9
Television Coverage of News and Politics

Between 1945 and 2005, television became the first place most Americans turned for information about political issues and breaking news events. The amount of news available on TV expanded greatly through the history of the medium—from a daily fifteen-minute network update in the 1940s to the twenty-four-hour news coverage offered by many cable channels in the early 2000s. Advances in technology also helped TV newscasts grow more sophisticated and effective in the final decades of the twentieth century. Satellites orbiting the Earth allowed television news programs to show viewers live footage of events taking place around the world, for instance, while computerized graphics scrolled across the screen to provide continuous updates on other stories.

Although TV news programs are more numerous and up to date than ever, many critics claim that the quality of information they provide to viewers has declined over time. In order to attract and hold viewers' attention, TV news tends to focus on stories that can be presented in short segments and feature a dramatic visual element—such as natural disasters and violent crime. Critics argue that this focus often prevents TV news from covering stories that may be more complex and less exciting, yet also hold greater importance in viewers' lives. As the major broadcast networks have faced increasing competition from cable news channels, critics complain that TV news has also become more like tabloid magazines, full of celebrity gossip and sex scandals. In addition, many people feel that TV news coverage has become less balanced and more opinionated over time. Finally, critics claim that television news overwhelms Americans with stories that do not necessarily help them become more informed and productive citizens.

The development of TV news programming

From the time TV technology was invented, many people believed that television broadcasting had tremendous potential as a resource for news and information. In fact, some of the earliest experimental TV broadcasts in the 1930s were news bulletins. When commercial television got its start following World War II (1939–45), all of the broadcast networks provided news updates. These early news telecasts usually featured a male journalist, known as an anchor, reading news reports from a script.

NBC's first network news program, Camel Newsreel Theater, made its debut in 1948. It aired for ten minutes every weekday, and it featured radio commentator John Cameron Swayze (1906–1995) reading news stories while images from movie newsreels (short news reports that were shown in movie theaters through the 1940s) appeared on screen. CBS launched a competing program, CBS-TV News, later that year. It ran for fifteen minutes each evening, with Douglas Edwards (1917–1990) serving as the anchor.

Until the 1960s, TV technology was not advanced enough to provide good coverage of breaking news, or events that took place immediately before or during the newscast. Television cameras were big and bulky, so they were not easily transported to distant locations. The cameras also recorded images on film, which had to be physically carried to a network studio and then developed for several hours before it could be shown. As a result, any news reports that came in from the field were outdated by the time they appeared on the air.

Most early newscasts were filmed live in network studios. The images behind the anchor usually consisted of still photographs on easels or short film clips from the newsreels that were shown in movie theaters at that time. Despite the primitive nature of early newscasts, though, the TV networks felt that their daily news updates provided a valuable public service.

Television featured many public affairs programs early in its history. One of the longest-running shows on TV is Meet the Press, which made its debut in 1947 and was still on the air as of 2006. Meet the Press used an interview format, in which a well-known politician or public figure answered questions posed by a panel of news reporters. Discussions on the program tended to have a more open style, and featured a wider range of topics, than the political talk shows that aired on the radio. Some people criticized the program for being too showy and elevating journalists to the level of celebrities. But others praised it for giving the American people a more personal, close-up look at their leaders than they had ever before.

Another pioneering early news show was See It Now, which aired on CBS from 1951 to 1958. This show consisted of a series of documentaries (fact-based films) that investigated serious issues affecting U.S. society, like the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer or the unfair treatment of migrant farm workers. The host of the program was Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965), who had become famous as a CBS radio correspondent during World War II. Murrow pushed the network to use the power of television to expose problems and fight injustice.

