originally posted — May 2009

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The End Of The Speech

Today's Top Talent React To The Changing Landscape of Cable News.

By Lori Acken

Remember The News?

You know, the news, that 6-and-10pm staple folks watched every night, selecting their favorite newscast by their favorite anchorman, secure that the actual news was news no matter what network they turned on?

If you answered yes, you're probably over 30, remember the satisfying "clunk" of a television dial and can tell Rather from Brokaw with ease.

Under 30? Could be you've never watched an evening newscast at all. And the words "[reporter name here] filed this report" are as foreign to you as "don't trip on the phone cord," since the news medium has all but abandoned the written, recorded and edited story that was once its meat and potatoes in favor of live reports and expert commentary.

Call it the new state of news -- born of 24-hour cable news channels, the Internet, the age of insta-communication.

Current events programming is now an around-the-clock enterprise that has leapt from the TV screen to the web and into the social-media milieu. And -- tempted by networks, programs, show formats and personalities that cater to every ideology -- people are tuning in like never before.

In the past year alone, according to Nielsen Media Research data, FOX News Channel* has attracted 28 percent more prime-time viewers, while MSNBC reports a spike of 31 percent. And though its rivals trumpet the venerable CNN's recent audience fall-off, they neglect to note that those stats are skewed by the astronomical ratings the network garnered for the three presidential primary debates it hosted in February '08.

"Choice is a great thing," says John King, CNN chief national correspondent and host of the network's new Sunday morning news show, State of the Union. "And choice in our programming is the technological manifestation of free speech. That's why we're here."

THE BEGINNING OF THE CONVERSATION

Choice is also nudging the "talking head and teleprompter" model ever closer to extinction, ushering in a new, interactive, Internet-driven model -- and daring journalists to keep pace.

It's a challenge that four-term Florida Congressman turned political pundit Joe Scarborough and his Morning Joe cohost, veteran network news anchor Mika Brzezinski, believe creates more informed newscasters -- and a more involved public. "Because we're not chained to teleprompters, Mika and I come to the table every morning ready to move in whatever direction the stories are," Scarborough explains. "That's the future."

"The old model was more like a speech," opines CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez. "The new model is more like a conversation. You have a million people who are at home with a laptop on their lap, or at their computer, or on their Blackberry. They can go to YouTube and watch any video they want. They can go [online] and get their news. They control the flow of news they are receiving.

"So here we are saying, 'Watch us! Come to us and get your news!' And they're saying, 'I have a smorgasbord of news here and you're asking me to just come to you?' I think that's very important, and I'm in the process of adapting to it."

THE ONE ON THE LEFT IS ON THE RIGHT …

The new model also invites an intriguing quagmire: Conversations held in real time allow hosts' worldview to seep through, leading to the now widely accepted, if not entirely accurate, perception of a leftie net (MSNBC), a rightie net (FOX News) and middle men and women (CNN).

What's more, prime-time ratings demonstrate that the uber-opinionated evening shows enjoy enormous audience loyalty, bolstering the ticklish notion that increasing numbers of viewers demand their current events analysis synced up with their own beliefs. FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor is the only show to consistently crack Nielsen's cable top 40. And in the past year alone, MSNBC has seen precipitous jumps in viewership for prime-time stars Keith Olbermann (up 32 percent from February '08) and newcomer Rachel Maddow (up a whopping 115 percent).

"I do think it is dangerous that you can watch quote/unquote 'news' through the prism of your politics and never leave the prism of your politics," allows CNN's King, who confounds online bloggers trying to definitively pin him to the left or right. "No matter how strongly you believe in your own political beliefs, you are a better person, and a better advocate for your beliefs, if you study the other side."

Their complex political pedigrees alone make Scarborough and Brzezinsi prime targets for naysayers of every political stripe, even as their Morning Joe following has grown 74 percent.

"Republicans especially don't understand how a conservative can be as critical of the Republican party as I've been," sighs Scarborough. Adds Brzezinski, "My father [former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski] worked in the Carter administration. My brother is a Republican who worked for McCain. I've been accused of everything because of that. But our show has developed such a voice that I hear less of that now. Whether I lean to the left and Joe leans to the right, you will not see us doing that on every issue."

Nor will you catch them pining for any "good old days."

"Actually, I think we've evolved to a better place," Brzezinski asserts, "because back when nobody was supposed to talk about their affiliation, and no one was supposed to share their opinion, there was a lot of liberal thinking and a lot of liberal narrow-mindedness -- and the questions would come from that standpoint, but hide behind the veil of 'journalism.' Now at least we get to come from an honest standpoint of who we are and what our worldview is and what our life experience is."

*Editor's note: FOX News Channel was invited to participate in this story and declined

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originally posted — May 2009