Appearing as the keynote interview of the Promax/BDA Station Summit in Las Vegas, David Muir of ABC’s World News Tonight and 20/20; Jeff Glor of the CBS Evening News; and Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC, agreed they bear a special responsibility in the age of fake news, 24-hour-a-day cable news and mobile devices that keep audiences tuned to breaking news all day long.
PROMAX/BDA STATION SUMMIT
New Role For Broadcast Network News
In today’s news-obsessed, Trump-era American culture, the nightly newscasts of the three major broadcast networks have carved out a role as providers of a daily news recap that is more considered, broadly drawn and less partisan, according to the anchors of all three networks.
Appearing as the keynote interview of the Promax/BDA Station Summit in Las Vegas, David Muir of ABC’s World News Tonight and 20/20; Jeff Glor of CBS Evening News; and Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC, agreed they bear a special responsibility in the age of fake news, 24-hour-a-day cable news and mobile devices that keep audiences tuned to breaking news all day long.
“Our main responsibility is to break through the noise,” Muir said. “Everything is hitting people all day long. Our job is to calm things down.”
Muir added that network evening newscasts “are reporting to a divided America,” noting: “We have to speak to everyone. Everyone needs to feel their question is being asked.”
Holt maintained that network newscasts also play an important role in following up on stories that have quickly faded from the front pages. “We’ve experienced the death of shock,” he said. “There are stories we run to because they are enormous. Then two days later they are forgotten. We need to remind people it’s important to keep talking about this.”
Accusations of fake news have done little to tarnish the role of the press in preserving democracy, the anchors agreed. CBS’s recent California voters focus group found distress over political rhetoric, Glor said. “There is more interest than you think in toning things down and having a real conversation about it.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Original content is key to the success of the network newscasts, the anchors agreed. “In the past, you sat down to the news to find out what happened,” Holt said. “Now, our original content is what distinguishes us.”
Buoying all three anchors is the fact that network newscasts draw a combined audience of 24 million per day, compared with a combined 4 million for the cable news networks.
Muir pointed out: “We have our biggest audience since [Peter] Jennings and he had Oprah as his lead-in.”
Moderating the session was Frank Biancuzzo, Hearst Television executive vice president.
Comments (2)
RustbeltAlumnus2 says:
June 26, 2018 at 4:15 pm
Muir seems to take his role way too important. No one elected him to look out for the citizens of this country. At the end of the day, he is just part of the noise. And the country might not have become so divided without the three networks carrying water for the DNC and overplaying the Russia collusion card. Remember when that was a real thing? Me neither.
mrfixit says:
June 26, 2018 at 5:52 pm
Original Content distinguishes us? the content WASN"T Original before??? Telling Promax/BDA folk they are going to break through the NOISE, the noise Promax/BDA types create?The audience must have been hysterical or laughing about that over drinks later that night.