Now, a skeleton crew often supports a highly paid, poorly trained anchor. To save money, stations use more canned features. They hire cheap, snagging young people who think Edward R. Murrow was a puppeteer. And places such as WMAQ, a respected station, turn to folks like Springer. You almost understand.
News is business and, facing desperate times, it's hard to choose to go down lean and clean.
But news is also history, both in what is covered and what isn't. And history watches. Maybe that doesn't matter. That's what's great about a nation with a teensy attention span disgrace or grace, it's all over in 10 seconds. News is business and, facing desperate times, it's hard to choose to go down lean and clean.