[opendtv] Re: Layoffs sweep TV networks and their affiliates
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 17:41:12 -0400
FWIW, I listened to a two-part interview with Roger Mudd, on C-SPAN
Radio, the past two Sundays.
Here are some pertinent excerpts, FWIW. I was especially surprised by
yesterday's point, on the outrageous salaries paid to news anchors.
Broadcasters are forced to pay these salaries because the competition is
so intense, but the salaries are so high they can't afford decent news
coverage anymore?
Sounds like catch-22 to me.
Bert
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http://12.170.145.182/Transcript/?ProgramID=1173
[Excerpt from Sunday March 30 interview]
LAMB: What's your analysis? Were we better off in the days when Eric
Sevareid had an audience of 25 million, or today, when most people who
have opinions get an audience of a million?
MUDD: Well, I like the old days, Brian. I think it is - television now
is so diverse, and you can't any longer go to a channel or a program and
get a good rendering of the day's events. It is so bifurcated. You get
maybe 10 minutes of news at the beginning of each evening news
broadcast, and the rest is lifestyles and, you know, how to treat your
dog, or how to train your cat, or whatever. But it's not news much
anymore.
LAMB: Why has this happened?
MUDD: Well, because it's so diverse, and there's so much competition.
You know, it used to be with the three networks and then maybe three or
four. And then came deregulation. And then it was 20 channels, and then
it was 50. And now it's how many, 500 channels? And cable. And there's a
channel for everybody in America, virtually.
And so, as a consequence, with the competition being what it is,
attention being shorter and shorter, and the pie, which used to be cut
up into three or four pieces is not slivers of 500, and everybody has to
make the pie a little sweeter to hold the audience.
And so, as a consequence - at least in my view - the quality of news
broadcasting has declined, because of the pressure to hold the audience,
to keep the audience interested, because that remote can pop off to 500
different places.
http://12.170.145.182/Transcript/?ProgramID=1174
[Excerpt from Sunday April 6 interview]
MUDD: Well, OK. You know, look, the union was, for television people,
with the salaries we were making, the union was not a major factor in
our lives. We were so far beyond union scale by that time, you know. All
of us were making $500, $750,000 a year.
LAMB: What do you think of an anchor today - the top anchor supposedly -
top paid anchor supposedly gets about $15 million?
MUDD: At least.
LAMB: Is that good?
MUDD: Well, no, it's not good. What's happened, of course, that - not to
single out one or the other, but the anchors' salaries are so huge that
the news divisions are cutting back and they don't have the money
anymore to do anything. News coverage has been cut back. Salaries are
out of control, but the competition is so intense that they're forced to
pay that money.
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