As I have mentioned more often than I care to contemplate, we record the ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. Sadly, he was the "Best of Breed" of the three broadcast networks. Could never watch Lester Holt, and CBS was just... abysmal and all over the map with format and coverage.
As for David Muir, I cannot stand him.
Every night it is the same "This Just In! Breaking News!" lead stories along with the requisite sound bites with his signature smarmy and maudlin interactions with the ground crews. Lately including long segments on what Trump and his surrogates said today and their "What I think, David" OPINIONS on what we they said. His ending segments are generally self-serving "human interest" stories labeled "#AmericaStrong", that begin with someone saying "Hi, David!" (cut away to him explaining the footage) then back to the person... explaining the footage. I honestly think his broadcasts are set up to be a drinking game; take a shot every tune his ground crew says his name in a given segment. But when he is NOT sitting behind the anchor desk, his surrogates are great! Love Lindsay Davis (weekends) and Whit Johnson - great anchors!
Last week, Nora O'Donnell stepped down as anchor of the CBS Evening News. She firmly jumped on the Trump Train back when his New York trials began and she began her reports with "...we have a colleague INSIDE Donald Trumps motorcade as he goes down to the courthouse!". That was when I turned her off.
Last night was the first broadcast without her. I was curious what CBS was going to do, so I set the DVR.
This morning, coffee mug firmly in hand, I watched the recording. CBS is using a new OLD format using co-anchors of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois. I think they were going after the old "Huntley / Brinkley" vibe. They succeeded! Lead stories were, calmly, about AI and DeepSeek's impact on the stock market, and then into Chinese espionage, with some rather factual REPORTING. Reporting? Not blathering opinions? Just... facts? Findings? Huh? Instead of talking-head opinions, crafted dialog on how, SPECIFICALLY, the FACTS of the story could impact the US. What? No woeful or coy back-and-forth? The rest of the broadcast was about Gaza and the post-LA Fires insurance issues. I sat poised with my finger on the Fast Forward button... but.. found myself intently listening. The broadcast honestly hearkened back to the days of Walter Cronkite (but with incessant Pharma commercials). Wow... news for adults!
Best of all, Trump's daily actions were reduced to a bullet point, not a sound bite.
Reset the DVR to record the CBS Evening News. I am going to check it out for a week or so to see if they can maintain whatever this level of coverage is they seems to come up with. I liked it.
I felt educated and informed.
3 comments:
I got to the point of dreading watching the evening news. I stopped watching TV news after a while. The better of the big three was ABC with Muir with his pushy attitude of breaking in and saying "This just in!" or better yet to grab viewers, "Breaking at this hour!" and his "let me talk over everyone because I'm good looking, sound better, and I'm a narcissist" attitude made me turn off the TV. I didn't know CBS changed their anchors or format. It's about time. I love Dickerson. He's been on CBS Sunday Morning for years and I love CBS Sunday Morning because of their great stories. Both he and DuBois are very professional. I think I'll be watching the news again but on CBS. Thank you for letting me know about this.
I love CBS Sunday Mornings as well! That's "church" for me.
Monday was the first day of the new evening news format; we'll see how long they maintain it.
Day two: I would call it appropriate coverage of the ICE raids in NYC. Major Garrett interviewed Kristy Noem (DHS Secty) about the raids, and then offered the statistical facts on the outcome. It reminded me of the old Walter Cronkite reporting - Correspondent interviewing the key person; no "let's get an opinion from a bystander" crap.
ABC last night made sure to put a camera in the White House Press Room and catch just a diatribe of incendiary rhetoric from Karoline Leavitt (WH Press Secty) before anything else.
CBS for the win.
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