How big a role does the anchor play in your choice of a newscast to watch?
Posted at 5:00 AM on November 22, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(32 Comments)
Filed under: Culture
Tonight is Don Shelby's final broadcast as anchor of the 10 p.m. news on WCCO-TV. Today's Question: How big a role does the anchor play in your choice of a newscast to watch?
Comments (32)
I forgot. I love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and Charlie Rose too for obvious reasons. Humor and intelligent inquiry do it for me.
I'll leave my favoring of Kerri's voice out of it this time.
How big a role does the anchor play in my choice of a newscast to watch?
I only liked Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio when I watched TV for a little while as an adult. When I was a kid Walter Cronkite and Dave Moore were doing the news. I just remember the Christmas stuff Dave did.
Now I pretty much get my news via MPR/NPR/BBC. (.. and life and internet ..)
I love intelligent articulate people asking great questions and giving clear reports. I enjoy all the male voices and favor the female ones. Thanks for making our lives more informed with dignity and respect.
Kerri Miller is usually at the top of my list of on air MPR/NPR personalities/minds :)
I'm glad Don Shelby was On Midday adoring Gary Eichten and being exactly where he wanted to be on MPR to finish out his conversion.
How big a role does the anchor play in my choice of a newscast to watch?
I only liked Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio when I watched TV for a little while as an adult. When I was a kid Walter Cronkite and Dave Moore were doing the news. I just remember the Christmas stuff Dave did.
Now I pretty much get my news via MPR/NPR/BBC. (.. and life and internet ..)
I love intelligent articulate people asking great questions and giving clear reports. I enjoy all the male voices and favor the female ones. Thanks for making our lives more informed with dignity and respect.
Kerri Miller is usually at the top of my list of on air MPR/NPR personalities/minds :)
I'm glad Don Shelby was On Midday adoring Gary Eichten and being exactly where he wanted to be on MPR to finish out his conversion.
I stopped watching the local news a longtime ago because anchors are so full of themselves and annoying. I listen to MPR, watch CSPAN inverterviews and Charlie Rose. Can't stand watching all of the foning and self indulgence of local anchors like Shelby. These guys are NOT insightfull, not funny and not worth our time.
Don Shelby was unique. Yes, I would watch his news because I trusted him. From personal experience being interviewed by him, he was one of the few news people who actually prepared for an interview and didn't try to do the gottcha game. I also enjoyed his commentaries.
In general, I will continue to watch channel 4 because they usually are not as ridiculously sensationalized as some of our other local channels. (5 and 9 are ridiculous!) But of course, most of my news comes from MPR!
I trust Don, and when he makes comments about the news I listen like he's Walter Cronkite. I'll miss him. He deserves a place next to Dave Moore in Minnesota history.
I've watched 'CCO since about 1980, and my parents did before that. Not as harsh or 'breaking newsy' as KSTP. However I don't watch nearly as much as I used to. I get most of my news from MPR, and the NYT.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are MY favorite anchors!
I'm more attracted to a station that has a certain "feel" to it. I've usually been drawn to WCCO, more for it's seemingly friendly nature. To me, there seems to be less hype and more discussion on WCCO. Not the "breaking news" or emphasis on latest technology. It has much more of a member of the community feeling than it's competitors in the twin cities. Don Shelby certainly contributed to that community feeling, but the other news readers there also encourage that same sentiment.
I'd like to say no, but I get very finicky when I choose my media, usually following whims rather than content.
it matters somewhat i will miss don shelby he is a great guy and anchor and carried channel 4 since dave moore. i dont really watch late news and miss supper news, but i listen to mpr, and watch whatever on weekends. but i agree with the previous comment in that channel 4 lost the great anchors since 4 sold to corporate cbs. when 4 was locally owned it reigned supreme and cco was the best radio station in the country!
I will continue to watch Newshour after Lehrer retires. Regarding local news, we flip channels in our house.
Anyone up for adapting that movie "Broadcast News" into a musical? Think about it. Could be a HUGE hit! Especially with Fox out there now. OMG hilarious material to work with!
I don't watch TV news. I listen to MPR. WCCO-TV used to have Dave Moore and superb TV anchoring. It got worse and worse after the Murphy family, owners, sold out to CBS. WCCO-AM used to be wonderful for decades. No longer, in my experience. WCCO is an empty shell of what it used to be.
