'NewsHour' Stays Dedicated

[kaitykaity]

'NewsHour' stays dedicated to thoughtful detail
by Peter Johnson, Media Mix, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2004-05-25-media-mix_x.htm

Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has been around long enough to know how television news works.
With the network news shows, he says, "you talk to a well-informed reporter for four or five minutes, and from all that 10 or 15 seconds will be extracted" on newscasts such as NBC Nightly News.

Talking to PBS' NewsHour With Jim Lehrer is different, says the 72-year-old Indiana Republican, a frequent guest since he was first elected in 1976. "The whole thing is there, for better or worse, and that's reassuring. The nuances are there, the qualifiers, the second opinion are all part of it." (Related item: Lehrer's siren song)

Lugar's press secretary, Andy Fisher, says NewsHour's clout is such that "I can't remember how many times he's appeared, and the next day I get a call from (NBC's) Andrea Mitchell or somebody else saying, 'He was so good that I'd like to interview him.' "

With broadcast and cable newscasts constantly worrying that the stories they choose and tone they set could cost them viewers and ad dollars, the hour-long, commercial-free NewsHour is an oasis where public policy officials and other newsmakers get to chew over issues in detail.

<more>

For me, the NewsHour is appointment TV.

[Tosca]

1. I try to catch the NewsHour every night.

It's so adult, so civil. Opposing views are presented and challenged without personal attacks or name-calling. It's the antidote to Faux News.

[kaitykaity]

2. Welcome to DU, Tosca!!

:hi:

[Tosca]

3. Hey, kaitykaity.

Thanks. I've been a read-only for many, many moons. This place is an oasis.