Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Broadcast TV News Anchors Meet On Panel


The lead anchors of the three evening news broadcasts took part in a panel discussion in Las Vegas on Tuesday about the state of the news media in the age of President Trump, with a focus on the president's attacks against the media, according to The Hill.

"I don't think you can tweet away or insult away the years of integrity and trust that were built by these three organizations, so I don't think we're in danger on that level," NBC News anchor Lester Holt said in reference Trump's tweets aimed at the Fourth Estate.

"We are reporting to a divided America," ABC News' David Muir said during the panel at the PromaxBDA Station Summit, marking the first time the three anchors from ABC, NBC and CBS have been on stage together.

CBS News anchor Jeff Glor was asked about a recent analysis from the conservative Media Research Center that concluded 90 percent of coverage of Trump on the evening newscasts was negative.

"If you have an agenda, you don't belong in this business," Glor replied. "We're not trying to promote an agenda, one way or the other. We're trying to do the best news cast we can every night."

When asked about cable news, which draws more attention because of its 24/7 nature and provocative, oftentimes partisan opinions, Muir jabbed that the medium is increasingly a place "where you're going to hear your thoughts back to yourself."

Overall, the evening newscasts attract an average of more than 20 million across ABC, NBC and CBS, with Muir's "World News Tonight" now slightly ahead of Holt's "NBC Nightly News" in total viewers, averaging 7.93 million per weekday compared to 7.57 million for NBC in the month of May. CBS under Glor, who replaced Scott Pelley in 2017, finished third with just 5.68 million.

NBC did win the key 25 to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most, delivering 1.63 million viewers in the category compared to ABC's 1.59 million and CBS's 1.17 million.

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