See It Now is probably best known for a 1954 program about Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957), a U.S. senator from Wisconsin who had ruined the careers of many U.S. politicians and entertainers by falsely accusing them of being Communists. McCarthy used the tensions of the Cold War (1945–91; a period of intense military and political rivalry between the United States and its democratic system of government and the Soviet Union and its Communist system of government) to hurt his enemies and advance his own career. Murrow's show helped turn public opinion against McCarthy, and the senator soon fell from power. Before the episode went on the air, however, CBS executives felt so nervous about the subject matter that they did not promote it. Murrow and his producer, Fred W. Friendly (1915–1998), were forced to use their own money to purchase a full-page advertisement in the New York Times

Another news-oriented program launched in the early years of TV was Today. When it made its debut on NBC in 1952, it marked one of the earliest network efforts to provide programming in the morning hours. From the beginning, Today provided a mixture of news and elements of the variety shows that were popular on radio at that time, including celebrity interviews, light comedy, and music. The show's producers believed that viewers would not be interested in watching straightforward newscasts first thing in the morning. They added entertainment in order to appeal to all members of TV households. In fact, during its early years, the show even featured a chimpanzee to appeal to children. The producers also organized Today as a series of brief segments, so that viewers could watch bits and pieces of it while they got ready for work or school.

Today became very popular, and it remained on the air as of 2006. Many of its hosts became big stars, including Barbara Walters (1931–), Tom Brokaw (1940–), Jane Pauley (1950–), Bryant Gumbel (1948–), and Katie Couric (1957–). The success of Today helped prove that television could attract viewers all day long, rather than only in the evening hours. TV critics even coined a new term, "infotainment," to describe the combination of news and entertainment in shows like Today

TV becomes a force in American politics

Politicians recognized the power of television almost as soon as the new medium was introduced. When it came time to nominate candidates for the 1948 presidential election, for instance, both the Democratic and Republican political parties decided to hold their nominating conventions in Philadelphia, because the city's TV broadcasts could be seen on fourteen stations along the East Coast.

As early as 1952, it became clear that television could make or break political candidates. The Democratic candidate for president that year, Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965), bought half an hour of network air time to broadcast a campaign speech. Unfortunately for Stevenson, his speech upset many viewers because it replaced the most popular prime-time program of the era, I Love Lucy. In the meantime, Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) aired a series of thirty-second campaign commercials that helped turn the election in his favor.

The American political figure whose fortunes were most affected by television was Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994). In 1952 Eisenhower chose Nixon—then a U.S. senator from California—to be his vice presidential running mate. During the campaign, Nixon was surrounded by rumors that he had improperly taken money and gifts from wealthy donors for his personal use. When Eisenhower considered dropping him from the ticket, Nixon decided to address the rumors in a televised speech. In an emotional appeal that was watched by 60 million Americans, Nixon denied that he had used campaign funds improperly. He insisted that the only gift he had ever accepted was a black-and-white cocker spaniel dog, which his young daughters had named Checkers. Nixon's "Checkers Speech" saved his political career, generating three million letters and two million telegrams in support of his campaign.

After serving two terms as vice president under Eisenhower (1890–1969; served 1953–61), Nixon ran for president in 1960. This time, however, television hurt rather than helped his chances in the election. With a comfortable lead in the polls over his relatively unknown opponent, Democratic U.S. senator John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) of Massachusetts, Nixon agreed to take part in the first-ever televised presidential debates. On the day of the first debate, Nixon was not feeling well and appeared pale and tired. Kennedy, by contrast, looked suntanned and healthy. As the two candidates answered questions on stage, Kennedy seemed calm and confident, while Nixon sweated visibly and appeared uncomfortable.

The quality of Nixon's verbal responses measured up to his opponent's, and the majority of people who listened to the debate on the radio felt that Nixon had won. But television viewers gave the victory to Kennedy by a wide margin. The debates helped Kennedy convince the American people that he had the experience and maturity to be president, and he ended up winning the election a few months later. "That night I learned TV was a very dangerous medium," the debate's producer, Don Hewitt of CBS News, recalled in Zap! A Brief History of Television. "We elected a president that night and we didn't have to wait to vote."

The Kennedy-Nixon debates not only affected the result of the 1960 election, but also changed the way that the United States selected presidents from that time forward. "Politics would never again be the same," Robert L. Hilliard and Michael C. Keith wrote in The Broadcast Century. "Image would replace issues in reaching the public through television, and most of the public would thereafter vote on the basis of personality rather than policy." Some critics blamed the media for this change. They claimed that TV news coverage of political campaigns focused on the candidates' personalities and strategies rather than informing voters about their positions on important issues.

