Long before I was declared, with Morley Safer’s approval, to be a member of the CBS Family, I followed The CBS Evening News.
Growing up, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC were cold, off-putting and intimidating to me. They conveyed a sense that “beware, the world is a scary place.”
Walter Cronkite on CBS was a firm authority figure, while also being warm, welcoming and reassuring that, “we can get through this.” I was a big fan of Cronkite’s series The 21st Century. That was when I first heard about lasers over fiber optic cable. Having been myself, albeit not in a big way, a broadcast journalist, I consider Cronkite to be the reference standard for integrity.
By today’s age standards, Cronkite was required to retire much too soon, but I thought Dan Rather was a capable successor. I remember watching his infamous 1974 exchange with Nixon as it happened.
After Rather, CBS News lost its way, especially when the news division was put under the entertainment division. Consistency and stability were finally restored to the evening newscast by Nora O’Donnell. Now Nora is gone, and I am not surprised by this news item.
CBS News Ratings Collapse After Norah O’Donnell Exit
https://www.tvinsider.com/1177996/cbs-news-ratings-norah-odonnell-john-dickerson-maurice-dubois/
I disliked the new format so much that after two nights I switched to NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. So ended my sixty years following The CBS Evening News, and now Lester Holt has announced that he’s leaving!
Fortunately, there is The PBS News Hour, that I began watching when it was the MacNeil/Lehrer Report. They’ve been providing excellent, professional coverage of the chaos that has gripped the nation with the return of Trump to the White House.