Network News Re-runs

Remember when the main goal of network TV news divisions was to fight to make sure they broke the big story before the competition? Now it seems they are falling all over each other to make sure you see that big story, over and over again.

When I started out in local television news, it was considered heresy to run the same story twice. If you could not find enough stories to fill a newscast you just weren’t good enough. How times and budgets have changed.

Last night the NBC Nightly News ran a story about President-elect Obama leaving Chicago for the big time in DC. And they ran a story about New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrawing as the nominee for Commerce Secretary. They were Interesting and timely news stories. But if you missed them, not to worry. They ran again virtually unchanged on The Today Show the next morning.

I can tell you that after spending decades in the TV news business, it was not a news producer making that decision, but a bean counter. The news you now watch is dictated not by immediacy or importance, but by budget cuts. I am not picking on NBC, a news operation I admire very much. The fact is it is happening at every network news division.

Those cuts are so severe that often a story runs again unchanged because there was not enough video shot (no cameraperson on overtime), there was not an editor available to re-edit the piece (staff cutbacks), or the younger (and cheaper) correspondents did not have the time or experience to “freshen up” the story.

And networks wonder why they are losing viewers to their evening newscasts? After all, why watch when you can get the same story the next day.

And it will only get worse. People tune out, so advertisers opt out, and the slippery slide into mediocrity continues. But don’t worry. You can always get your news fix from the internet. Those web pages are updated constantly, by kids with no journalism experience or adult supervision.

(Brian Banmiller is a national Business Correspondent for CBS News Radio, free lance writer and public speaker. The former television business news anchor in San Francisco can be reached at brian@banmilleronbusiness.com .)