TV news expands its influence

Television news coverage expanded its influence during the 1960s. Several factors contributed to its growth, including increased attention from the federal government, new technological developments, innovations in program format, and coverage of a series of major news events. Upon taking office, President Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63) appointed Newton N. Minow (1926–) as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government agency charged with regulating television. In 1961 Minow made a famous speech before the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). He criticized the content of TV programming as a "vast wasteland" and encouraged the networks to make a greater effort to serve the public interest. With Minow applying pressure through the FCC, the broadcast networks placed an increased emphasis on news and information programming.

At the same time, a series of technological developments helped modernize TV news coverage. In 1956 the Ampex Corporation introduced the first videotape recorder. Within a few years, videotape had replaced film in the production of television news programs. This technology reduced the delay between the time a news story was filmed and the time it appeared on the air. Videotape allowed the networks to check and play news footage quickly, without spending valuable time transporting and developing film. It also gave news programs the ability to record interviews in the studio for later broadcast, and to delay broadcasts until a more convenient time for viewers on the West Coast (where there is a three-hour time difference from the East Coast).

Also during the early 1960s, communication satellites in orbit around the Earth allowed the networks to show viewers live events from around the world. Newscasts started placing live, moving images on display screens behind the anchor, and they also added more sophisticated graphics. These changes increased viewer interest in the news and convinced the networks to expand their nightly newscasts from fifteen to thirty minutes. One of the first programs to take advantage of these changes was the CBS Evening News, which made its debut in 1963 with Walter Cronkite (1916–) as anchor.

60 Minutes is another influential news program that was introduced in the 1960s. Created by CBS News producer Don Hewitt (1922–), who had worked on Edward R. Murrow's show See It Now, 60 Minutes adapted the documentary style to tell viewers engaging stories. Each episode of the long-running show features several different segments, like the articles in a print magazine. Some segments report on the results of detailed investigations, while others feature celebrity interviews. 60 Minutes took a while to find an audience, but by the mid-1970s it had become the highest-rated and most profitable news show in TV history. It spent twenty years among the top ten prime-time series, and as of 2006 it was the only show to hold the number one position in the annual TV ratings in three different decades.

TV news covers the biggest stories of the 1960s

TV news also expanded its influence during the 1960s by providing the American people with coverage of several momentous events in U.S. history. One of these events took place on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed as he rode through Dallas, Texas, in the back seat of an open car. All of the TV networks suspended regular programming to provide viewers with nonstop coverage of the events that took place over the next four days. Television drew people together in their shock and grief, and an amazing 90 percent of American citizens tuned in to the TV news over the course of that weekend.

The aftermath of the Kennedy assassination marked the first time that the presence of television cameras changed the course of history. Lee Harvey Oswald (1939–1963) was quickly captured and charged with murdering the president. Recognizing the high level of media interest in the case, law enforcement officials arranged to move the prisoner to the county jail at a convenient time for news coverage. As police officers escorted Oswald through a hallway jammed with reporters, a Dallas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby (1911–1967) stepped out of the crowd and shot and killed the suspect. The murder of Oswald was the first dramatic news event to be shown live on TV. Afterward, many people blamed the decision to allow television cameras at Oswald's transfer for making the murder possible.

The extensive coverage of the events surrounding Kennedy's assassination and funeral helped turn TV into a trusted source of news and information. Over the course of a single weekend, millions of Americans made the switch from radio and newspapers to TV as their main link to current events.

Television news also provided extensive coverage of the civil rights movement (1955–65), when millions of African Americans engaged in marches and protests aimed at ending segregation (the forced separation of people by race) and securing equal rights for all U.S. citizens. Technical innovations such as videotape technology and portable TV cameras helped bring images of the civil rights struggle to a national television audience. For instance, American viewers watched as federal troops escorted black students past angry white mobs so that they could attend formerly all-white schools in the segregated South. They also saw police forces in several major U.S. cities attack peaceful black protesters with clubs, dogs, and fire hoses. The compelling TV footage expanded public support for the civil rights movement and increased pressure on the federal government to address problems of discrimination and inequality.

