When I made my usual trip to Google News the other day, Larry King headlines were taking over the newsfeed. From the title of the articles, I was afraid the poor guy had passed away. Luckily that was not the case. All the news outlets just felt the necessity to write orbituaries for King after he announced his plans for retirement. While Larry King is one of the most prominent television interviewers, I have a feeling that I’m not the only one that the news of his retirement was greatly over hyped. Nevertheless, Larry King will be missed for the perspective he introduced to the news, a skill that is greatly lacking in this generation’s news anchors. Making them effectively useless.
Before the internet, the channels for the news was limited to the radio, print, and television. The news might be something families watch over dinner or before going to bed. The news anchor served as the gateway to the world around us. They conveyed information to us, the guided us through complicated issues, and helped us cope through tragedies. Unfortunately for them, we do not need them to tell us what’s going on anymore because we can figure that out on our own. The internet has become the primary news source as television news ratings continue to drop. Sites like Google News are updated constantly making it faster and more convenient to follow the news online than on the television.
While the internet may be easier and more efficient, reading the news online is quite an impersonal experience. Beyond the comments (which are generally underused or filled with trolls) and bloggers, you are alone when you read the news online. It is quite an impersonal experience. And if the articles you read are as useless as some of the stuff from the AP and most of the stuff from the Huffington Post, you are probably better off not reading the article. A good news anchor can help add perspective and personality to a simple news story. Unfortunately, news networks seem to have forgotten the importance of a balanced perspective. Some networks (aka Fox News and MSNBC) go to the extremes. While others (aka CNN) offer the perspective for nowhere. Normal television viewers struggle to find someone they can trust as networks ignore a balanced perspective in favor of catering to core audience groups. Democrats hate Bill O’Reilly. Republicans hate Keith Olbermann. Wolf Blitzer may be seemingly “balanced” but his monotone voice puts us to sleep. The failure of news networks to offer proper perspective has paved the road for Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s success. They offer the common sense perspective and express what normal people are actually thinking. Their satirical broadcasts are far more meaningful than the theatrics of Fox, CNN, and MSNBC.
Larry King will not only be remembered for single-handedly keeping the suspender industry afloat, but also for bringing perspective to the news. Through the interview format of his show, he asked the questions to provide the audience with new angles to judge his interviewees from. Hopefully he can teach his successors a thing or two before he leaves, and before the internet kills the news anchor.