“Hold That Obit”

By Brian 

“Nightly news is hot again,” the latest edition of American Journalism Review declares, “if hotness can be measured by the number of inches devoted to the anchor race in the nation’s newspapers and magazines. Suddenly, the evening newscasts have what their morning print counterparts can only dream of: buzz and opportunity.”

The best part of the package is this sidebar, titled “Nightly News Obituaries.” Here’s a sample:

Asked if the network news divisions would exist in 15 to 20 years, former CBS News President Fred Friendly responded, “I don’t think so.”

(Interview with the Los Angeles Times, 1986)

“If you want my prediction about the network news in the next 10 years, it would have to be that I’m not sure there’s going to be any, at least not in the sense of a regular network news presentation on a daily basis.”

(Former NBC News President Reuven Frank to Playboy, 1989)

One of the three newscasts “will go away in the next 10 years.”

(Former ABC News Executive Vice President Paul Friedman to the Hollywood Reporter, 1996)

What do all three of these men have in common? They’re “former…”

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