In the early years of the civil rights movement, African American participants rarely had an opportunity to express their views on television. Instead, TV news programs mostly showed footage of the most dramatic incidents with an anchor narrating the scenes. By the early 1960s, however, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) had emerged as a spokesman for the movement. From this time on, black civil rights workers were increasingly seen and heard on network television. When King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, riots broke out in more than sixty cities across the United States. Television coverage of the violence helped create a backlash against the civil rights movement. Overall, though, TV news coverage made the civil rights movement seem both valid and urgent, traits that would have been difficult to convey before the television age. TV footage helped generate popular support for national legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1964, protecting the rights of future generations of African Americans.

Another major news event of the 1960s that received significant television coverage was the Vietnam War (1954–75). The United States became involved in this conflict during the Cold War (1945–91), as part of its efforts to halt the spread of communism around the world. The U.S. government sent military troops to Southeast Asia in 1965 to help its ally, South Vietnam, avoid being taken over by its communist neighbor, North Vietnam. But the Communists enjoyed a great deal of support among the Vietnamese people. In fact, South Vietnamese Communists, known as the Viet Cong, joined forces with the North Vietnamese Army to fight against the American and South Vietnamese troops. Even though the United States had superior weapons and equipment, the war turned into a bloody standoff.

Vietnam has been described as the first television war because TV news correspondents provided extensive firsthand coverage of the conflict. Some reporters even went on patrol with American soldiers and sent back footage of the dangerous situations they experienced in the Vietnamese villages and jungles. The bloody combat footage disturbed many Americans and helped turn public opinion against the war. Antiwar protests erupted in large cities and on college campuses across the United States.

As the Vietnam War dragged on, the nation became more deeply divided over U.S. military involvement in the conflict. Some government officials criticized the television coverage, claiming that it hurt the U.S. war effort by presenting only one side of the story. But antiwar activists praised TV journalists for revealing the true nature of the conflict, which they felt the U.S. government had tried to hide from the American people.

In 1968 CBS sent its most respected news anchor, Walter Cronkite (1916–), to Vietnam to give a progress report on the war. Before this time, network news had tried to remain objective—presenting the facts and allowing viewers to form their own opinions about what they saw. But when Cronkite returned home, CBS took the unusual step of allowing him to share his own opinions about the war with American viewers. Speaking before a national audience, Cronkite contradicted positive government reports and expressed his view that the U.S.-led war effort had not made much progress. He said that the government should withdraw U.S. troops and find a way to end the conflict. Cronkite's strongly worded editorial caused millions of viewers to rethink their support for U.S. involvement. It also helped convince President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973; served 1963–68), who had taken office following Kennedy's assassination, not to run for re-election.

A more positive news story—space exploration—also captivated American television viewers during the 1960s. Millions of people tuned in to watch U.S. astronauts make the first manned space flight, the initial orbit of the Earth, and the first moon landing over the course of the decade. When Neil Armstrong (1930–) became the first human being to set foot on the Moon in 1969, the event drew an audience of 130 million in the United States and 600 million around the world—or about one-fourth of the global population at that time.

All three major broadcast networks provided extensive coverage of the historic event. They composed special theme music and poetry for the occasion, and they built scale models of the lunar module (the vehicle that landed on the moon) in their New York studios. Many elements of Armstrong's moon walk were staged for television, as well. For instance, the American flag that he planted on the Moon was made rigid, so that it would look like it was blowing in a breeze. TV producers knew that the Moon has no natural wind, but they felt that a flag that appeared to be rippling in the breeze would provide more compelling pictures for the world's viewers.

Network news faces more competition

TV news coverage continued to expand during the 1970s, as many local television stations began their own daily newscasts. Local news coverage became possible thanks to the development of Electronic News Gathering (ENG) technology. ENG combined several technical inventions—including portable television cameras, videotape systems, and stronger antennas to broadcast signals—to increase stations' ability to cover breaking news stories in a timely manner. Many local stations loaded cameras and videotape editing equipment into vans, which could travel quickly to the site of a news event. The vans were also equipped with telescoping antennas to relay TV signals to the local station's newsroom, making the footage shot in the field available for immediate broadcast.

