“For Your Information Tonight”: The Dramatization of the Television News Industry on U.S. Primetime Television, from Mary Tyler Moore to The Morning Show (1970-Present) by Dennis Major A dissertation accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Media Studies Dissertation Committee: Dr. Bish Sen, Chair Dr. Janet Wasko, Core Member Dr. Amanda Cote, Core Member Dr. Erin Hanna, Institutional Representative University of Oregon Spring 2025 © 2025 Dennis Major This work is openly licensed via CC BY 4.0. 2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ABSTRACT Dennis Major Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Media Studies Title: “For Your Information Tonight”: The Dramatization of the Television News Industry on U.S. Primetime Television, from Mary Tyler Moore to The Morning Show (1970-Present) “‘For Your Information Tonight’: The Dramatization of the Television News Industry on U.S. Primetime Television, from Mary Tyler Moore to The Morning Show (1970-Present)” explores the fictional depiction of television news in dramatic and comedic narrative television programs. This dissertation argues that the genre, termed as television news series, manifests in narrative form the ongoing debates and anxieties that have emerged as a result of the significant shifts that have occurred in the style, format, and coverage choices of television news across the past fifty years. Through its spotlighting of particular—and often highly timely—aspects of the television news industry, the genre is a self-reflexive project that makes contributions to the ways in which the public understands the functioning of television journalism. Close textual analysis which puts programs such as Murphy Brown, WIOU, and Great News in conversation with one another reveals the ways that American narrative television conceives of the role that television news plays within the nation’s commercial media system. The first chapter argues that the central narrative conflict in television news series is an antagonistic relationship between television journalists and media owners. The second chapter argues that the genre depicts the importance of ratings to television news as an existential threat to substantive journalism. The third chapter explores the ways in which the genre positions journalistic professionalism as being under threat from the state, media ownership, and the pressures of ratings. The fourth chapter addresses how the genre critiques the changing role of the anchor in television news. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................3 TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................... 5 LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction & Chapter Outline................................................................................................. 7 Literature Review.....................................................................................................................11 Sample & Classification.......................................................................................................... 22 Methodological Discussion......................................................................................................31 CHAPTER ONE: POLITICAL ECONOMY........................................................................... 35 Introduction..............................................................................................................................35 Television News & The Public Interest................................................................................... 41 Media Ownership.....................................................................................................................56 Tech Acquisitions.....................................................................................................................65 Conclusion............................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER TWO: RATINGS.....................................................................................................76 Introduction..............................................................................................................................76 Hard News, Soft News, and the Allure of Tabloid Journalism................................................84 Format Changes..................................................................................................................... 100 Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 115 CHAPTER THREE: PROFESSIONALISM.......................................................................... 117 Introduction............................................................................................................................117 Shielding Confidential Sources..............................................................................................122 Professional Ethics.................................................................................................................134 The Risks and Dangers of Journalism................................................................................... 145 Case Study: Operation Genoa & Institutional Failure in The Newsroom............................. 154 Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 164 CHAPTER FOUR: ANCHORS............................................................................................... 165 Introduction............................................................................................................................165 The Glorious Past of Television News...................................................................................170 Gender and the Television News Anchor.............................................................................. 181 Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 204 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 206 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................... 211 4 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “The Snow Must Go On”............................................... 