I thought Frontline did a really good job putting together the "News War" piece. They began by showing clips of the Daily Show, which is the only show on cable that parodies the style of evening news. It was nice to get a background on how news got to that point- it was the invention of 60 Minutes and subsequent copies that came about when it was realized that this format could make money. There was a very quick cut of an interviewee saying something about how there is now an expectation for show profits to grow every year in order for a program to be considered a success. This idea is what poisons the craft of journalism but it's unfortunately common.
When I think about the Frontline story in its totally though i can't help but think this: the news is businesses, they are not a branch of the government that receives public funds...so if we have concrete expectations for them that do not have anything to do with money-making then maybe we need to have some other way of keeping them running that is independent of their ratings or advertising revenue potential (like being publicly owned). But even then, there is still a bajillion other sources of news that people will go to.
The ABC news producer interviewed at the beginning essentially said that the definition of news is now wider than ever because of the fact that their is more space to fill. I actually agree with this- 'news' is subjective...because not everyone has the same interests. Ultimately though, The more variety to chose from, the better off we all are.
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