GOOD NIGHT and GOOD LUCK
at the UNIVERSITY CLUB
BY IRENE FRANK
January 23 was “a lovely day in
the neighborhood.” That was the
day the University Club greeted
Brian Rose, Fordham University
Professor of Communications and
Media. The topic of the evening was
“The Changing Face of TV News.” It
is indeed a very appropriate subject
for our times. Looking back at 70
years of newscasting proved to be
not only fascinating, but a trip down
memory lane.
We saw clips from our early
newscasters, people we prized for
their intelligence, even handedness
and sincerity. Beginning with the
Camel News Caravan hosted by
John Cameron Swayze in 1948, his
15-minute evening network news
programs drew tens of millions of
viewers nightly. CBS followed suit
with a 15-minute evening newscast
with Doug Edwards.
When Walter Cronkite became
the anchor of the CBS Evening
News, it expanded to 30 minutes.
Cronkite was considered the
most trusted voice in America.
Who could ever forget his tear-ful
announcement of President
Kennedy’s assassination?
When Mr. Cronkite returned
from a visit to the Viet Nam war
front, he broke the journalistic rules
of impartiality and stated his opin-ion
that he felt the war was unwin-nable.
When President Lyndon
Johnson heard that broadcast, he
declared, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve
lost the country,” and he decided
not to run for reelection. It is yet
another example of the impact of
TV journalism.
TV brought the world togeth-er.
No other medium had done
on-the-spot live visual reporting,
i.e., assassinations of presidents
and world leaders; space flights’
disasters and successes; the landing
on the moon; protests here and
abroad; the McCarthy hearings; the
tearing down of the Berlin wall--all
moments which capture history in
the making.
We saw clips of other memora-ble
anchors: Huntley & Brinkley;
Morley Safer; Barbara Walters,
the first female anchor; Harry
Reasoner; Peter Jennings; Dan
Rather; Tom Brokaw; Ted Koppel;
and, of course, the hero of them all,
Edward R. Murrow.
In the early days, news was
considered a public service, not
much of a moneymaker. In the late
60s, CBS took a new approach to
reporting, launching “60 Minutes”
in a news magazine format. It did
not become an instant hit until it
was moved to Sunday evenings
following the football games. The
theory of its success in that spot was
that people were too lazy to get up
to change the channel. The content
of “60 Minutes” made them perma-nent
fans even after the remote con-trol
was invented. Our University
Club President, Shirley Wershba, an
esteemed journalist herself, worked
as a producer on “60 Minutes” with
many of the correspondents named
here. I watched her eyes water as
she watched the old clips.
In 1980, the millionaire visionary
Ted Turner announced he was starting
a cable station. It was all entertain-ment
at its inception. When he was
criticized for not having any public
service programs he said, “If the peo-ple
want news I’ll start a 24-hour news
channel.” And so he did. It was named
CNN for “Cable News Network.” It
covered news all over the world and
was available every minute of every
day and night. Turner was often quot-ed
as saying, “We will be on until the
end of the world and we will cover
THAT until we sign off.”
In 1996 we saw the launch of two
new 24/7 cable channels, MSNBC
and Fox News, introducing a more
partisan approach to news cover-age.
Note that they refer to their
broadcasts as “the Show.” This
would have enormous implications
for a public striving to understand
and make political decisions. So
these days we are not sure who
or what to believe. “Aye, there’s
the rub.”
It was a provocative program
ending with Mr. Rose pointing his
finger at his audience and ques-tioning
“Where do YOU get your
news?”
GOOD NIGHT and GOOD
LUCK at the UNIVERSITY CLUB
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26,
7:30PM
TOPIC: “OUT OF
RUSHMORE’S SHADOW”
LECTURER: LOU DEL
BIANCO, AUTHOR
When he was a child, Lou
Del Bianco discovered that
his grandfather, Luigi, was the
chief carver of Mt. Rushmore
yet was never even mentioned
in the most definitive book
on the subject. Hear the true
story behind the story from
Lou himself, who wrote “Out
of Rushmore’s Shadow” to set
the record straight.
Prof. Brian Rose
34 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ March 2020