46 Figure 2: The Newsroom, “The 112th Congress”............................................................................57 Figure 3: The Morning Show, “DNF”............................................................................................70 Figure 4: WIOU, “Pair o’ Guys Lost”............................................................................................93 Figure 5: Murphy Brown, “The 390th Broadcast”........................................................................ 108 Figure 6: Murphy Brown, “Send in the Clowns”......................................................................... 130 Figure 7: The Morning Show, “Love Island”...............................................................................137 Figure 8: Live Shot, “Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Contract”................................151 Figure 9: The Newsroom, “Red Team III”................................................................................... 158 Figure 10: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite”......................... 179 Figure 11: WIOU, “Pilot” ............................................................................................................191 Figure 12: Being Mary Jane, “Hindsight is 20/40”..................................................................... 200 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Sample of Television News Series...................................................................................23 6 INTRODUCTION Introduction & Chapter Outline “It all started in a small five thousand-watt radio station in Fresno, California.” –WJM anchor Ted Baxter, The Mary Tyler Moore Show1 By the 1970s, broadcast television had become the main source of news for a majority of Americans.2 Over the preceding decade, the expansion of network newscasts from fifteen to thirty minutes,3 along with increased investments in local news operations,4 had made television news a fixture of everyday life. Whereas the news broadcasts of the 1950s and 1960s had been characterized in large part by anchors who delivered hard news with an explicit sense of journalistic mission and authority, from the 1970s onward, television news underwent several upheavals, most significantly an embrace of market populism and consolidated ownership that informed its coverage and stylistic decisions.5 As a result, the news began to look and feel different: human interest stories took up more airtime, entertainment techniques were explicitly employed to make broadcasts more fast-paced and visually-oriented,6 and—even though men still dominated in the anchor chair—women started to gain more prominent on-air roles.7 7 Karen L. Ross, “Selling Women (Down the River): Gendered Relations and the Political Economy of Broadcast News,” in Sex and Money: Feminism and Political Economy in the Media, ed. Eileen R. Meehan (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2002). 6 Daniel C. Hallin, “We Keep America on Top of the World,” in We Keep America on Top of the World: Television Journalism and The Public Sphere (New York: Routledge, 1994). 5 Ponce de Leon, That’s the Way It Is. 4 Craig M. Allen, News is People: The Rise of Local TV News and the Fall of News from New York (Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 2001). 3 Mike Conway, The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 301. 2 Charles L. Ponce de Leon, That’s the Way It Is: A History of Television News in America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015), 83. 1 The Mary Tyler Moore Show, season 4, episode 21, “Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite,” directed by Jay Sandrich, written by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, and Ed. Weinberger, featuring Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, and Valerie Harper, aired February 9, 1974, on CBS. 7 It was during this era that primetime television began to offer fictional representations of the television news industry. This is a genre I term television news series, and define as dramatic or comedic programs that depict a protagonist or group of protagonists who are employed in the television news industry. My aim in this dissertation is to closely examine these depictions, exploring the ways in which they construct and present certain ideas about television news to their audiences. These texts are an important object of study because they speak to the ways that television is often a self-reflexive medium which presents ideas about itself to audiences. By highlighting certain facets of the industry, the genre contributes to public perceptions of how news operates in our capitalist media system. Examining it closely can add to existing analyses of television news by scholars of both television and journalism, providing fresh layers of understanding. The primary object of study in this dissertation is a selection of fifteen television news series, the earliest of which is The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-1977), with The Morning Show (AppleTV+, 2019-Present) being the most recent. Through a close textual analysis of these series, which span a range of televisual formats and depict a broad spectrum of different kinds of television news, I aim to tease out the ways in which they engage with ongoing debates around the changing role of news from the 1970s to the present day. I argue that television news series serve to manifest in narrative form the anxieties that have arisen as a result of the changing shape of television news over the past half-century. The genre does so through four major themes, each of which is the focus of a chapter of this dissertation: political economy, ratings, professionalism, and anchors. I begin each chapter with a brief overview which contextualizes the theme within the relevant trends and developments of television news. Each subsequent section of the chapter explores a specific component of the overall theme, using 8 specific examples from episodes. My goal is to consider the programs not in isolation, but rather as a whole, putting them in conversation with one another to discern how the genre constructs its messages and meanings. In Chapter