My young adult children never watch network news. Not in the evening, not in the morning. In addition, they don’t watch cable news even if I’m on. It’s boring to them. They can thumb through information on the internet anytime they want. Television news is not even considered a “thing” anymore.
That’s happening all over the country as the lava flow heading towards electronic news and newspapers has almost arrived.
That’s happening all over the country as the lava flow heading towards electronic news and newspapers has almost arrived.
Traditional journalism is NOT gathering the attention of younger Americans mainly because it is not practiced very much.
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Does anyone really care that CNN might be sold? How about the editorial changes going on at CBS News? Unless Donald Trump signs on as a national anchorman, the industry will remain moribund.
Let me back that up. When I departed Fox News in 2017, the O’Reilly Factor was averaging 725,000 viewers between 25-54 at eight pm. On Wednesday, December 10, the highest 25-54 audience on FNC was 285,000. That was for Gutfeld, a satire program.
Steep drop. And it’s happening at the same rate everywhere. On Wednesday, CNN had only one program in a 24-hour period that garnered more than 100,000 younger viewers.
This is a death march for television news. The average age of cable is around 70 years old. Now you know why there are so many commercials for medicine.
I could never have predicted this. Forty-five years ago, 1980, I was coanchoring the news in Hartford, Connecticut, when the biggest TV news superstar in the country showed up. Walter Cronkite was in the house!
Everyone’s uncle was doing some kind of CBS promotion and posed for pictures with the local talent. Walt didn’t seem too thrilled about the whole thing, perhaps because he couldn’t smoke his pipe.
Anyway, Cronkite passed away in 2009 at the age of 92. But his legacy is being kept alive at the University of Southern California, where they give annual awards in his name. On Friday, Rachel Maddow, Scott Pelley, and my old pal Jon Stewart received the awards for “demonstrating fairness without succumbing to false equivalence or bothsidesism.”
Indeed. We certainly don’t want any of that each side might have a point stuff.
The three recipients all have one major thing in common: they despise President Trump with every breath they take (apologies to Sting). They loathe Trump, wish pestilence upon him, go to sleep, and awaken dripping with Presidential contempt.
I guess that might “demonstrate fairness” if you were living in, say, Pyongyang.
Apparently, the people at USC live in a dense bubble. And that is exactly why younger Americans, as well as the mass audience, have left the TV news building. Folks know the fix is in. It’s all about ideology now. The objective news coverage ruse has evaporated.
The small group that is holding on to their remotes is doing so to hear their own opinions reinforced. Anyone believing Rachel Maddow is in the “fairness” business needs to check into a sanitarium.
I believe Walter Cronkite would agree with that statement and with this entire column. Why? Because that’s the way it is.
Let me back that up. When I departed Fox News in 2017, the O’Reilly Factor was averaging 725,000 viewers between 25-54 at eight pm. On Wednesday, December 10, the highest 25-54 audience on FNC was 285,000. That was for Gutfeld, a satire program.
Steep drop. And it’s happening at the same rate everywhere. On Wednesday, CNN had only one program in a 24-hour period that garnered more than 100,000 younger viewers.
This is a death march for television news. The average age of cable is around 70 years old. Now you know why there are so many commercials for medicine.
I could never have predicted this. Forty-five years ago, 1980, I was coanchoring the news in Hartford, Connecticut, when the biggest TV news superstar in the country showed up. Walter Cronkite was in the house!
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Everyone’s uncle was doing some kind of CBS promotion and posed for pictures with the local talent. Walt didn’t seem too thrilled about the whole thing, perhaps because he couldn’t smoke his pipe.
Anyway, Cronkite passed away in 2009 at the age of 92. But his legacy is being kept alive at the University of Southern California, where they give annual awards in his name. On Friday, Rachel Maddow, Scott Pelley, and my old pal Jon Stewart received the awards for “demonstrating fairness without succumbing to false equivalence or bothsidesism.”
Indeed. We certainly don’t want any of that each side might have a point stuff.
The three recipients all have one major thing in common: they despise President Trump with every breath they take (apologies to Sting). They loathe Trump, wish pestilence upon him, go to sleep, and awaken dripping with Presidential contempt.
I guess that might “demonstrate fairness” if you were living in, say, Pyongyang.
Apparently, the people at USC live in a dense bubble. And that is exactly why younger Americans, as well as the mass audience, have left the TV news building. Folks know the fix is in. It’s all about ideology now. The objective news coverage ruse has evaporated.
The small group that is holding on to their remotes is doing so to hear their own opinions reinforced. Anyone believing Rachel Maddow is in the “fairness” business needs to check into a sanitarium.
I believe Walter Cronkite would agree with that statement and with this entire column. Why? Because that’s the way it is.
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