The mood in the CBS Radio Networks newsroom was grim, depressing, and tense.
There had recently been buyouts, with longtime employees being offered cash and benefits to . . . leave. Many, including longtime employees who didn’t accept the buyouts (or ones who for some reason weren’t offered them), were laid off, never to return.
You might have heard of an article published by Reuters late last week in which after extensive research and what I guess they’d call shoe-leather detective work they identified the famous British stencil-graffiti artist known as “Banksy.”
For being as young as it is, all-news television has been through a lot of changes, most of them for the worse.
There’s been a lot of news lately, as you might have noticed. You might, too, have noticed that getting actual, accurate news coverage seems all but impossible.
There was a time, longer ago than most of us who remember it would like to admit, when most people in the country could identify the three national television news anchors. Well, except for ABC; at the time it seemed as if ABC could not identify its own anchor.
Tim and Jason put their heads together to explore the political landscape ahead of the 2024 Election. In this episode, they discuss the overall situation in the presidential election, cable news networks and the Christian obligation to vote or not.
After the long holiday weekend, the cable news talking heads returned to their flashy sets. One led with an impassioned speech about the horrors of the October 7 attack on Israel and the tragedy of the hostages killed this weekend — and didn’t immediately pivot to score a partisan point. That encapsulates upstart network NewsNation’s approach.
WCBS Radio in New York, the originator of all-news broadcasting, will cease to exist before the month is out. Its famous call letters will disappear, replaced by something else. Rather than 24-hour live news, it will become round-the-clock sports discussion of interest primarily to gamblers. Also, there will be many ads for places where gamblers can lose their money. And other vices as well.
There was a time, and it was not long ago, when you could sit down and write a column a few days in advance with a better than even chance that events would not overtake it. Reporters would even write “ever-green” columns and stories, to keep in the queue for events such as the sudden cancellation of a full-page ad or the illness of the columnist. The ever-green piece could be dropped in and all would be well.