One I address my first research question: How does the television news series genre represent the conditions that comprise the political economy of television news? I argue that the genre paints a picture of an industry where two groups are pitted against one another. On one side are television journalists, who work within the capitalist media system to serve—to the greatest extent possible—the role of informing viewers, fostering democracy, and acting as a watchdog over powerful state and private actors. On the other side are media owners who seek to use television news to further their own financial or political interests—sometimes striving to promote both at the same time—by using their power to influence or outright dictate editorial and coverage decisions. The ongoing push-pull between these two groups serves as a visualization of an abstract process: the desire for journalists to uphold the public interest responsibilities of television news while being part and parcel of a commercial media industry that needs to remain financially viable. Chapter Two addresses my next research question: How does the television news series genre conceptualize the role that ratings play in the production of news? I assert that the genre depicts television news’ evergreen fixation on ratings numbers as a potentially dangerous preoccupation that could hinder the mission of television journalism serving the public interest. In their need to maintain and attract audiences, along with an impetus to compete with a rising tide of soft and tabloid news, journalists and leaders of television news often go too far in making changes to their broadcasts in the name of ‘giving the people what they want,’ trickling into infotainment and thus putting the informational mission of the news at risk. In a similar 9 fashion to the genre’s depiction of the political economy of television news, ideological debates that otherwise exist as abstractions for television audiences are made concrete through narrative conflicts between characters over the degree to which ratings should be taken into consideration when crafting news coverage. In Chapter Three I address the research question: How does the television news series genre utilize ideas of journalistic professionalism as part of its narratives? I explore how television news series highlight the importance of professionalism, portraying ethical standards and practices that are meant to be adhered to not merely as a set of rules but as an integral part of the identity of television journalists themselves, an identity that has been carefully cultivated over time. In devoting many of its narratives to characters who are faced with the choice of breaking the principles they are supposed to be upholding, the genre reinforces the crucial value of professionalism to television journalism. Stories where characters are faced with various political, professional, and physical dangers serve a dual purpose of creating narrative tension while exploring abstract ideas about how journalists should carry out their job functions. The genre depicts professionalism as potentially under threat, both due to the overall political economic pressures of the television news industry, and more specifically the need to create journalism in an environment where ratings numbers are a constant concern. Chapter Four addresses my final research question: How does the television news series genre engage with the concept of the anchor as a central figure of news? I argue that through the dramatization of the working lives of anchors, television news series work to deconstruct the public face of television news operations. By playing with audience expectations of the traditional roles, appearances, and modes of address of anchors, the genre illustrates how the anchor figure has changed over time. In some cases, the loss of these traditions is lamented, 10 while in others it is fuel for satire that critiques why these traditions came to exist in the first place. Part and parcel of this critique is the depiction of women who work as news anchors, spotlighting the specific expectations and struggles that they have historically faced—and continue to face—in a job that is largely viewed by the public as a male domain. Through narratives about anchors, the genre explores the ways in which ideas about audience preferences, along with the orthodoxies of the television industry, continues to inform ideas about who and what an anchor should be. Literature Review “Our job isn’t tracking down clues, or meeting mysterious sources, it’s saying stuff on TV that people already read on the internet.” –The Breakdown executive producer Greg Walsh, Great News8 ​ In this section, I will provide a brief overview of literature by scholars of television and journalism that is relevant to my research, focusing on three main areas. The first deals with the cinematic depiction of journalists, a genre that is both forerunner and parallel to television news series. Taken together, these films depict journalism as a noble, almost mythical profession that fights against internal and external pressures to serve a crucial role in democratic society. Drawing on traditional cinematic tropes of good and evil, such movies set up a binary between heroic journalists who uphold ethical principles and villainous journalists who flout or disregard rules in the name of career advancement. Second, I focus on the depiction of institutions on television. The portrayal of professionals who work in industries which serve the public, most 8 Great News, season 1, episode 8, “Celebrity Hacking Scandal,” directed by Gail Mancuso, written by Tracey Wigfield, Dan Klein, and Ashley Wigfield, featuring Briga Heelan, Andrea Martin, and Adam Campbell, aired May 16, 2017, on NBC. 11 notably law enforcement and medicine, has long been a staple of television programming. Such depictions are important because they can influence the public’s view of these institutions and the people who work within them. The third area composes literature specifically focused on television’s portrayal of television news. In a similar fashion to medical or police dramas, through their