Legacy journalism is seeing some hard times, as the situation at ABC illustrates: its news division has announced it is going to close all of its brick and mortar bureaus around the nation (except the one in Washington DC) and will cut half of its domestic correspondents. Those who are left will be asked to work out of the local ABC affiliates.
[ABC News President David] Westin said the network would cope with the reduced manpower on breaking news stories by hiring freelance crews and making use of its expanded team of digital journalists, staffers who would be able to handle multiple tasks. Although a majority of stories will still be covered by traditional four-person crews, Westin said he expected a “plurality” of pieces would be done by people shooting and editing their own video. The digital journalists will be stationed in two-person teams around the country.
In other words, ABC News plans to make do with less, as millions of other businesses around America are doing. In this economy, it’s becoming a sadly familiar story.
What stands out, however, is how ABC sees no problem with paying ABC World News Tonight anchor Diane Sawyer an estimated $12 to $15 million per year while laying off the little people in order to make ends meet. And she doesn’t seem to have a problem cashing those juicy paychecks.
Now, ABC News is a private entity. It’s actually none of our business how much they pay anyone, let alone glamour puss Diane Sawyer. But it sure is funny to hear her shocked tone when talking about executive bonuses and “gigantic salaries” for “failed companies,” considering her “gigantic salary” working for what may very well become a “failed company.”
Not long ago, we heard that Katie Couric over at the CBS Evening News was going to have to take a “dramatic pay cut” in the wake of layoffs at CBS News – a rumor which was denied Sean McManus, president of CBS News & Sports. Yet considering that CBS Evening News continues to lag in last place, such a move, if true, would not be unprecedented. After all, don’t ratings correlate to advertising rates?
Speaking of CBS and Couric’s contract, rumor also has it that CNN’s Anderson Cooper has been approached about the anchor chair. Seriously? Anderson Cooper, who made vulgar jokes about Tea Partiers by saying “it’s hard to talk when you’re tea bagging” and whose own ratings aren’t exactly anything to brag about? If this is true, good luck to CBS; they’re going to need it.
Yes, broadcast news continues to dominate the ratings, but cable news is catching up – and online news sources are nipping at television’s heels, which includes just over one quarter of Americans getting their news on their cell phones.
Last year, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would allow newspapers, which have also taken a beating in the last decade, to reorganize as non profit organizations. If television news bureaus continue to sink, will such a bill in favor of television news surface?
Since one hand washes the other, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising.
On Monday, Rush Limbaugh wondered, in light of ABC’s woes, if the drivebys (as he refers to the legacy media) will report on how Obama’s ideas have failed the economy.
I don’t know. I wonder what Diane Sawyer thinks?
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127 Comments
Is Diane Sawyer a hypocrite?
Of course she is!
She has worked hard to get where she is, and she is entitled to it. Entitled to everything.
/sarc off
Isn't it about time for a CONgressional bailout for ABC and the rest of the MSM?
I simply can't wait for MSNBC to go lights out……………
Diane is the best of the "BigThree"…
That ain't sayin' much at this point…
"Anderson Cooper, who made vulgar jokes about Tea Partiers by saying “it’s hard to talk when you’re tea bagging” "
Actually, its is hard to talk when you are the recipient of a teabagging, but I am sure Anderson knows that.
I'm sure while being tea-bagged, Anderson Cooper giggles like a school girl………..
MILF bigtime.
Network News has long been a dying dinosaur, mirred in the La Brea tar pits, slowly succumbing to a long agonizing death. What fantasic news. These limosuine liberals have done myriad damage and deserve pink slips.
It's unfortunate that rank & file camera people, technicians, and the various and sundry "liitle people" will get hurt in this transition while the anchors and "on air talent" like Sawyer will be helicoptered and limo'ed to their mansion relatively unaffected by this.
If any of these networks had any brains and/or integrity they would adopt some actual objectivity and look at the success of Fox News and try to be fair and balanced, because look at the ratings – IT WORKS!
