"Television cherishes 'defining moments' - images that sum up complex storyline," 'New York' magazine noted in 1990.
The year 2005 marked the end of the Golden Age of the Anchors. Back in the time of the old, centralized media, families would sit down during "dinner hour" to watch America's TV royalties - Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw - on one of the three evening news broadcasts. They were the familiar faces providing a reassuring presence in times of crisis.
By the 21st century, the new landscape of news emerged with viewers turning to blogs, 24-hour cable news, and other sources. William Powers of 'The Atlantic' explained in 2005, "The networks were a product of the specific technological and cultural features of the mid-20th century. Thanks to those circumstances, we wound up with three extremely powerful concentrations of media power, the likes of which this country had never seen.
"But the American system doesn't like great concentrations of power. Whether it's the corporate trusts or the great newspaper empires of the early 20th century, or the networks of our own period, we tend as a society to go after focused power, to break it down, atomize it, redistribute it, spread it out. This is what healthy democracies like to do."
Speaking to 'New York' magazine in 1984, Van Gordon Sauter of CBS voiced, "I have been devoid of game plans. I'm not convinced people go through life with them … To be successful, it takes four basic things: smarts, a willingness to be self-sacrificing, a willingness to relocate and luck … I have never gone through life thinking of myself as candidate for anything. I'm not into candidacies … I have never thought of myself as a corporate gamesman.
"I narrow my focus as much as I can. But that's the way I operate. I am not an anchorperson. I am not an executive producer, a reporter, a financial expert, a sales director. My magic is in defining goals, motivating people, providing a sense of accountability along the way, and being there to cheer them across the finish line … I don't view the corporation as survivors and victims. That's a cliché used by people who have not worked within this kind of a corporation.
"I thrive within this corporation. I have given to it, and it has given to me. Frequently I have not been questioning of it. What it does is its business … It's very naïve and self-indulgent to say our business is journalism and their business is money. The greatest threat to our journalistic independence and integrity is red ink … More than anyone, journalists should have a realistic picture of how this world really is.
"Maybe it was because I was a cantankerous, difficult, obnoxious, insolent employee that as an employer I had a great understanding about employees. I also had a new technology to learn, and I had to learn how to run a business. I had a fairly large payroll … I've voted for Democrats and Republicans. But basically I'm a very conservative person in a political sense.
"I'm very much a product of Middletown (the 'hinterlands', Ohio), which in those days (the 1930s) was a rich mixture of the farm and the blast furnace. I grew up on the McGuffey reader and was, fundamentally raised by my mother and grandparents … You tended to take the cards that were dealt you. You didn't spend a lot of time sitting around being remorseful or introspective, feeling inadequate and insecure."
At the start of 1984, Van Gordon Sauter made the observation, "Tom Brokaw is the energy force, the one setting the style. NBC is an excellent news organization with superb reporters, but it's only now coming to grips with the medium itself. Brokaw represented great versatility and leadership quality – a greater 'Let's rally around the flag' spirit than Roger Mudd.
"Dan Rather personifies the best of the anchorman. He has credibility from having been a local reporter, a correspondent in Vietnam, London, the White House ... for 'CBS Reports' and '60 Minutes'. Brokaw has moved up smartly mainly because he's taken a grip on that broadcast and in effect said, 'This is what I want to do.' We at CBS go about our own business, set our own goals, define our own purpose, and – every minute or so – look over our shoulder."
In 2006, Katie Couric made TV history by becoming the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast. CBS promotional campaign, 'The New York Times' reported, had paid a rich dividend. On Katie's opening night, 'CBS Evening News' drew 13.6 million viewers, compared to the 7.8 million viewers watching 'NBC Nightly News' and 7.6 million viewers watching 'ABC World News'.
However an NBC News executive told 'New York' magazine in 2005, "Let's put it this way: If Katie Couric is CBS's plan A, I sure hope they have a plan B." One former CBS executive told 'The Los Angeles Times' in 2011, "These audiences are a very tricky, fickle thing. The changes were perceived as a shock to the system. The week she started, the tune-in was huge. And the drop-off was also huge after that. I don't think they were ever able to get them back."
By the start of 1990, there was a trend in network thinking with seven of the 17 regular nighttime news anchors being women. However 'The Washington Post' reported, "The number of female reporters making the list of the 50 most-visible reporters on the evening newscasts of the big three networks in 1989 was down from 1988, according to the 1989 figures compiled by the independent Center for Media & Public Affairs and the annual statistics taken from the Vanderbilt University TV News Index in 1988.