ENG enabled local TV stations to produce newscasts with a high level of appeal to viewers. It also made news coverage faster, easier, and less expensive for the local stations. In fact, newscasts emerged as an important source of profits for local TV stations. As a result, many local stations expanded their news operations throughout the 1970s, adding morning and afternoon newscasts to schedules that already included early evening programs. The basic format of these local newscasts ended up being similar across the country. They usually featured two anchors—one male and one female—who read the news and chatted with each other between segments. Other reporters appeared on camera to provide weather forecasts, sports updates, and live reports from the field.

A Vice President Complains about the Power of TV News

From the beginning of commercial television broadcasting, TV news coverage has influenced politics in the United States. Since television is the main source of information for many Americans, TV news has the power to affect how voters view political candidates and issues. Television news expanded its influence during the turmoil of the 1960s, when it provided extensive coverage of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. During this difficult time in American society, many of the country's leaders were criticized in the news media. Some politicians began to complain about television's ability to shape the opinions of the American people about important issues.

One of the most outspoken critics of TV news was Spiro T. Agnew (1918–1996; served 1969–73), who served as vice president under Richard Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74). Agnew believed that the television networks were controlled by a small group of wealthy, powerful men who held liberal political views. He argued that these men had too much influence over the news that was presented to the American people. Agnew claimed that the broadcasters were biased against the president and intentionally slanted the news to make the Nixon administration look bad. He outlined these views in a speech presented on November 13, 1969, in Des Moines, Iowa, which is excerpted below from American Rhetoric from Roosevelt to Reagan:

Tonight I want to discuss the importance of the television news medium to the American people. No nation depends more on the intelligent judgment of its citizens. No medium has a more profound influence over public opinion. Nowhere in our system are there fewer checks on vast power. So, nowhere should there be more conscientious responsibility exercised than by the news media….

They decide what 40 to 50 million Americans will learn of the day's events in the nation and the world. We cannot measure this power and influence by the traditional democratic standards, for these men can create national issues overnight. They can make or break by their coverage and commentary a moratorium [temporary stoppage] on the war [in Vietnam]. They can elevate men from obscurity [being unknown] to national prominence within a week. They can reward some politicians with national exposure and ignore others. For millions of Americans the network reporter who covers a continuing issue—like the ABM [Anti-Ballistic Missile international arms control treaty, which was being negotiated by the United States and Soviet Union at that time] or civil rights—becomes, in effect, the presiding [ruling] judge in a national trial by jury….

The American people would rightly not tolerate this concentration of power in Government. Is it not fair and relevant to question its concentration in the hands of a tiny, enclosed fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly [exclusive control of a business or industry] sanctioned [supported] and licensed by Government?….

A narrow and distorted picture of America often emerges from the televised news. A single, dramatic piece of the mosaic [picture composed of many smaller parts] becomes in the minds of millions the entire picture….

Now, my friends, we'd never trust such power, as I've described, over public opinion in the hands of an elected Government. It's time we questioned it in the hands of a small, unelected elite [ruling class]. The great networks have dominated America's airwaves for decades. The people are entitled to a full accounting of their stewardship.

At first, local newscasts provided an important public service by covering community events and issues that were too local to attract the attention of a national TV network. But the local newscasts also competed fiercely against each other to attract and keep viewers. This competition led many local stations to focus on exciting stories that grabbed viewers' attention—such as traffic accidents, fires, and violent crimes—instead of community news. "Reports on city hall or problems in the schools offered little visual excitement and consistently took a back seat to sensational but unimportant news," Chris Paterson explained in the Museum of Broadcast Communications publication "Local and Regional News." Critics also charged that some stations used exaggeration and gimmicks to promote their newscasts.

The competition from local newscasts created changes in the network news as well. News divisions faced greater pressure to earn high ratings and generate profits for the networks. As a result, network newscasts began shifting their emphasis from hard news on world events and political issues to softer news on celebrities, health issues, and regional events. "We went for the stories that could be illustrated and left alone the ones that required careful examination through text," longtime CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite said in the 1997 book Glued to the Set. "This distorted the whole value of television news, to my mind. And distorts it to this day."

