60 Minutes vs Football?

Sunday night in our home is saved for 60 Minutes. During fall months, however, football games starting in late afternoon almost always push 60 Minutes later into the evening. I resent this practice.

First, 60 Minutes is not just a news program, it is much more. Like an electronic magazine, the program goes into detail and discussion of an issue. News bites are for encapsulated news programs at 6 and 10 pm. Those programs provide headlines and scarce details. All the data they can cram into a 15-minute broadcast allows very little else. And of course, they add the jokes about the weather and jock talk about sports. A half hour is filled but news is less than half that time allocation. Much less.

My point is that news programming is an ad factory for networks while 60 Minutes is a serious news vehicle. Serious until a sports event takes precedence. Serious news usually takes a back seat to sports.

I object to this practice. Our values in a democracy should support an informed citizenry. More and more that value is absent when competing with sports. I enjoy some sports. The strategy, the playing conditions, the rivalry of certain teams, and the athleticism and talent it takes to compete in sports. All of this is good stuff and worthy of our attention. Just not more important than understanding our world and current events. That takes work for all of us so we are informed adults able to support our democracy intelligently.

Core values are more important than lip service. We need to be serious about our news and avoid displacement by cultural elements.

CBS needs to decide if they are serious about news depth and breadth, or profits earned from entertainment programming. Yes, sports are captivating but not life and death important.

Every broadcaster needs to decide this issue. Often NBC on Sunday evenings does not have news programming at the 5/6 pm time slot, or it is a shortened newscast. Evidently NBC feels entertainment is more important than news.

I dislike being a drudge about this, but a democracy is more delicate than we treat it. We need to understand the news, its context, trending, special interests and viability. What is important and what is not comes in many packages. If it feels like entertainment, it most likely is.

News programming deserves more time and budget support. It is in the public’s interest. That is why news programming has been considered a public service in the past.

It is time to get serious about professional journalism. Now is good.

October 20, 2021