"Only four of the top 50 TV news reporters in 1989 were female, down from seven of 50 in 1988. Besides Lesley Stahl (ranked third with 115 reports), the list included NBC's Andrea Mitchell, ranked fourth with 111 stories filed, CBS's Rita Braver, eighth with 93 appearances and CBS's Martha Teichner, tied for 42nd place with 48 reports ... Among the 67 reporters who made at least 40 appearances on an evening network news show in 1989, NBC's Lisa Myers tied for 52nd with 44 reports and ABC's Sheilah Kast tied for 59th with 42 ... Overall, according to the CMPA survey, only one out of seven stories, or 14%, was filed by a female reporter.
"NBC's Tom Brokaw, with 1,584 news stories, was the busiest of the 17 regular weeknight and weekend anchors. ABC News's Peter Jennings was second with 1,456 reports, while CBS's Dan Rather was third with 1,165 … After Brokaw, Jennings and Rather, CBS's Bob Schieffer was fourth, with 430 appearances, followed, in order, by NBC's Garrick Utley (297), NBC-CBS's Connie Chung (263), ABC's Sam Donaldson (247), ABC's Carole Simpson (202), CBS's Susan Spencer (149), NBC's Maria Shriver (136), NBC's Mary Alice Williams (128), ABC's Ted Koppel (117), ABC's Diane Sawyer (72), ABC's Forrest Sawyer (no relation) (59), CBS's Charles Kuralt (57), ABC's Tom Jarriel (40) and NBC's Deborah Norville, ranked 17th with 32 reports."
By 1997, 'The Los Angeles Times' reported, "'NBC Nightly News' has been making significant changes in both its look and content. NBC News executives attribute their improved standing to the changes in the newscast." David Doss of NBC disclosed, "We looked at the program in the context of all the news that's available to people on local news and cable news. We cover the main news of the day at the beginning of the broadcast. But we're trying to focus on news that is vital to people's lives, and information that isn't redundant to what people have already heard earlier in the day."
Analyst Andrew Tyndall made the comment at the time, "In many ways, CBS has become the most traditional newscast among the three. How that will translate into ratings, of course, remains to be seen. CBS has the most traditional, hard-news broadcast among the three programs. NBC is the most feature-oriented. And ABC has been alternating between the two approaches."
In 1997, CBS carried 2,750 minutes of daily, breaking-news stories, compared to 2,210 minutes on NBC and 2,442 on ABC. 'The Los Angeles Times' also mentioned, "CBS has increased its coverage of foreign news, nearly equaling ABC's broadcast, which has long been identified with foreign coverage - 1,193 minutes of foreign news on CBS compared to ABC's 1,207 minutes. NBC has de-emphasized foreign coverage - carrying 804 minutes so far (by the end of 1997) - while carrying more features than its competitors." Bill Wheatley of NBC insisted, "We cover the news of the day, but we think it's also important to give people stories that have relevance in their lives."
By the 21st century, the new landscape of news emerged with viewers turning to blogs, 24-hour cable news, and other sources. William Powers of 'The Atlantic' explained in 2005, "The networks were a product of the specific technological and cultural features of the mid-20th century. Thanks to those circumstances, we wound up with three extremely powerful concentrations of media power, the likes of which this country had never seen.
"But the American system doesn't like great concentrations of power. Whether it's the corporate trusts or the great newspaper empires of the early 20th century, or the networks of our own period, we tend as a society to go after focused power, to break it down, atomize it, redistribute it, spread it out. This is what healthy democracies like to do."
Speaking to 'New York' magazine in 1984, Van Gordon Sauter of CBS voiced, "I have been devoid of game plans. I'm not convinced people go through life with them … To be successful, it takes four basic things: smarts, a willingness to be self-sacrificing, a willingness to relocate and luck … I have never gone through life thinking of myself as candidate for anything. I'm not into candidacies … I have never thought of myself as a corporate gamesman.
"I narrow my focus as much as I can. But that's the way I operate. I am not an anchorperson. I am not an executive producer, a reporter, a financial expert, a sales director. My magic is in defining goals, motivating people, providing a sense of accountability along the way, and being there to cheer them across the finish line … I don't view the corporation as survivors and victims. That's a cliché used by people who have not worked within this kind of a corporation.
"I thrive within this corporation. I have given to it, and it has given to me. Frequently I have not been questioning of it. What it does is its business … It's very naïve and self-indulgent to say our business is journalism and their business is money. The greatest threat to our journalistic independence and integrity is red ink … More than anyone, journalists should have a realistic picture of how this world really is.
"Maybe it was because I was a cantankerous, difficult, obnoxious, insolent employee that as an employer I had a great understanding about employees. I also had a new technology to learn, and I had to learn how to run a business. I had a fairly large payroll … I've voted for Democrats and Republicans. But basically I'm a very conservative person in a political sense.
"I'm very much a product of Middletown (the 'hinterlands', Ohio), which in those days (the 1930s) was a rich mixture of the farm and the blast furnace. I grew up on the McGuffey reader and was, fundamentally raised by my mother and grandparents … You tended to take the cards that were dealt you. You didn't spend a lot of time sitting around being remorseful or introspective, feeling inadequate and insecure."