You have poor taste.
There was a great segment tonight on O'Reilly with Bernie Goldberg. The MSM is done. Stick a fork in 'em. Ask not for whom the bell tolls………
ABC should bill the DNC for all the public relations work they've done for them. They earned it.
I smell a bail out coming.
Ya know, I hate to sound more ignorant than usual, I had NO idea A. Cooper was gay.
Now that I know that it make the "teabagging" remark that much more disgusting.
It's always like this with the liberal elite. Obama tells us to tighten our belts and live healthy and then lives an extravagant lifestyle while drinking and smoking to excess. Diane Sawyer feels no guilt over this because the liberal elite want to make rules and conditions for the masses that do not apply to themselves.
lol! I'm sure Obama could fling a few BILLION $$$$ in loose change at them.
He spends billions like a newly docked sailor at Coney Island.
I reckon you and I were the last two to know.
I just thought he was the consummate metrosexual.
"I don’t know. I wonder what Diane Sawyer thinks?"
Typo? Was it supposed to read:
"I don’t know. I wonder IF Diane Sawyer thinks?"
Wah! I will miss them SOOO much!
I think IT meant "Mostly Ignorant Liberal Foot-soldier".
What ABC is really saying, fire Americans and outsource American news to India, japan and china.
Obamasize her salary; redistribute the wealth and let others feed their families.
Funny!
"If any of these networks had any brains and/or integrity…"
"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts…"
Dying dinosaur(s)? Nah, FUTURE oil reserves.
I think there is a drug for that…
I think I'm proud I didn't know that little tid bit of info. How "Un-New Yorker" of me. Thankfully.
Ya, in about a few million years…mean while back at the ranch…
C'mon. Anyone who puts any stock in her is either uneducated, old or just plain stupid.
Good idea. Let everyone feed at her trough.
"Mentally Incompetent Leftist Fruitcake" also came to mind, but seemed awful redundant. Glad you liked…
I think Diane Sawyer should mud wrest Katie Couric to raise money for the laid off News people.
The oil or the brains/integrity?
What about the ranch? Really, I want to know…
If you're going to be vulgar, at least be accurate. Sawyer doesn't have any kids.
I read a very disturbing piece today on Rupert Murdoch and his offspring.
'The News Corp. patriarch turns 79 years old on March 11. The younger generation—Prudence, 51; Elisabeth, 41; Lachlan, 38; James, 37—is no longer that young. Three of its members are accomplished businesspeople in their own right. And they, along with senior News Corp. executives, have been working toward the day when Rupert is no longer making the decisions. They are trying to shape and define his legacy, sometimes editing out parts, like Roger Ailes and Fox News, that offend their sensibilities, while trying to position the company for a future that looks very different from the present.
When Murdoch moves on to the editing room in the sky, 'fair and balenced is doomed'
Here is hoping AB has a broadcast license by then…
Thank God!
I'm trying to think of the right word.
Stunning.
Disconcerting.
Shocking.
Startling.
Unsettling, all come to mind.
Kind of hard to believe what these news readers are saying when all I can see is 'hypocrite' rolling across their foreheads.
One thing is for sure, Diane Sawyer is a bleeding heart SOCIALIST!
You are correct. The oldest voted for Obama. She is actually a real piece of work.
Semi-off-topic: "The La Brea Tar Pits" translates to "the The Tar tar pits".
The oil. I think the networks having "brains and integrity" thing has no chance.
As for the ranch – I just like typing that. It's sounds "old Hollywood"!
The plight of the living dead.
Ya, come to think of it, it does. How do the "word it" on the signs and such?
Take out a "the" and it sounds like a biker bar. Owned by a chick named "Bam Bam".
Don't ask how she got THAT nick name.
Diane Sawyer's father was a Republican judge in Louisville. She started her career working for Nixon. We at least have a chance with her.
I think Diane Sawyer should mud wrest Katie Couric to raise money for the laid off News people.
Please I just ate. Yuchhh.