dramatization of timely issues that are germane to the television news industry, television news series impact attitudes and perceptions of journalism as both a profession and an institution. These portrayals overlap with an increasing public desire to explore the means by which journalism is produced. Journalism in the Cinema Across American film, the fictionalization of the journalistic profession has been a repeated source of drama. Matthew C. Ehrlich identifies journalism movies “as a distinct genre that embodies myths colored by nostalgia and that addresses contradictions at the heart of both journalism and American culture.”9 These films regularly find journalism lacking in its social responsibilities, due either to an excessive focus on profit, timidity in the face of powerful interests, or a combination of both. Via the cynical pursuit of ratings and circulation, journalism is often depicted as facing a crisis of identity or, in some cases, outright extinction.10 Yet while cinematic representations of journalism repeatedly depict the profession’s “failings and black eyes,” the genre ultimately portrays the press as “powerfully exciting and important,” a portrait that Ehrlich argues is “not far removed from journalism’s fondest self-conceptions.”11 These stories reproduce powerful myths about the centrality of the press to a functioning democratic society—it is always “at the heart of things and always makes a difference.” Even when the 11 Ibid 6 10 Ehrlich “Studying Journalism Through Movies,” 1. 9 Matthew C. Ehrlich, “Studying Journalism Through Movies,” in Journalism in the Movies (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004, 2. 12 journalist is depicted as having lost their ability to “stick up for the little guy, uncover the truth, and serve democracy,” these abilities are portrayed as being “true once upon a time and someday could be true again.”12 Taken together, Hollywood films about the press stress “that journalism can and should be performed well and that the press is essential to American life and democracy.”13 In his book on how journalists are portrayed in film, Brian McNair identifies two kinds of films about journalists: primary representations and secondary representations. In primary representations, journalists and journalism are the main subject and form the basis of the cinematic narrative. These films deal with the day-to-day work of journalists, and often engage with larger questions of the role of journalism in a democratic society. They are often dramatizations of the work of real-life journalists, such as All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Terry Gilliam, 1998). Primary representations can also deal with fictional journalists, such as True Crime (Clint Eastwood, 1999) and Lions for Lambs (Robert Redford, 2007). In secondary representations, journalists are central characters, but the work of journalism is a peripheral element of the story. In these kinds of films, journalism functions largely as a plot device that is integral to the life issues that characters face inside or outside their work environment. The journalists in secondary representations are almost always entirely fictional characters, and these films “often have insightful, humorous and thought-provoking observations to make about journalism, but they are incidental rather than core to the plot.” Examples of secondary representations include L.A. Confidential (Cameron Crowe, 1997) and Dan in Real Life (Peter Hedges, 2007).14 14 Brian McNair, Journalists in Film: Heroes and Villains (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press: 2010), 30-31, 40-41. 13 Ibid 2. 12 Ibid 1. 13 Movies about journalism run across a broad range of cinematic genres and formats, which influence the ways in which individual films approach their representations of the work of journalism. McNair provides a useful overview of this diversity of storytelling approaches. Dramas such as Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) deal with complex issues of journalism in a serious manner. In comedies such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004), complex issues of journalism are often present but take a backseat to the “comic interplay of the stars” of the film. Satires like Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976) utilize exaggeration and ironic humor to comment on complex issues of journalism. Thrillers such as Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007) position the journalist as a kind of detective, portraying exciting, often real-life tales of journalistic investigation, discovery, cover-up, or confrontation. Bio-pics like Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, 2005) are stories based on the lives of actual journalists—in these films the potency of the lead performer’s personality is the main driving force of the narrative. The final genre where journalism regularly appears in cinema is the action hero movie, most notably in the long-running Superman and Spider-Man franchises, where superheroes have day jobs in journalism.15 McNair posits that the cinema tends to portray journalists as either heroes or villains. “The balance of good and evil in journalism movies,” McNair argues, is split between “foreign correspondents and investigative reporters, good; tabloid hacks, celebrity interviewers, paparazzi and other agents of the gutter press, bad.”16 In a similar vein, Ehrlich argues that movies about journalism feature “competing myths” of two character types: the outlaw journalist and the official journalist. Both are overwhelmingly male and can exist in heroic or villainous modes. In the heroic mode, the outlaw is a renegade who shares traits of the “wanderers and loners” of 16 Ibid 51. 15 McNair, Journalists in Film, 31-35. 