The Death of the Alphabet
Charles Johnson
Tue Apr 19, 2005 at 7:06 pm PDT • Views: 309
Ladies and lizardoids, Sam Donaldson has pronounced: network news is dead. Donaldson: Network News Dead. (This bulletin brought to you by LGF readers.)
Former ABC News reporter/anchor Sam Donaldson is ready to say the last rites for network news because it will soon lose its dominant position as Americans’ primary source of news. “I think it’s dead. Sorry,” he said during a breakfast panel Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters’ convention in Las Vegas. “The monster anchors are through.”
Even though 30 million viewers still turn to networks news each night and garner ratings well above CNN and Fox News, networks news operations long ago lost their role as the sources Americans rely on during time of major breaking news, said Donaldson.
“God forbid, if someone shot the President, which network would you turn to? It will be cable, the Internet—something other than General Hospital being interrupted.”
Increasingly, viewers will continue turning to alternative sources for everyday news as well, he said.
Frank says: