Sunday on Reliable Sources, Linda Douglass, David Zurawik, Rebecca Dana, and Gail Shister talked about the ABC anchor swap. Zurawik, the Baltimore Sun’s TV critic, said:
| “…Two things are going on here. One, I think part of the story we’re not talking about is the new owners of these — of the network news. One of the analysts I talked to said this isn’t Bill Paley anymore. Like Paley’s the good guy all of a sudden, because he doesn’t act this way. They said you’re no longer an anchor for 20 years when you get to be an anchor. These new companies, if the ratings are tanking the way they were for ABC News, they’ll change on a dime. And that newscast was in trouble. Bringing in a co-anchor is not going to fix it the way this could. And also, Howie, as you said earlier, the shadow of Peter Jennings here is so important, and almost everyone at ABC News saw Gibson as the heir apparent. And if you wanted to bring stability to what was clearly a really rocky situation, who better to bring in? |
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