The biggest news story of the 1970s involved Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74), who was elected president in 1968 after Johnson decided not to seek re-election. In the early 1970s the Nixon administration became involved in a political scandal known as Watergate. The scandal developed when burglars with ties to the Republican Party were caught breaking into Democratic Party campaign offices at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Nixon initially claimed that he had no prior knowledge of these illegal activities. But in a series of hearings before the U.S. Senate, it became clear that the president and his staff had lied and tried to cover up their knowledge of the crime. Millions of Americans tuned in to watch the hearings live on TV. They also watched in disbelief as the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to become the first U.S. president ever to resign from office in 1974.

CNN revolutionizes TV news

The popularity of national network news broadcasts peaked around 1980. Over the next decade, the networks' nightly news programs lost half of their audience. Competition from local newscasts was one factor in the shrinking audience. A 1996 study by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that 65 percent of adults regularly tuned in to local TV news, while only 42 percent regularly watched network news.

The most significant factor in the decline of network news, however, was the creation of the twenty-four-hour cable news channel CNN. Founded by Ted Turner (1938–) in 1980, CNN was so technically inferior to the networks at first that critics called it the "Chicken Noodle Network." Within a few years, though, CNN began attracting large audiences with its extensive coverage of breaking news stories.

In 1986, for instance, CNN was the only TV channel to provide live coverage of the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. After the moon walk in 1969, the broadcast networks had stopped paying much attention to the U.S. space program. So when Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board, CNN achieved a major scoop on the competition. The cable channel even had a film crew on location at the New Hampshire school where Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986)—a teacher chosen to take part in the space shuttle mission—had worked until her tragic death. The broadcast networks rushed their top anchors into the studios and interrupted regular programming to provide coverage of the accident. Nevertheless, the incident helped make CNN the first choice for many TV viewers when important news broke.

CNN really moved to the forefront of TV news coverage during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. This conflict began when the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor, Kuwait. When Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (1937–) refused international requests to remove his troops from Kuwait, the United States and a group of other countries sent military forces to the Persian Gulf region. The coalition spent several weeks bombing strategic targets in Iraq, then launched a ground attack that forced the Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait.

On the night the coalition bombing raids began, CNN had three anchors stationed in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. These men—Peter Arnett (1934–), Bernard Shaw (1940–), and John Holliman (1948–1998)—covered the attacks live from the balcony of their downtown hotel room. Their daring footage attracted 11 million viewers—or about twenty times the normal ratings for CNN. When Saddam Hussein ordered all foreign journalists to leave Iraq, Arnett was the only one allowed to remain. He continued reporting for CNN from within Iraq throughout the war. CNN's coverage of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which was broadcast via satellite, helped the cable network become a prime news source for viewers around the world. Within five years, CNN was more profitable than the three major networks' news divisions combined.

The success of CNN changed the face of television news. Viewers found that they enjoyed having access to news and information twenty-four hours per day. But the demands of filling that much air time forced CNN to adopt a broader definition of what was considered newsworthy. CNN broadcast many live events that had questionable news value, such as funerals and legal trials involving celebrities. Critics also charged that CNN sometimes aired rumors and gossip instead of taking the time to verify information.

The increased competition from CNN caused financial problems for the broadcast networks. All three networks were purchased by large entertainment companies during the late 1980s or early 1990s, and the new corporate owners restructured the network news divisions in order to cut costs. They laid off many employees and reduced news-gathering budgets. In an effort to increase ratings, the network news also started to place a greater emphasis on attention-grabbing stories, such as celebrity scandals and violent crimes. In fact, the network news aired four times more crime stories in 1995 than in 1991, even though the nation's crime rate had actually dropped during this period. At the same time, the networks drew criticism for not keeping the American people well informed about such important issues as the environment, education, and the economy.

The decline of television journalism

Cable television expanded its reach throughout the 1980s. By 1992, about 60 percent of American households subscribed to cable services. CNN continued to be one of the most popular cable channels, even though some critics complained about its increasing focus on celebrities and scandals. Since the broadcast networks tended to follow CNN's lead, many people felt that the overall quality of TV journalism declined throughout the 1990s.