14 American popular culture. He is fiercely independent and views society as inherently corrupt and unchangeable, shunning sanctioned rules in favor of adhering to his own code of morality. By contrast, the official journalist displays heroic traits by working tirelessly within the institutional boundaries of the press as a “dedicated public servant” who believes that careful investigation and reporting of the truth can root out corruption and lead to substantive changes for the betterment of society. In their respective villainous modes, the outlaw journalist represents a threat to conventional morality and social order who is only concerned with his own career or financial advancement, while the official journalist works as an instrument of a vastly powerful and immoral media establishment.17 Professions and Institutions on Television The medium of television has long offered fictional depictions of institutions and professions. As David Morley has argued, the meaning of any television text involves its encounters with certain sets of discourses, and these meetings can restructure both the text itself as well as the discourses with which the text interacts.18 While the meaning of a text is never wholly predetermined, texts are typically “structured in dominance,” featuring a preferred reading inscribed by its producers. Attention must be paid to the overall messaging of a program, as this can reveal the ways in which producers attempt to transmit dominant ideologies and discourses to viewers.19 This is particularly true in dramatizations of professions and industries, where character types, themes, storylines, and other elements are frequently drawn from real-world issues and themes. Indeed, as Stuart Hall asserts, while the ultimate shape of a 19 David Morley, “Audience Research: The Traditional Paradigms,” in The Nationwide Television Studies, David Morley and Charlotte Brunsdon (New York: Routledge, 1999), 129. 18 David Morley, Television, Audiences & Cultural Studies (New York: Routledge, 1992), 80. 17 Ehrlich, “Studying Journalism Through Movies,” 8-9. 15 television program is determined by its producers, it draws its topics from the larger society.20 In this respect, television constitutes a “cultural forum,” a concept put forth by Horace Newcomb and Paul M. Hirsch. In this paradigm, television programs engage in a “social construction and negotiation of reality,” contributing to broader discussions of norms and issues that are germane to the time period in which they are produced.21 The depiction of institutions is a central part of television’s programming strategy, with law enforcement and medicine the two most commonly represented. Medical dramas, such as ER (NBC, 1994-2009) and Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 2005-Present), and police dramas, including Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981-1987) and The Shield (2002-2008), comprise some of television’s most notable critical and popular successes. In these series, program producers make choices to highlight particular aspects and forms of labor within a given institution. Such choices are significant because they can have consequences for how that institution is perceived by the public. The fact that television programs favor the depiction of certain kinds of jobs over others, John Fiske and John Hartley argue, is not necessarily a distortion of reality, but rather “an accurate symbolic representation of the esteem with which a society like ours regards such positions and the people who hold them.”22 For example, medical dramas, as Joseph Turow points out in his book on television’s depictions of medicine, overwhelmingly focus on hospital-based physicians who successfully treat acute illnesses with the latest equipment and medicine, while the work of nurses, orderlies, and other healthcare professionals are less often a focal point.23 By providing viewers with certain kinds of images and stories about the people 23 Joseph Turow, Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power, 2nd edition (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2010): 2-3. 22 John Fiske & John Hartley, Reading Television 2nd edition (New York: Routledge, 2003), 11. 21 Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch, “Television as a Cultural Forum,” in Television: The Critical View, ed. Horace Newcomb (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 563, 565. 20 Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding,” in Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, 2nd edition, ed, Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 138. 16 who work in the healthcare system—a complex institution that the public engages with regularly—medical dramas can contribute to public perceptions about how that system functions.24 Likewise, in his book on television’s portrayals of law enforcement, Jonathan Nichols-Pethick argues that police dramas “play a vital role in the way we understand and engage issues that most of us otherwise experience only in such abstractions as laws and crime statistics.”25 Taking their themes, topics, and generic conventions from larger cultural dialogues about crime, the series are put into conversation with current developments in policing.26 Likewise, as Claudia Calhoun asserts in her book on the Dragnet franchise, the police procedural is “a genre of fictional, commercial media that nevertheless engages explicitly with the real-life politics of contemporary civic life.”27 For example, the primary narrative concerns of 1980s police dramas, Nichols-Pethick asserts, were all drawn from contemporary issues around crime, including the economic decline of urban centers, the increased use of Miranda warnings, the modern victims’ rights movement, the rising popularity of community policing and the war on drugs. Television programs from this era saw their characters reacting and responding to, and working within or against these developments.28 Police procedurals, Calhoun argues, serve a kind of pedagogical purpose, bringing television audiences “into the process of the investigation via privileged access to both the logical reasoning and the practical tools of professional investigators.”29 29 Calhoun, Only the Names Have Been Changed, 6. 28 Nichols-Pethick 51. 27 Claudia Calhoun, Only the Names Have Been Changed: Dragnet, the Police Procedural, and Postwar Culture (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2022), 7. 26 Nichols-Pethick 10. 25 Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, TV Cops: The Contemporary American Police Drama (New York: Routledge, 2012): 3. 