Stuart Elliott: When the News Makes News

When Williams finally gave his explanation for the embellishments that cost him the anchor desk at quotNBC Nightly Newsquot describing how they quotcame from clearly a bad place a bad urge inside of mequot it sounded as if he39d been inspired by another member of the NBC family Flip Wilson who regaled audiences with the catchphrase quotThe devil made me do itquotWilliams also blamed quotegoquot for telling so many stories that were untrue and since the lion39s share was delivered during appearances on talk shows rather than newscasts one could understand his rationale that those rewrites of reality to quotput myself closer to the actionquot as he put it stemmed from a belief he quothad to be sharper funnier quicker than anybody elsequotYou almost feel sorry for the guy Who hasn39t been in a situation when because you39re the center of attention you feel the need to put the air pump to a mildly interesting item and puff it up into an amusing anecdote or compelling story Still because his job description was news anchor not entertainer in the case of Williams v the Truth the court of public opinion has found him guilty sentencing him to well not the devil39s realm but the purgatory that is MSNBCWhat39s also intriguing about L39Affaire Williams is this After years of pundits proclaiming that in a realtime alwayson world the importance of the broadcast networks39 evening newscasts has diminished to the point of irrelevance lots of Americans were interested in an abrupt changing of the guard at one of those shows Sure the arrival of Lester Holt after Williams39 ejection was the result of a scandal and just about everyone loves a scandal especially of the howthemightyhavefallen variety Yet the headlines generated by the shakeup at NBC News suggest that it may be too soon to declare the evening news broadcasts deadDespite the steady shrinkage of ratings for the trio ABC39s quotWorld News Tonight With David Muirquot quotCBS Evening News With Scott Pelleyquot and what39s now quotNBC Nightly News With Lester Holtquot each evening they entice a surprisingly large combined audience to gather around the electronic hearth more than 22 million people according to NielsenI now am able to count myself among those multitudes thanks to a recent lifestyle change that has enabled me to be at 630 pm Eastern time most evenings in front of a TV at home rather than a PC at work As someone who checks the news regularly during the day via websites and social media I find I still look forward to the three newscasts for reasons that include the authority of the ABC CBS and NBC news operations an appreciation for the shows39 organizing principle of leading with the most important stories providing perspective on the last 24 hours and the idea that before I feast from the dessert cart that is the primetime entertainment lineup I ought to eat my vegetables in the form of 30 minutes of newsOf course it39s more like 22 minutes thanks to the commercials that continually interrupt Holt Muir and Pelley And the jokes in media circles are true Most advertisers peddle products aimed at older consumers the most reliable viewers of news programming That wouldn39t be bad if there were commercials for luxury cars highend retailers or upscale apparel But watching for a week can leave you believing that the world is composed of nothing but older people who are sick or sick people who are older and crave a pill to solve their every problemListing the brands hawked during some broadcasts last week is like cataloguing the contents of a medicine cabinet Advil Aleve AlkaSeltzer Heatburn Relief Chews Centrum regular and Silver Cialis Dr Scholl39s Gaviscon Icy Hot Just for Men Linzess Motrin One A Day Phillips39 Colon Health Prevnar Salonpas Stelara Symbicort Tums Smoothies Viagra and Zantac Belying the saw that older shoppers resist new products some were being advertised Alas they were new varieties of remedies such as Centrum MultiGummies and One A Day Proactive 65Here39s a suggestion that may make watching the evening newscasts more palatable to consumers not thinking about pain or their plumbing Offer deals to advertisers with such demographic targets as 18 to 49 giving them better rates to sprinkle the shows with youngerskewing spots It also may help to schedule rebroadcasts at other hours to expose the newscasts to folks younger or otherwise who don39t normally watch because they39re at workThat way even Williams will be able to tune inThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage management or associated bloggers

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