March 6, 1981…Walter Cronkite’s Farewell: The Day Hard News Died
34 years ago today, Walter Cronkite left the anchor desk and television news changed forever. Under the expert hand of a real reporter, “The CBS Evening News” had set the standard and a high bar for newscasts. To their credit, NBC and ABC news also excelled in their journalistic efforts in reporting the news of the day.
The problems began at CBS after Cronkite and William Paley retired; the problem had a name….Van Gordon Sauter.
After he became president of CBS News in 1981, Mr. Sauter made drastic changes. Among them were budget cuts and the layoff or forced retirement of many longtime CBS News reporters and producers, and a shift away from straight reporting from Washington and New York, toward more soft features.
To many CBS News staffers, the changes were appalling, epitomizing the triumph of style over substance. Sound familiar?
Part of the “softening”, was in part due to Dan Rather, who looked terribly uncomfortable behind the anchor desk, and with Rather’s help, Sauter set out to not only soften Rather with sweaters, but with stories aimed at women, to attract more of them as viewers.
Sauter was also a corporate ladder climber, and was heavily influenced by the CBS finance executives at “Black Rock”. As mentioned above, he went along with suggestions to cut the news department’s budget, which Paley would never have allowed. Sauter took it a step further though, and this was the sound of the death knell that spread to other networks.
It was Suater’s idea to make the News Division a profit center. In the past, Paley had allowed the news department to operate in the red, because he considered news a public trust and service, and funded it with the vast profits from the other areas of CBS like the entertainment division. When Sauter sought to make it a profit center, that meant content would be driven by ratings, and what ever it took to get the ratings, was what the news would become. Women were the main new target in the new scheme…that meant feminine focus, or “powder puff” reporting.
This profit center idea is why we now have the network news shows that are 40% headlines and 60% Facebook and Entertainment Tonight…to attract the Millennial audience.
The day after the financier Laurence A. Tisch gained control of CBS, Mr. Sauter was asked to resign. By then though, the damage was done and looks to be irreversible. Perhaps the events of late at NBC, and more changes that are coming there, will give news departments pause to consider turning the clock back 34 years!
What do you think of the news today? Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5tdqojA26E
From the CBS News archives, legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite signs off for the final time on the “CBS Evening News.” Cronkite manned the anchor desk from …
God, I miss him!
I’ve always respected him, even if I was only three years old when he retired. I’ve always believed that TV news needs to return to the standards he and Edward R. Murrow espoused, and leave the fluff pieces for later.
I remember that broadcast vividly. We were on vacation in Florida. Dan Rather was no Walter Cronkite.
Once again, “Network” proved all too prescient.
Before going to CBS News, Sauter ran WBBM-TV in Chicago. Mostly I just remember his name, but until another station manager came in with an “If it bleeds, it leads” policy, WBBM had probably the best news operation in Chicago, most memorably with anchors Bill Kurtis (who went on to bigger and better things) and Walter Jacobson.
Now this I didn’t know…about VanSauter. He was a nitwit. News was never meant to make a profit!!
I have way too much on this than space to put it in. Definitely a sore spot.
CBS and all the network news have never been the same.I was 22 when he was stepped down. Dan Rather was a great reporter lousy anchorman who was put in a position to lose.
I remember…
…seemed like television news lost credibility and dignity when Cronkite left the anchor chair ..and they call it progress.
Bobby–that’s a big clock to turn back–let’s hope there are some higher up execs arise with a vision to restore journalistic substance not blinded by greed
I recall both NBC & ABC mentioned Cronkite’s leaving on their evening newscasts.
Nobody like Walter Cronkite! The most trusted news anchor in my opinion!
I stopped watching American broadcast news: it’s infotainment or worse. Although the standards have fallen at the CBC, The National is still better than all other national nightly news programs produced in the States. Only BBC news is better. I think you are correct that broadcast TV news journalism began its descent into fluff after Cronkite signed off. A shame really.
Exhibit “A” of the new infotainment mentality. Last night after Harrison Ford crashed his plane, the NTSB hosted a news conference. (roughly 6pm PST).. From the manner and style of reporters questions, you would of thought that WWIII had just started. Local station (KNX 1070) radio spent [‘wasted] at least 10 minutes of air time with a live feed.
I loved Cronkite’s sign off when they ran Jack Benny’s obit piece. “Jack Benny dead at 39, that’s the way it is December 26 1974 this Walter Cr…..
Good job, Bruce. There will never be another Cronkite.
And television news keeps going steadily “down the tubes!”
Got that right!
as A teenager, I used to watch the CBS news, following the local Canadian News. at first I really noticed the stark difference in how news from Viet-nam was reported. BUT as time when on and Cronkite got more frustrated he started to use the same sort of discalmers on the “Kill Figures” that the Canadian newscast used. (instead of 200 Vietcong and 90 allies including 50 Americans, it became more the Command gives a figure of 200 killed in the north, while the north claims 50.) It was no surprise when the time came Johnson said “we have lost Cronkite”
Sorry, Bobby – but he was as liberal as they are today – CBS has always carried the flag for the Democrat Party
Great story, and yes I totally concur. There has never been and I see no evidence of there ever being another Walter Cronkite. The most trusted man in America. I hope I am wrong and another era of actual factual and real news happens in my lifetime.
A sad passing that still hurts to the point of tears . . . . . . .
I was watching. That was a sad day. Of course, since that time, there have been many more sad days, and not just in the news departments.
The last REAL news journalist/reporter … back then it was all about the news … now it’s all about the money …