Monday, January 13, 2014

Analyst: Diane Sawyer's ABC Newcast 'Disneyfied'

Diane Sawyer’s “World News Tonight” is the least serious evening news broadcast and is “now certifiable Disneyfied,” according to well-known TV news business analyst, Andrew Tyndall.

According to The NY Post, Tyndall has released a scathing review of Sawyer’s broadcast in his 2013 news industry annual report.

“2013 marks the year when ABC World News finally rejected the mission of presenting a serious newscast,” wrote Tyndall, noting that ABC’s broadcast did the least coverage of weighty issues such as the budget debate, health-care roll-out and gun control and instead loaded up on stories about sports and show business.

“The only major stories that ABC covered competitively were true crime — the George Zimmerman trial and Ariel Castro’s Cleveland hell house — and celebrity: London’s baby prince,” Tyndall wrote.

The Mouse House network immediately returned fire and tore into the report.

ABC News is the only one of the three major broadcast news divisions not to pay Tyndall for his minute-by-minute analysis of who’s covering what on the evening news, ABC’s news p.r. chief Jeffrey Schneider said — trying to cast Tyndall’s attack as financially motivated.

In addition, the quality of news broadcasts shouldn’t be judged on how many minutes they dedicate to any single topic, Schneider told The Post.

Tyndall argues that his data shows CBS has the most serious evening news coverage because it covered foreign policy and policy debates in depth.

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In a response statement Tyndall stated, "I resent any insinuation that my research findings represent some kind of shakedown: that I would suppress them if only ABC resumed its subscription. Prior to these insinuations, I had no animus towards ABC and would embrace any decision they might make to reverse course and resume serious coverage of the day's news."

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