One of the prime examples cited in this argument is the media circus that surrounded the O. J. Simpson murder trial. O. J. Simpson (1947–) was a retired football star who used his fame to launch a successful career as an actor and sports broadcaster. In 1994 Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and her male friend were found murdered outside her Los Angeles home. Evidence collected at the crime scene made Simpson the prime suspect, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. When Simpson failed to turn himself in as agreed, the Los Angeles Police Department sent officers to find him. But television reporters got wind of the story, located Simpson's white Ford Bronco on a freeway, and began following the vehicle in helicopters. Local, national, and cable news all interrupted regular programming to cover the slow-motion police chase around Los Angeles.

Simpson finally surrendered to police and was put on trial for murder. The four-month trial was televised live on several channels, including CNN, and the final not-guilty verdict in 1995 drew 100 million viewers. Critics claim that the extensive coverage of the O. J. Simpson case demonstrated the declining quality of TV news, which they say has been obsessed with celebrities and scandals ever since that time.

TV news becomes less objective

In the mid-1990s, the success of CNN led to the startup of several more cable news channels. Microsoft and NBC teamed up to form MSNBC, while the Fox broadcast network launched the Fox News Channel. These cable news channels competed to attract viewers' attention away from CNN and local and network news programming. One way they tried to differentiate themselves was by introducing news programs with loud, brash, opinionated hosts who seemed to enjoy challenging and arguing with their guests.

The signature program on the Fox News Channel, for instance, was The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly (1949–). From the beginning, O'Reilly viewed his show as a forum for expressing his own opinion. "Every newspaper in the country has an op-ed [opinion-editorial] page and an editorial page, but broadcasters are afraid to do that," he told Scott Collins in Crazy like a Fox. "I'm not. I think people will be interested to hear opinion, especially after you get the news and you want to know what people think about it."

From the 1940s through the 1970s, the FCC had required television broadcasters to make every effort to be objective. An FCC policy called the Fairness Doctrine required the networks to provide balanced coverage of both sides of controversial issues, so that viewers would have enough information to make up their own minds. But the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated in 1987 as part of an effort to reduce the number of government regulations affecting the broadcast industry. Afterward, critics claim that many network and cable news operations became less objective and more biased in their reporting.

Some critics blamed the trend toward less objectivity in TV news on the fact that the major broadcast and cable networks were owned by large parent corporations, such as Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Seagram, News Corporation, Sony, GE, and AT&T. These major corporations had financial interests in a wide variety of industries, including movies and music, alcoholic beverages, theme parks, professional sports franchises, telephone services, and nuclear power plants. The critics pointed out that the desire to earn profits in one area of the business might create a conflict with the duty to provide fair and unbiased TV news coverage. For example, a network news program might be tempted to downplay its coverage of safety problems in a product manufactured by another division of its parent company.

The declining quality of television news became an issue during the 2000 presidential election, in which Republican candidate George W. Bush (1946–) competed against Democratic candidate Al Gore (1948–). On the night that Americans cast their votes, the TV networks used data collected at the polls to predict the results in various states. As the vote tallies came in, it became clear that the election would be very close. Ten minutes before the polls closed in Florida, the major broadcast networks announced Gore as the winner in the state. A short time later, however, the networks decided that the results were too close to call and placed Florida back into the undecided column. Before the evening ended, the networks had changed their minds once again and predicted Bush as the winner in Florida.

The results in other states eventually made it clear that Florida controlled the outcome of the election. The ballots in Florida were recounted by hand, and even then the results were challenged in court. The 2000 election was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which halted all recounts in December and made Bush the next president of the United States. Afterward, TV news came under harsh criticism for its election-night coverage.

Critics said that the networks behaved in a reckless and irresponsible manner by predicting a winner in Florida before they had enough information to do so correctly. Some analysts claimed that the errors occurred because the networks had been forced to cut back on their political reporting staff in order to reduce costs. In any case, viewers disapproved of the way the networks handled the election results, and many lost faith in the accuracy of network news as a result.