Vote with the remote. Anyone who watches or buys the sponsored products extends the life of these liars.
The best way to send the message that people don't like them is by using the old fashioned "shunning" method
to change the behavior of these useful idiots. When the people who lay out the money to support these cultural parasites stops, then their shows will die off much faster.
That's scary. Dare we hope that Andrew Breitbart will be branching out to television by then?
I wonder who guards the entry to the broadcast world? Could it be the Obamunists?
Yes, I liked his line about how the news directors should really be called funeral directors!
Given how much News Corp. stock Al-Waleed bin Talal owns, and how he influences Fox News reporting of "certain" events, there is little fair or balanced to be doomed.
She is a socialist who should practice the social justice that she preaches, and spread the wealth out of her own check book and let the people keep their jobs. Come on, Diane! Capitalist pig!
.
1) The liberals always claim they are for the little people. Basically, they just use everyone to get more power. Just ask the real leaders of the black community.
2) If the government bails out the television news media in the same way they did GM and Chrysler, doesn't that mean that the government would own them? So, in essence, the TV media gets outed. They will have to actually admit what the intelligent people have known all along; they have been working for the Obama administration. With a bail out, there will be no denying it.
They're betting big time on government bailouts from Obama and have bet the ranch on it and him.
They've actually put a figure on how much they think is fair — $30 billion per year. Yes, really.
It never even occurs to these people, or the ones in Hollywood who scream the loudest, that they are the biggest hypocrites and beneficiaries of our system.
Oprah makes $400 milion per year, and not a peep. Yet, they'll skewer the CEO of Exxon who worked his way up to head the worlds biggest corp for what he earns.
.
Fox needs to be liberated from News Corp before he passes. In fact the Al Waleed influence is already affecting it, so this needs to be done sooner rather than later.
Maybe we can put together backing for a buy-out by AB or by an internal group. LBO anyone?
sorry guys, can't make myself care. They will get smart, or die of stupitity. Either way is fine.
Note that ABC will keep its Washington Lobby open, working on that government bailout plan. Hmm, and about that talk of nonprofit status. As I recall I can't write off money I donate to political causes. There is no way on God's green earth that those propaganda operations qualify for tax-free status, and we must NOT let them get it.
Considering how many viewers the "legacy" networks are losing (and this in an economy where millions are out of work and home in time for the "news"!) maybe she IS talking to herself…
PS – I predict Anderson Pooper will replace the network anchor whose wardrobe he can wear with the least alterations.
For the progressive/dem/libs to attempt a “bail out” of their PR firms with our tax dollars is the last straw!
Media companies are NOT non-profit organizations – UNLESS they choose to be! They may be operating in a non-profit mode due to spending more than they can afford to and trying to sell a LOUSY PRODUCT!
They have broken all recognized rules of true journalism and tried to foist off their editorial pages as the front page news.
They have no problem offending and denigrating us, their customers. We’re only the “little people.” The ones without enough sense to “get it.”
Well, I have a NEWS FLASH of my own for the MSM – we GET IT! We began putting our money where our morals and values are. We began walking our talk. If that has impacted your big, fat salaries and bonuses in a negative way, then, WISE UP.
WISE UP OR FAIL!!!
Yes, but did you know that his mother is Gloria Vandervilt, the fashion designer?
She's basically the one who began the designer jeans fad.
What was that…..ranch….what?
Couldn't resist.
A former award-winning news anchor told me some years ago, that the network tv news was kaput already, and just hadn't realized it yet.
Jamesb, I saw a joke the other day you've probably already seen 50 times. Seems Obama overheard some gals talking about a "Brazillian." Ouch!
Well, he didn't know it involved the bikini line and excitedly called up Rahm and asked him if a brazillion came after a trillion.
Oh, Diane thinks. She is actually quite smart, and I believe she won America's Junior Miss pageant back in the day.
The thing is, in order to get ahead in the biz, these people go along to get along. And the ones they need to get along with are the progressive/dem/libs at the top of the food chain.
