The New York Times analyzes the supposed goodbyes of Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel and Mike Wallace: “None of the so-called departees expressed any interest in actually stepping away from viewers’ TV screens, or dwelled on the word ‘retirement’ in their farewell remarks. Instead, they emphasized their intention to continue contributing to their respective networks, or on competing channels.
The networks haven’t figured out how to breed the next generation of anchors, Jacques Steinberg continues, so the “senior generation has become something of a placeholder, keeping the network franchises together until the arrival of new faces and strategies.”
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