Viewers face choice between new dumbed-down "Nightline," or none at all

Variety: 'Nightline' topics hit dimmer switch
By BRIAN LOWRY

"A BRIGHTER TAKE on the day" say the ABC News promos, but enough time has elapsed since Ted Koppel's departure to conclude that "Nightline" -- once broadcast news' shining beacon -- has actually hit the dimmer switch....

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Divided into a trio of stories as opposed to Koppel's single-topic approach, the new "Nightline" betrays the demographic tyranny that has beset the news business in general -- pressured to provide lighter, more culture-oriented coverage that feels particularly incongruous given the program's prestigious history....

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Koppel readily acknowledged that "Nightline" wasn't above engaging in a little commerce to "pay the bills" -- covering the O.J. Simpson trial or other ratings-friendly topics to justify more substantial reporting....Recognizing those dynamics, Koppel entreated viewers in his farewell last November to give the next generation a chance, saying, "If you don't, the network will just put another comedy in this timeslot. And then you'll be sorry." Ratings have stayed solid enough to keep the show afloat for now, anyway.

Yet the choice for committed news viewers is sadly representative of one they now regularly face -- namely, between a bastardized "Nightline" and none at all.

Well, with apologies to Ted, dim the lights and send in the clowns.

http://www.variety.com/VR1117944511.html

might be. Hell, hire Ted back!

this is typical, for anybody who cares to dig a little into what they cover/don't

"Does ABC's Nightline have an aversion to covering stories that embarrass the Bush White House? Last summer it was the Cindy Sheehan phenomena, which "Nightline" successfully avoided for weeks on end. Now it's the Scoot Libby indictments, which appear to have created no interest inside one of ABC's signature news broadcasts.

The apathy stands in stark contrast to Nightline's seemingly insatiable appetite in covering the Clinton White House scandals.

Fact: In the 24 months between Jan. 1994 and Jan. 1996, long before Monica Lewinsky entered the picture and back when Whitewater was about an alleged crooked land deal, Nightline devoted 19 programs to the then-unfolding scandal and investigation, for which no Clinton White House official was ever indicted. But during the 24 months between Sept. 2003 and Sept. 2005, Nightline set aside just three programs to the unfolding CIA leak investigation, for which Libby, an assistant to the president, was indicted. On the night of the Libby indictmnets, Nightline devoted just five percent of its program to that topic. "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/nightline-ignores-white_b_10302.html

this is right out of his excellent book, Lapdogs

for TEN days after it happened, and over the course of the last year gave it scant coverage....don't have the numbers here, but the book says it's less than a handful of mentions

can you imagine Gore's top advisor getting indicted? just think what would have happened.

beating dead horse here, I know, but it's so irritating

common denominator it has nothing to teach me and I soon get bored with it.

Many of you are probably too young to remember this, but Nightline actually began after our Iran embassy staff was taken hostage in 1979. Back then, it was called "The Iran Crisis--America Held Hostage: Day (insert number here)".

It was a relentless source of political pressure on Jimmy Carter, and peeled enough viewers away from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show to make money for ABC. But the political undertones were there, and Nightline quickly became a free daily political advertisement for Ronald Reagan, who said that he would "end the hostage crisis one way or another" if he were elected. (They never bothered to reveal the backstage agreements being made with Iran to keep the hostages until after the election.)

Anyway, I've always despised Nightline for the role they played in the destruction of our country by essentially destroying Carter and enabling Reagan to begin the process that has become what we're now living with.

Nightline was more or less a Propaganda tool for the Neo-Cons and Think Tanks of the Repug pursuasion that fill DC.

ABC itself with "The Note" and "Stephanopolis" is but a shadow of the "upstart" network it was when it came on board as the "new kid on the block" to grab the 70's audience from the Network "Old Guards."

:-( Nightline's claim to fame for Koppel was the nightly "Countdown" of days "Hostages" were held... Propaganda...which Ted made his name on.