I actually always had the opposite reaction to those two. Jennings was fine, but his newscast was taken over by Roone Arledge, still also producing MNF and he brought all of his visual bells, whistles and gimmicks to news. I date the beginning of decline of TV News to that ABC show. Initially NBC and especially CBS made fun of the Jennings newscast, but as his ratings went up, they followed with gusto, and so began a race to the bottom. Jennings was not himself the lowest common denominator, but he led the steady March to it - though of course compared to what came later his show now seems sober.
And I always thought the Newshour excelled not just at reporting the facts, but at putting it in context and giving reasonable analysis - in short, explaining why the facts were important. On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 3:37 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 3:19 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I’m not sure what you mean here by the current show not “Standing our” or >> what Kevin meant earlier by saying Lehrer was not a good broadcaster. >> > > He did not have a clue about how to maintain audience interest. I’m not > looking to be entertained when I watch the news, but there are ways > broadcasters share information beyond dry readings and static images, and > The News Hour avoided them all to such an extreme that it had to be a > conscious choice. I still watched because nobody else on TV delivered “just > the facts,” but — as I posted on someone else’s Facebook earlier — in > college when I wanted information about what was going on, I watched > MacNeil/Lehrer, but if I wanted to know why I ought to care about what was > going on, I watched Peter Jennings. Now they are all gone, and there is > nobody on TV who does what they did anymore. > > >> I agree Newshour is not as good as it was with Lehrer, but I think it >> still stands out head and shoulders above anything else on television. And >> while the obit quotes Lehrer as say he was not an entertainer (and maybe >> that is all Kevin means) I found Lehrer to be among the best ever >> television broadcasters of the news. >> >> For my mother and father, the gold standard of TV news was first Chet >> Huntley, then Cronkite. I grew up watching them as a kid. But for me the >> gold standard is Jim Lehrer. >> >> He was not perfect; I thought he was slow and always incomplete in >> acknowledging and correcting the criticism that his show’s perspective was >> narrow (white, male and corporate). But he was fair, direct, modest and >> trustworthy. >> >> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 11:57 AM Steve Timko <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> I watched a couple of News Hours in September and it's a shell of the >>> glory days. For one thing, the set looks like a converted community college >>> classroom. It doesn't seem as informative as it used to be. But maybe in >>> our information overload they no longer stand out. >>> >>> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 10:41 AM Kevin M. <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Amazing journalist. Horrible broadcaster, but an amazing journalist. >>>> >>>> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/remembering-jim-lehrer >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 10:40 AM Steve Timko <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Jim Lehrer of the 'MacNeil-Lehrer Report' dies at 85 >>>>> >>>>> NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Lehrer, co-host and later host of the nightly PBS >>>>> "NewsHour" that for decades offered a thoughtful take ... >>>>> >>>>> Read the full story on >>>>> https://apnews.com/f8aeb6fc3fc76ef11bca1d6368afb4f9 >>>>> >>>>> Sent from AP News. Download now on the App Store or Google Play >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yz6Vjq5hKJfNuEzaUhERZKQBPPchwdMnkfEEzu9Vaaz4g%40mail.gmail.com >>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yz6Vjq5hKJfNuEzaUhERZKQBPPchwdMnkfEEzu9Vaaz4g%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>> . >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> Kevin M. (RPCV) >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4A5komCw8KyZHNkBWD3r3QqwuP%3DivGkUzE3t%2BQKWdMbHw%40mail.gmail.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4A5komCw8KyZHNkBWD3r3QqwuP%3DivGkUzE3t%2BQKWdMbHw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzLVUFwg1SKZ_Ffi79Fdh06bx-twn6n5TfGJ0-qRzjxGw%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yzLVUFwg1SKZ_Ffi79Fdh06bx-twn6n5TfGJ0-qRzjxGw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJrNCNXaMmSbg2bjmczi3CZzAxYy6O-RDRRC1%3DKe7huYg%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJrNCNXaMmSbg2bjmczi3CZzAxYy6O-RDRRC1%3DKe7huYg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Cv0i2%2BkHVMP9CY_W87366fqPkMwAEa%2BN-v3B2jTR8sUA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Cv0i2%2BkHVMP9CY_W87366fqPkMwAEa%2BN-v3B2jTR8sUA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLVRwvurB6hpQ9PaMsp-uLF7K25e-e7vHRXoG24%2BP4BAw%40mail.gmail.com.
