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Peter J. Boyer, Who Killed CBS?: The Undoing of America's Number One Network (Random House, 1988) Reissued by St. Martin's Press in 1989. On March 6, 1981 Walter Cronkite, renowned as America's "Most Trusted Man," anchored his final CBS Evening News nightly newscast after nineteen years as the top gun at the Tiffany Network. Cronkite retired from the program and Dan Rather began a new era of the CBS Evening News the following Monday. Cronkite's retirement was the end of an era for CBS News, the network news division that arguably invented broadcast journalism. Cronkite's departure would also wind up marking the beginning of the long decline of the half-hour nightly network news broadcast, which continues to this day. CBS was at the top of the network news competition when Cronkite left and continued to win with Rather, although ratings fell and advertising sales dropped. Rather and his producers felt that in order to remain on top and entice advertisers, they would have to break from tradition and produce a program that had more entertainment value for viewers. At the same time, the rival networks were looking to improve their ratings and took Cronkite's departure as their opportunity to lure members of CBS's deep talent pool to their news divisions. CBS paid big money to keep their top talent (including Rather, who had a ten-year, $22 million contract) while losing others they wanted to keep. Budget cuts were implemented at CBS News – a practice that directly affected news coverage (important news stories were not covered in order to save money). With the addition of the soft news magazines 48 Hours and West 57th, the CBS News division was increasingly producing entertainment in the form of soft news. The popularity of these programs led to increased soft news coverage on the Evening News and blurred the line between entertainment and news, paving the way for cable news channels and other entertainment news programs. Boyer's inside look into the turmoil at CBS News, mainly between 1981 and 1986, is a fascinating look into the world of network television news at the beginning of its decline in stature and relevance. Of particular lingering significance in the book is the portrayal of Rather, who has managed to remain the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News to this day (even after an ill-fated co-anchoring pairing with Connie Chung in the mid-'90s). Most of the other key players in Who Killed CBS? are no longer in the network news business, which highlights the fickle world of the television industry (news divisions and otherwise). Clifford Terry of The Chicago Tribune wrote of Who Killed CBS?, "It is a meat-and-potatoes book, serviceable and well crafted; it is also rather stolid, and the bewildering barrage of names, job exchanges and inner-sanctum machinations may very well stagger those who are not in the business or related to the heavy-breathing participants." Rodney Carveth of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media wrote: "The mission for CBS News is no longer whether to adhere to a traditional standard of news presentation. Its mission now is to survive in an era of dwindling audiences, cable competition, and a tougher advertising market. The real story is not that CBS News changed but, unlike its two network rivals, that CBS, Inc. was able to maintain its corporate independence." At the time of the book's publication in 1988, Boyer was the television correspondent for The New York Times ; he is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. MORE: 1998 PBS Boyer bio Publisher’s Weekly review |
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