Newswise — The world as Americans have been seeing it will never be quite the same again -- not because of some conflict, or even political action, but because nightly news anchors from two of the three biggest networks are stepping down. So claims Dr. Jeff Stein is the R.J. McElroy Chair in Communication Arts and an assistant professor of electronic media at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
According to Stein, anytime the figurehead or recognized symbol of network news operation steps down, it's a big change -- whether it was Walter Cronkite on CBS nearly 25 years ago, or NBC's Tom Brokaw or CBS' Dan Rather now.
"That's because we experience life through television and it's images, and who are the stable guiding forces to take us through those times of crisis? It's the network anchor, because they're the ones you identify with bringing you that news" says Stein, who is the political analyst for KWWL-TV in Waterloo, and executive secretary of the Iowa Broadcast News Association, as well as vice president of the Northwest Broadcast News Association. He is author of the recently-published book Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting.
"In an era where we became much more focused on television -- the 1970s, '80s and '90s -- the common thread was Tom Brokaw, whether it's been anchoring 'The Today Show,' standing outside the White House before Nixon resigned, or standing in front of the Berlin Wall before it came down. He's a transcending figure for so much of our experience, and it's even more special with Brokaw because of his The Greatest Generation books. He struck accord with huge segments of the population for something unrelated to the network news. That has brought him such notoriety and carved such a unique niche' that none of the network anchors could hope to do. He pre-empted that field."
Stein sees much of Brokaw's appeal being that "he's a straight forward Midwestern guy, who does not appear to have forgotten from where he came.
"There are times with (Dan) Rather -- particularly the 'Danism's of election night -- where he seems like he's forcing it. (Peter) Jennings is now a U.S. citizen, but he still has a bit of an accent. But there's something about Brokaw -- an innate sense -- that seem to connect with Americans," he says. "He's (Brokaw) the first one in the current cycle to do the news standing up. He started doing the news standing, and they (NBC) went to number one."
He believes NBC made the right choice for Brokaw's successor in Brian Williams too.
"If you want to keep things the way they're going, he's (Williams) the most logical choice. He's the most like Brokaw and will do very, well for them. It's going to take a while, because he's not Brokaw, and there's a little backlash whenever you replace somebody who's really a legendary figure now -- because they're just not that person. But he's been in that position (Brokaw's understudy and weekend anchor) long enough that the change will not be as extreme as it was when Rather took over for Cronkite. What NBC has already changed is subtle opening music and graphics, while Brokaw is still there. I'd be very surprised if they changed the set and evolution of newscast in the first year to make it more Brian Williams' show than Tom Brokaw's."
As for Rather, Stein finds both the timing and the nature of the announcement to be odd -- like CBS officials were trying to get out in front of more negative news, possibly concerning the investigation on Rather's erroneous reporting of President Bush's National Guard service record.
"They (CBS) didn't name a successor (for Rather). Why wouldn't you name a successor? It's odd, and makes you think they're not looking internally," he says. "When Cronkite stepped down, Rather was right there. When Brokaw announced he was stepping down, Brian Williams was right there. I think it's odd now. Some might make the assertion that its (the CBS timing) an attempt to upstage the Brokaw retirement during a ratings period, but I don't really know what CBS gains from that. The thing that shows you that it's a little weird is that you know that Rather wanted to hit 25 (years) in the anchor chair -- and obviously, that's not going to happen. That's one of those interesting things about this timing."
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