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Who Killed CBS?: The Undoing of America's Number One News Network
A former "CBS Morning News" media critic presents a thorough, inside account of the personalities and issues behind the deepening and multi-leveled crisis at CBS
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
362 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 1, 2025
I suppose some might find this work dated, but it contains the origins of where American broadcast news began the transition from informing the masses to just telling them what they want to hear. Lots of great anecdotes, the chapter dedicated to Dan Rather is comedy gold.
May 30, 2017
This book was ultimately a disappointment to me.
For better than 10 years, beginning sometime in 1965, probalby my favorite t.v. viewing time was watching the CBS evening news. Although the current assessment, and one that may well be correct, is that Walter Cronkite was the primary attraction, it was the reporters and other commentators that I enjoyed most. E.g., Eric Severied, Charles Collingwood, Harry Reasoner, Roger Mudd, Bruce Morton, Hughes Rudd, etc. Even Jack Whitaker, a sports commentator, was one of my favorite. I also got tremendous enjoyment from so many of their special reports and their morning news program (when my job demands permitted it). But I was so turned off by the decision to put Dan Rather in as Cronkite's replacement instead of the erudite, accomplished Roger Mudd that I have probably not watched more 10 of 15 of the evening broadcasts since the change. So, for me, the answer to the title was simple.
But this book provides many interesting facts about events related to CBS of which I was previously ignorant. The presentation could have been much better. A lot of editing and more thought to organization would have helped. Also, Boyer's shifting perspective made it difficult for me to assess most of his arbitrary conclusions about the merits of the various actors. Moreover, his description of 3 incidents involving Rather varies somewhat from my own. The punch to Rather's stomach at the 1968 Democratic convention; Rather's on air exchange with George H.W. Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign, and the "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" incident involving 1 or more persons attacking Rather on the streets of New York. In each instance, Boyer's account is somewhat more favorable to Rather than I had remembered. Two of them I witnessed directly and the third came to me through news reports. It may well be faulty memory on my part but it left me with a sense that Boyer's accounts of various incidents were unreliable.
I had previously read at least two books dealing with the some aspects of the same subject: "The Uncounted Enemy" and "Bad News at Black Rock."
Ultimately, I concluded that CBS news was "killed" by changing demographics. The people who buy the products that shape the consciences of major corporations simply share neither my values nor those of the people that produced CBS news during the time it was the highlight of my day.
For better than 10 years, beginning sometime in 1965, probalby my favorite t.v. viewing time was watching the CBS evening news. Although the current assessment, and one that may well be correct, is that Walter Cronkite was the primary attraction, it was the reporters and other commentators that I enjoyed most. E.g., Eric Severied, Charles Collingwood, Harry Reasoner, Roger Mudd, Bruce Morton, Hughes Rudd, etc. Even Jack Whitaker, a sports commentator, was one of my favorite. I also got tremendous enjoyment from so many of their special reports and their morning news program (when my job demands permitted it). But I was so turned off by the decision to put Dan Rather in as Cronkite's replacement instead of the erudite, accomplished Roger Mudd that I have probably not watched more 10 of 15 of the evening broadcasts since the change. So, for me, the answer to the title was simple.
But this book provides many interesting facts about events related to CBS of which I was previously ignorant. The presentation could have been much better. A lot of editing and more thought to organization would have helped. Also, Boyer's shifting perspective made it difficult for me to assess most of his arbitrary conclusions about the merits of the various actors. Moreover, his description of 3 incidents involving Rather varies somewhat from my own. The punch to Rather's stomach at the 1968 Democratic convention; Rather's on air exchange with George H.W. Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign, and the "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" incident involving 1 or more persons attacking Rather on the streets of New York. In each instance, Boyer's account is somewhat more favorable to Rather than I had remembered. Two of them I witnessed directly and the third came to me through news reports. It may well be faulty memory on my part but it left me with a sense that Boyer's accounts of various incidents were unreliable.
I had previously read at least two books dealing with the some aspects of the same subject: "The Uncounted Enemy" and "Bad News at Black Rock."
Ultimately, I concluded that CBS news was "killed" by changing demographics. The people who buy the products that shape the consciences of major corporations simply share neither my values nor those of the people that produced CBS news during the time it was the highlight of my day.
January 31, 2016
Good coverage of a story that keeps on downsizing, changing, not usually for better. Also see Auletta, Three Blind Mice.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews