CBS News Overhaul

The New York Times reported today that, in efforts to gain an advantage in the evening news market after the departure of Dan Rather, CBS will switch to much more of an ensemble feel in it's evening news program, having multiple anchors with a less authoritative style. They even listed Jon Stewart as possibly having a role in the evening news.

While this is a much needed change from an evening news style that has increasingly grown stale over the years, there are many pitfalls CBSNews can fall into, especially after the controversy it endured over the past year. CBSNews has to realize that, while their mistakes were certainly unacceptible, the harsh criticism they faced was, in many ways, artificial, since it was such an easy target from the conservative media and other rival media outlets. It runs the dangerous risk of overcompensating for the liberal media claims and switching to overly conservative commentary. While that commentary would be at most half-hearted, it would perpetuate a dangerous trend in American media that CBS has resisted, that is driving outlets like the New York Times and the New Republic into the ground. But by not firing Andrew Heyward, president of CBSNews, CBS President Leslie Moonves has already taken a step in the right direction that the aformentioned publications didn't have the guts to do, especially with a much higher-profile scandal.

On the other side of the coin, however, CBSNews also has to make sure some of the fundamental problems that have existed in recent years don't remain, or even get worse. Unlike most of such claims, CBS News is, in fact, much more openly leftist than it should be as a major American source of news. Regardless of the fact that it is the weakest of major networks news, and regardless of the unfair ignorance of all Rather has accomplished due to the events of the past year, CBSNews has to make sure it does a better job of covering all sides of the issue at hand, and increase its awareness of its effect on the public. In that respect, the possible role of Jon Stewart is a double-sided coin. While Stewart has transcended the comedy world and has become an invaluable media commentator, he doesn't have the discipline of a serious newscaster. While his role in breaking up Crossfire and shrinking the level of tolerance of media hackery is one of the most important developments in television news of the past year, anyone who watches The Daily Show realizes how easily Stewart can lose respect for an interviewee after trying to take them seriously, especially if it's a right wing interviewee. While that works brilliantly on Comedy Central, it would be disastrous for the Evening News.

Another landmine CBSNews has to avoid is the potential for a Network-like change in its approach to news. It has stated it wants to reenergize the evening news, which, although necessary, could easily allow the frivolous. This is a more likely transformation than becoming right-wing, especially since it has stated that it's evening news overhaul is intended to compete with other evening news programs. There are more paths of disaster CBS can take here than can be mentioned--it could switch to a local news format, increase entertainment news and decrease world news, use ridiculous commentary, increase human interest stories, or even satirize what other networks are reporting. While Moonves and Heyward are smart enough to know what their doing and what their market is, it must nonetheless be tempting to try to attract a younger audience than the 18-49 market that dominates evening news audiences. While Jon Stewart is by no means the worse they can do, they have to make sure that, whether or not they hire Stewart, that The Daily Show stays on Comedy Central and the Evening News stays on CBS.