I read that some famous Hollywoodite said there were more closeted conservatives in LaLa Land than there were homosexuals.
lol! not bad, I'm spreading that one around!
Ah-hem….if they receive a bail-out of OUR money, you might change your mind.
I had read that somewhere, I remember those days.
Great on the girls, on a "guy" they were an invitation to a butt whoopin' in Texas.
This is Wrangler Country.
No, then they will indeed be "Pravda."
I think these mega stars receive so much money for what they do, that they lose touch with what is real and what isn't. Then, they begin to feel that "guilt" we hear so much about. They know they are grossly overpaid. They don't want to give up the $$$. But they feel guilty about it.
Well, it's time they either got over their guilt trips or funded them with their own $$$, not ours.
Fox opinion shows like Beck, O'Rielly and Hannity make NO BONES about being conservative/Republican. They admit it. Beck is a Libertarian and O'Reilly claims to be "independent" but, I've readf one of his books and he's a solid conservative.
The NEWS shows tend to be objective – and besides – we conservatives SUFFERED for 35 plus years of one sided liberal media.
That's why I and many others flocked to Fox News when it came on air/cable in 1996. I was EQUAL TIME.
As for the "gettin' rich" angle, you're right – but at least they don't pretend to be objective and still make zillions like the liberals on the other networks.
Hehehe…..
Well, at first I had written that perhaps he wore them to school which led to his "teabagging" habits. Then, I decided that might be offensive and deleted it.
Be Afraid Congress, Be Very Very Afraid!
Now It's Personal…
http://usataxpayer.org/?0036174522
Hey Rancher. you'll appreciate this. Awhile back I had some business with a man that had a huge pest control business based out of Houston but was a really big operation all over Central and that part of Texas.
He was an older man and abit ill so he stayed at his ranch, Cimmaron – north of Lake Travis in the Hill Country, near Marble Falls. I was given the gate code at the highway – then I would drive a few miles to the NEXT gate and another code and then it was a mile or so to the house. There were llamas and exotic African – whatever the heck they were Impalas and gazells and stuff. Buffalos, Longhorns etc. Gorgeous ranch house, bard garage etc….really nice view of the river running by below the cliff the house is on, magnificent. Wow, that ranchin', not actual cattle ranching but botique exotic ranching.
I lived west of Austin on Lake Austin for many years and I had to pass about six or so miles through Steiner Ranch, and it was still a working ranch, althought they eventually movedd the cattle to the big ranch east of Austin. I almost hit some big steers a few time at night. Those were some nice ranches.
I don't make much money, but I'd be happy to pitch in what little I could. I'd imagine there are a lot of us that would pay something to save Fox News.
Maybe she will talk to herself, for analysis, that would be a new twist.
We've been discussing the obvious tweeks they could do to compete with FNC for months now……But it seems their Idiology prohibits it…. even if they have to fire everyone and close the doors,… admitting the left wing- nut bias is the problem is not in their vocabulary..
If Barry the 'Bamster wants to bails out any of these MSM dinosaurs, there WILL be hell to pay…The next little plane may be me…aimed at CONgress…
It will interesting to see if the 'socially just' stars of the MSM such as Sawyer and Couric consider giving back some their eight figure salaries to retain some of the 'hired help' at their respective networks…
I will be watching.
Isn't little Anderson's mummy "Gloria Vanderbilt"? Would that not explain 1st the job, 2nd, how he was able to keep it. This snide little person has accomplished what…handing out mummy's autograph.
Naievetee has its positive sides.
Uh! I'm certain you realize that would take work, integrity, paying attention and reporting and not the runaway commentary that msm has grown accustomed to paying the bills with. Their entire schtick has been self defeating and none of them could see it. That or commienism is more desirable than a high paying job in a free society.
Who the hell is Diane Sawyer?
You mean, Diane Sawyer mud-wrestle? What are you thining?! You can't expect someone of her stature to do that!
