa and the Middle East), American Heartland (tornadoes, drought, farm foreclosures, 30-car pileups on California highways) and Human or Animal Interest (the boy who fell through the ice, the baby born to the brain-dead mom, Bambi's mother and lost whales).
At the time, a short segment on 'World News Tonight' could take over two minutes in the broadcast. An extraordinarily long segment could run up to four minutes. Each minute represented roughly 160 spoken words, and as reported, the total number of words on a newscast could fill over half of a typical newspaper page. It was also mentioned about 15% of each network's news content was not covered by the others at all.
Like town criers, Richard S. Salant told 'The New York Times', the anchors offered proof each night that 'the world's still here and there's going to be another day." Andrew Heyward made the point in 2002, ''The founding fathers had a town meeting in mind where we'd develop a rough consensus. An audience of one is a different model. How do we have a national dialogue on which to base decisions for democracy? Maybe the hearth of the evening news will grow more important. There's a human desire to gather around the fire - there always has been.''
As reported at the time, "The present three-way split in the news audience among Jennings, Rather and Brokaw serves them well, still keeps them in power. But as the local and cable alternatives present themselves, the anchors' constituencies may further weaken. Change wrought by technology - particularly readily available satellite transmission - is another of the principal pressures the anchors and their programs face."
'Entertainment Weekly' reported in 1991, "During the Persian Gulf War's (codenamed Operation Desert Shield) first three days, ABC News drew more viewers than any other network, solidifying its position as TV's best and most popular news division. NBC's coverage, which placed second in the ratings for the war’s first five days, was generally efficient.
"Meanwhile, from the first moments of the war, CBS was hampered by technical disasters — notably the loss of contact with Allen Pizzey in Baghdad — that caused it to lag badly in the war’s early days; half a dozen affiliates even dropped CBS temporarily in favor of CNN. In a medium where public perceptions quickly harden into fact, CBS lost early and thus lost big; when it declined to follow ABC and NBC and expand its nightly newscast to an hour, CBS virtually took itself out of the race."
'Rolling Stone' continued, "TV news is divided into two historic periods — the years B.C., Before Cronkite, and the modern era. From the late Sixties until 1981, there has been only one proto-anchor, and his name is Walter Cronkite. A lot of Sixties viewers were older folks. News watching, like voting in elections, has traditionally been a middle-aged activity, and CBS’s prime-time entertainment schedule appealed to older rural and small-town audiences. This was the era of 'The Beverly Hillbillies', 'Green Acres' and 'Hee Haw'. The mass audience then became younger and less middle-class and white."
Peter Jennings saw himself as an internationalist who viewed the world as a global village. Dan Rather stated, "I am the keeper of the flame of Ed Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Douglas Edwards." Tom Brokaw's kind of news was regarded centrist. Together, Peter, Dan and Tom were said formed a three-way mirror of America that told viewers where the country was at the time and where the country was heading in the future.
On ABC, Peter Jennings was described as urban, projecting an image with which a more youthful market could identify. On CBS, Dan Rather appealed to an older, idealized America of the imagination. Tom positioned himself somewhere in between, in the middle. The quarter-century between 1981 and 2005, the three were regarded an embodiment of broadcast news.
Peter Jennings had said that educating viewers about issues, especially those concerning international affairs, was his greatest satisfaction as a journalist. Rep. Bill Shuster told 'New Yorker', "For the entirety of his career, Rather has allowed his liberal bias to shape the news rather than report it." Tom Brokaw made known, "I don't get up in the morning and bury my head in my hands. My instincts are as a reporter. I have a story to tell.''