I don't believe the person sitting in the chair makes much difference. Basically they are reading the news. I don't consider them journalists. Journalists write and unless your writing stories your not in the club. To top it off, most TV news is 'gotcha' news just trying to capture ratings. Heck, the weather guys even try to bate you and make everything worse-case.
Was that the best question you could come up with for today? I think the one Eichten is dealing with at noon (judicial politics) is much more interesting.
I quit watching local affiliate newscasts about ten years ago when I lived in Los Angeles, where it was all chit-chat and selling worst case scenario stories. When we moved here, it was more of the same.
Makes me sad, because I once worked in local television and know many very good journalists who got out of the business because of what it became (though I know a couple still fighting the fight, running a foul of station GMs and sales managers who are trying to run the newsrooms).
ZERO. I would rather hear about real news.
Whatever talking head is blabbing there agenda is irrelevant.
This seems like a self-serving question.
∑
DTOM
The news content is everything in my choice of newscast.
The anchor only matters insofar as that anchor affects said content.
People still watch the news? Local newscasts are largely filled with mindless tripe that isn't really news.
Not much. I usually do a lot of channel flipping just to get to the stories I want to hear. I don't like to turn reporters into local celebrities. Just tell the news.
Generally, perceived negatives about anchors influence my viewing choices more than my likes.
I will not watch FOX 9, especially because of Heidi Collins' arrogant post election interview with Mark Richie.
Will be switching off WCCO with Don Shelby's departure. I don't care about the happy couple, Frank and Amelia.
I don't perceive any credibility from the Channel 5 anchors. Most of them seem like they're just good readers, fresh out of school.
The more I write about this, the more shallow I feel. Just some honest stream of consciousness.
I think it is important. I will only watch WCCO news now because I feel like their anchors have real personalities verses annoyingly fake. Don Shelby has certainly been an influential news person for a long time and will definitely be missed I am sure.
I can't remember the last time I watched a local newscast. I'll stick with MPR and the internet for my news.
It probably matters more than people are consciously aware of, or will admit to, especially among MPR listeners, who fancy themselves to be uninfluenced by such frivolous things as a pretty face. If it didn't matter to the bottom line, why would commercial media pay such large salaries for popular anchors?
It doesn't. I gave up on the 9 or 10 o'clock news long ago.
They are just pretty faces who read teleprompters.
They speed right through all the important stuff and many times have me screaming at the TV set because they failed to ask the right question or leave you hanging with not reporting all the angles.
They can't wait to get the real news out of the way so to cover a story about kids singing at the Mall of America or some mixed marriage of a Packer and Viking fan husband and wife.
You can get the weather forecast and watch the radar from your smart phone. I don't need to watch reporters on highway overpasses every time we get a few inches of snow.
Same with sports scores.
The worse the anchor, the funnier it all is, so that's the one we'll watch.
Content? What's that?
None. Since Dave Moore left, I view them as largely interchangeable.
I quit watching televised news. It's all owned by corporations with their own political agenda and the reporting reflects that. And where were the hard hitting investigations into BP's culpability? Sure the spill was covered, but how about who's at fault? But then if they did investigate, BP and the rest of big oil would pull their millions in ads.
When news is dictated by selling commercials and content is censored based off, again, selling commercials, it is nonlonger news. It is propaganda.
I listen to MPR and get news from independent sources online. TV news is a dying business.
Watching local news is unbearable. Partially because the "news" they cover is worthless and recycled. Partially due to your question: the news casters are equally unbearable. I am so thankful Don Shelby is going away. He may be a nice guy (I wouldn't know), but he comes off as an arrogant ass. "In the Know" or whatever that segment was called is embarrassing.
(But "anchor Preference" works in radio, too... The Splendid Table is often interesting, but L.R.Casper's voice for some reason makes me crazy. On the flip side, I wouldn't normally listen to Speaking of Faith, but I like Krista Tippett's voice and speaking style.)
I don't watch TV news, especially the local news. It's too sensationalized and the anchors add to the dramatic effect with their perfectally quaffed hair and layers of makeup. They look less like TV personality that I could trust and more like a pre-teen beauty contestant.
Watch a newscast? I quit that when they quit covering the news in any meaningful form.
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