Re:The Meltdown at CNN
by tptacek on Sunday June 04, 2023 @11:10PM
(#36191802)
Select whichever words best describe the challenge of getting a million people to watch cable news --- or, really, any news show for more than 30 minutes. That's how much time Walter Cronkite had, and he had roughly 30 million viewers.
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Walter Cronkite only had to keep viewers interested for a 1 hour news show each day, not 24/7. The network his show ran on spent most of its time airing things that were not news. CNN is trying to run news 24/7, and of course it's failing to keep people interested given that.
Also, Walter Cronkite had only two other major networks to compete with. CNN has to compete with however many cable channels there are plus the entire Internet. I'm not sure even Cronkite could have kept 30 million viewers in today's environment.
The CBS Evening News was only 30 minutes long when Cronkite anchored it. :) We basically agree, though.