At the start of 1984, Van Gordon Sauter made the observation, "Tom Brokaw is the energy force, the one setting the style. NBC is an excellent news organization with superb reporters, but it's only now coming to grips with the medium itself. Brokaw represented great versatility and leadership quality – a greater 'Let's rally around the flag' spirit than Roger Mudd.
"Dan Rather personifies the best of the anchorman. He has credibility from having been a local reporter, a correspondent in Vietnam, London, the White House ... for 'CBS Reports' and '60 Minutes'. Brokaw has moved up smartly mainly because he's taken a grip on that broadcast and in effect said, 'This is what I want to do.' We at CBS go about our own business, set our own goals, define our own purpose, and – every minute or so – look over our shoulder."
In 2006, Katie Couric made TV history by becoming the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast. CBS promotional campaign, 'The New York Times' reported, had paid a rich dividend. On Katie's opening night, 'CBS Evening News' drew 13.6 million viewers, compared to the 7.8 million viewers watching 'NBC Nightly News' and 7.6 million viewers watching 'ABC World News'.
However an NBC News executive told 'New York' magazine in 2005, "Let's put it this way: If Katie Couric is CBS's plan A, I sure hope they have a plan B." One former CBS executive told 'The Los Angeles Times' in 2011, "These audiences are a very tricky, fickle thing. The changes were perceived as a shock to the system. The week she started, the tune-in was huge. And the drop-off was also huge after that. I don't think they were ever able to get them back."
By the start of 1990, there was a trend in network thinking with seven of the 17 regular nighttime news anchors being women. However 'The Washington Post' reported, "The number of female reporters making the list of the 50 most-visible reporters on the evening newscasts of the big three networks in 1989 was down from 1988, according to the 1989 figures compiled by the independent Center for Media & Public Affairs and the annual statistics taken from the Vanderbilt University TV News Index in 1988.
"Only four of the top 50 TV news reporters in 1989 were female, down from seven of 50 in 1988. Besides Lesley Stahl (ranked third with 115 reports), the list included NBC's Andrea Mitchell, ranked fourth with 111 stories filed, CBS's Rita Braver, eighth with 93 appearances and CBS's Martha Teichner, tied for 42nd place with 48 reports ... Among the 67 reporters who made at least 40 appearances on an evening network news show in 1989, NBC's Lisa Myers tied for 52nd with 44 reports and ABC's Sheilah Kast tied for 59th with 42 ... Overall, according to the CMPA survey, only one out of seven stories, or 14%, was filed by a female reporter.
"NBC's Tom Brokaw, with 1,584 news stories, was the busiest of the 17 regular weeknight and weekend anchors. ABC News's Peter Jennings was second with 1,456 reports, while CBS's Dan Rather was third with 1,165 … After Brokaw, Jennings and Rather, CBS's Bob Schieffer was fourth, with 430 appearances, followed, in order, by NBC's Garrick Utley (297), NBC-CBS's Connie Chung (263), ABC's Sam Donaldson (247), ABC's Carole Simpson (202), CBS's Susan Spencer (149), NBC's Maria Shriver (136), NBC's Mary Alice Williams (128), ABC's Ted Koppel (117), ABC's Diane Sawyer (72), ABC's Forrest Sawyer (no relation) (59), CBS's Charles Kuralt (57), ABC's Tom Jarriel (40) and NBC's Deborah Norville, ranked 17th with 32 reports."
By 1997, 'The Los Angeles Times' reported, "'NBC Nightly News' has been making significant changes in both its look and content. NBC News executives attribute their improved standing to the changes in the newscast." David Doss of NBC disclosed, "We looked at the program in the context of all the news that's available to people on local news and cable news. We cover the main news of the day at the beginning of the broadcast. But we're trying to focus on news that is vital to people's lives, and information that isn't redundant to what people have already heard earlier in the day."
Analyst Andrew Tyndall made the comment at the time, "In many ways, CBS has become the most traditional newscast among the three. How that will translate into ratings, of course, remains to be seen. CBS has the most traditional, hard-news broadcast among the three programs. NBC is the most feature-oriented. And ABC has been alternating between the two approaches."
In 1997, CBS carried 2,750 minutes of daily, breaking-news stories, compared to 2,210 minutes on NBC and 2,442 on ABC. 'The Los Angeles Times' also mentioned, "CBS has increased its coverage of foreign news, nearly equaling ABC's broadcast, which has long been identified with foreign coverage - 1,193 minutes of foreign news on CBS compared to ABC's 1,207 minutes. NBC has de-emphasized foreign coverage - carrying 804 minutes so far (by the end of 1997) - while carrying more features than its competitors." Bill Wheatley of NBC insisted, "We cover the news of the day, but we think it's also important to give people stories that have relevance in their lives."
