Did people question whether Bryant Gumbel was a news guy? Nope. But i don't think he would have been able to handle the news segments(same thing with Garroway or Downs). Frank McGee on the other hand, would have done a good job doing that. When Bryant was co-host, sometimes Tom Brokaw would would come in and supplement Gumbel(or Jane Pauley) back in the day. When the Gulf War happened did Tom come in and replace Bryant? Nope. Gumbel and Deborah Norville did their jobs, and Brokaw came in when needed.
On Friday, December 9, 2011 at 3:31:58 PM UTC-5, PGage wrote: > > n Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> I would like to think that any good broadcaster could do "Today," but in >> the pigeon-holing of people that occurs today, I don't blame the doubts >> about Seacrest. If it was the old days and Seacrest had worked his way up >> from network staff announcer, where he could be MCing s music show one day >> and doing a newscast the next, he might be more well-considered than his >> actual pre-"Idol" resume of Top 40 DJ, "C/net Central" host and game show >> host. >> >> > > If Today were happy to stay in the general purpose broadcasting tradition > of the original show, then I would agree that any good broadcaster could do > it (we can bracket the question of whether or not Seacrest qualifies as a > good broadcaster, though I think he does, or at least has the potential). > The problem is that Today represents itself, especially in that first hour, > as part of the frontline of NBC News' journalistic operation. If there is > an assassination, a war, serious political news (admittedly there is damn > little of that), the death of a world leader, then the lead anchors of > Today are expected to be able to report, discuss and place in appropriate > context these events. Every Today anchor since Frank McGee in the early 70s > has been more or less qualified to do that, with the possible exception of > Gumbel, who had at least demonstrated very high levels of competence in > televised sports and sports journalism. > > If Ryan Seacrest became the face of Today, and the next week Israel and > the United States declared war on Iran, would we really want to see > Seacrest leading NBC News's early morning coverage of the weeks and months > of military, international and domestic political consequences? Network > news has gotten bad, but it has not yet gotten so bad that we can't see at > least some difference between the artifical melodrama of a surprise > contestant getting voted off a reality show, and the serious complexities > of real world drama like this. Wouldn't we have to expect that Brian > Williams would come in and, not supplement the Today coverage, as Brokow > did for years when he moved to the Nightly News, but actually serve as the > serious news anchor. As I say, there would be no shame in his if Today > would be willing to stop pretending to be a serious news show (Note: I > think it could still be operated by NBC News, but as as self-consciously > light news operation). > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