After all, look at the scandal she exposed! You've heard of Deep Throat? Well, Diane is known as Sore Throat!
Unfortunately, they're a lot like the monster or villain shot full of holes at the end of the movie. They can still do some serious damage before they die!
C'mon drifter! Fox is just as slanted as the other MSM only to the right instead of the left. Fox has their share of token liberals who, like all of them, are there for the ratings. Beck and O'Reilly are turning into (more so Beck) side show hucksters who are only about promoting themselves and their books or stage shows. The personalities on Fox have no business beating up on the other networks when all of them do the same things only with different spins. Conservatives hate liberals and liberals hate conservatives, both huddle up to their favorite networks, get their fix of self-righteousness as fed to them by their adopted elites and come away from the screens feeling they have been to the mountain and consulted with their gurus smug in knowing they're right all along. And the millionaire gurus all head to the bank at the end of the show.
Good news people's lives are in jeopardy, so it is right this woman join Couric in the ranks of the unemployed. When there is no bottom line (no profitability), these things happen. Maybe these two can appeal to Obama for their jobs.
It was fake, but accurate!
If Anderson Cooper gets the CBS gig, at least the ratings in the Village will be through the roof.
She's got caluses (sp?) on her knees to prove it.
I'm sure he's an expert as a giver as well as a receiver.
If CBS is going to interview Anderson Cooper, why not also ask Bill Maher to come in as well? Maybe team them up together. Throw in Joy Behar for the "Comic Segment" and you would have a Progressive ratings winner.
In answer to the title of this post. Most definitely she is a "salary hypocrite".
Now the good news. They can make mega bucks selling spots to Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big bankers since the Supreme court ruling.
Who needs reporters on the ground? They can regurgicate stories from blogs like Huffpost, DailyKoss and Media matters.
It is less labor intense since the past 9 years were people on the ground seeking stories to smear Bush and Cheney.
Robin Roberts?
MSM are like dinosaurs after a giant meteor strike. Diane Saywer is just another 'pretty face'…. a bobble-headed bleach blonde with a gleam in her eye.. all style no substance..
In other words, ABC News plans to make do with less, as millions of other businesses around America are doing. In this economy, it’s becoming a sadly familiar story.
It's called increasing productivity. If done right it isn't necessarily a bad thing.
"…a Progressive ratings winner. "
the video reincarnation of Err Amerika…
Regarding O'Reilly… Being a conservative or a liberal does not mean you have to subscribe to the Republican or Democratic parties. A lot of conservatives are independent, a lot of independents are liberal, and some are middle of the road. Republicans abandoned their conservative base a while ago, in exchange for a moderate progressive approach. Democrats abandoned their base a while ago, in exchange for communis… err liberalism.
Yes, true. I understand the difference. I worded that a bit vaguely. No shame or issue being independent, other than for the porfessional politician, the party apparatus is geared to party not 3rd party runs which are generally futile at the national level – hence politicians need to find a place in the parties. Comentators don't.
Cable news + Breitbart + PJTV = AWESOME!
"Four-person crews?" Sounds like your typical public-works truck where one person drives while the other three smoke and drink coffee.
Diane Sawyer is not a journalist; she, like Katie Couric, is an entertainer. As Dick Gregory remarked to Don Imus, "intertainers are one step removed from Pimps". In Diane's case, she really is a Pimp; getting rich on the efforts of others. Not that I have any sympathy for legacy media. Any member of the 4th Estate that endorses socialism, most of them do, have little sense of history, since after schools(children), heathcare(poor), guns(resistence), and manufactoring(production), the media becomes subjegated. As for ABC, what does it say about an organization, that the only place they will continue to maintain a permanent presence outside their broadcast studios is inside the Wash DC beltway. No area in the US is more divorced from reality.
Legacy media????? Don't you mean lamestream media?
No, she's a prostitute. She gets paid for selling herself out. If she had to really work for a living, she would not do very well in NYC since the other pros are much better at this game.
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