These feelings resulted in increased audiences for cable news channels. By 2001, surveys showed that 45 percent of American viewers turned to cable news first for the latest information on breaking news events, while 22 percent preferred broadcast network news programs, and 20 percent watched local newscasts. Despite declining audience numbers, however, network news continued to draw more viewers than cable news on a day-to-day basis. The combined audience for the three major broadcast networks' news programs in 2001–2002 was over 30 million viewers—more than 10 times the total audience for CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel during that period.

The power of television news to provide dramatic live coverage of breaking news events became clear once again during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. All of the major broadcast and cable networks switched to live news coverage within a few minutes after an airplane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. At first, several anchors speculated that perhaps a private sightseeing plane had flown off course. But it soon became clear that it was a deliberate attack, as TV cameras captured the image of a second jet crashing into the South Tower. Viewers watched in horror as the South Tower collapsed on live television, followed half an hour later by the North Tower. A third airplane controlled by terrorists hit the Pentagon building in Washington D.C., and a fourth airplane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

TV news covered the chaos on the streets of New York City as residents tried to flee the destruction and falling debris from the World Trade Center. The news cameras also captured many compelling images of grief and displays of courage. During the coverage of the September 11 attacks, the Fox News Channel introduced a line of text that scrolled across the bottom of the screen to provide viewers with a continuous graphical update on the latest developments. Fox News also tapped into viewers' feelings of patriotism by placing an American flag in the corner of the screen, along with the channel logo.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States, many analysts claimed that the Fox News Channel became openly biased in its presentation of the news. For instance, Fox News anchors often expressed outright support for President Bush and his war on terrorism. Some American viewers found Fox's conservative slant on the news to be reassuring. As a result, Fox News enjoyed a 43 percent increase in viewers over the next few months, and by 2003 it led CNN in the ratings by a margin of 2:1.

The success of Fox News encouraged other cable news channels to cater to the views of a specific audience with more opinionated, and less objective, news coverage. Some claim that this trend toward biased TV news reporting increased the political divisions in the United States and made it more difficult to resolve important problems in American society.

For More Information

BOOKS

Bliss, Edward J., Jr. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.

Calabro, Marian. Zap! A Brief History of Television. New York: Four Winds Press, 1992.

Collins, Scott. Crazy like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN. New York: Portfolio, 2004.

Garner, Joe. Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2002.

Hilliard, Robert L., and Michael C. Keith. The Broadcast Century: A Biography of American Broadcasting. Boston: Focal Press, 1992.

Kerbel, Matthew. R. If It Bleeds, It Leads: An Anatomy of Television News. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

McChesney, Robert W. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communications Politics in Dubious Times. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Nimmo, Dan D. Nightly Horrors: Crisis Coverage by Television Network News. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.

Postman, Neil, and Steve Powers. How to Watch TV News. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Stark, Steven D. Glued to the Set: The 60 Television Shows and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

Whittemore, Hank. CNN: The Inside Story. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990.

PERIODICALS

Foote, Joe S. "Television News: Past, Present, and Future." Mass Communications Review, Winter-Spring 1992.

Frank, Reuven. "The Shifting Shapes of TV News." New Leader, March 2001.

Gitlin, Todd. "We Disport, We Deride: It's All Attitude, All the Time at Fox News." American Prospect, February 2003.

Greppi, Michele. "TV Newsmags Tell the Story." Television Week, September 1, 2003.

O'Brien, Meredith. "How Did We Get It So Wrong?" Quill, January 2001.

Small, William. "Television Journalism." Television Quarterly (special issue), Winter 1990.

WEB SITES

Agnew, Spiro T. "Television News Coverage," November 13, 1969. In Ryan, Halford Ross, ed. American Rhetoric from Roosevelt to Reagan, 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1987. Also available at American Rhetoric.com. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/spiroagnew.htm (accessed on June 19, 2006).

Kierstead, Phillip. "Network News." Museum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N/htmlN/newsnetwork/newsnetwork.htm (accessed on June 19, 2006).

Paterson, Chris. "Local and Regional News." Museum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N/htmlN/newslocala/newslocala.htm (accessed on June 19, 2006).