24 Turow, Playing Doctor, 1-2. 17 Further, Turow argues that a “struggle over institutional images” is central to television’s depictions of professional environments,30 as “telling stories about an institution is a way of sharing ideas about how the institution works.”31 Conflicts often arise between the producers of such television series and the people within the professions that are fictionalized. Leaders may be concerned that portrayals may not suit the needs of their institution, or that there was a lack of consultation with them over its depiction. Employees may dislike the way their profession is presented, or desire portrayals that are more closely aligned with the lived experiences of themselves and their colleagues.32 While institutional leaders may sometimes be consulted for input, the needs of the television industry have the greatest influence over the ultimate shape of the depictions.33 For example, police dramas, as Nichols-Pethick points out, take timely issues around crime, filtering them through the needs of television genre and narrative to create stories based around individual characters.34 In both police and medical dramas, the primary narrative thrust comes from how protagonists respond to working within the institution, not the workings of the institution itself. The former focuses on the interior lives of police and how the job interferes with or changes their personal goals, aspirations and outlooks, argues Nichols-Pethick..35 The latter, Turow posits, emphasizes the angst that physicians feel as a result of making continuous personal sacrifices to maintain the well-being of their patients.36 Television News Series Television news series share many of the basic narrative conventions of police and medical dramas, adapting them to situations that are specific to television journalism. The genre 36 Turow 341. 35 Ibid 50-51. 34 Nichols-Pethick 3. 33 Ibid 7. 32 Ibid 9. 31 Ibid 5. 30 Turow 11. 18 is durable and multifaceted, having been utilized in melodramas, multi- and single-camera sitcoms, and prestige dramas alike. These programs are a worthwhile object of study because— while hardly being mistaken by their audiences for real news—they represent one of the ways in which the public engages with journalism. As Chris Peters points out, since representations of news in popular culture help to shape public perception of journalism as an institution, the ways in which news operations are dramatized in fictional media can aid in understanding the complexities of television journalism as a social and cultural product.37 In other words, in order for researchers to fully understand the ways in which journalism is conceptualized by the public, the types of media that are studied must be expanded beyond actual news texts to include fictional portrayals of journalists and news organizations. Fictional representations of television news matter because they have the potential to shape the way that people consume, think about, and engage with actual television news organizations and the people who work within them, as well as influencing attitudes and perceptions of journalism as a larger institution. Fictional representations of news are ideal for exploring these functions of television. Such series, Michael Koliska and Stine Eckert argue, can work as “a cultural form of thinking about journalism during a time of turmoil,” wherein news outlets since the turn of the century have needed to continually justify their existence both economically and epistemologically in a rapidly shifting media environment.38 Indeed, the genre dramatizes the material relations that characterize modern news production. This often involves an exploration of the limits of news divisions’ autonomy in relation to both internal forces, including station, network, or channel bureaucracies, and external forces, including the influence of sponsorship or advertising. 38 Michael Koliska and Stine Eckert, “Lost in a house of mirrors: Journalists come to terms with myth and reality in The Newsroom,” Journalism 16, no. 6 (2014), 752. 37 Chris Peters, “Evaluating journalism through popular culture: HBO’s The Newsroom and public reflections on the state of news media,” Media, Culture & Society 37, no. 4 (2015), 605. 19 In this way, the genre draws on Matt Carlson’s argument that contemporary journalism is “a sociotechnical accomplishment” that is the result of a combination of social and cultural forces and the technological capabilities of the medium in which news is gathered, produced, and presented.39 In order to fully understand the ways in which journalistic authority operates, it is necessary to consider a broad vision of journalism that takes into account “the wider context in which news is produced and consumed.” This is linked to Peters’ assertion that, since representations of news in popular culture help to shape the public’s perception of the institution of journalism, it would be a mistake to treat such programs “as something separate from ‘real’ journalism.”40 The ways in which news operations are dramatized can aid in understanding the complexities of television journalism as a social and cultural product. A recent development within actual news organizations has been the rise of what Peters terms “metanarratives of journalism.” In this paradigm, news organizations have become more self-reflexive in presenting stories, while media audiences have gained greater awareness that the news is a product which results from a series of choices made by people, rather than being a purely objective transmission of facts. Drawing on the work of Karin Becker, Peters asserts that since the 1990s, “reflexive journalism” has become increasingly prominent in the U.S., since “part of journalistic coverage of events has become commentary on the coverage itself, which relies on metanarratives of journalism as part of these evaluations. The effect is an implicit acknowledgment to the public that the employees that comprise the news media play an active role in ‘making the news.’” In other words, there is a heightened desire on the part of audiences—and an increased willingness by news organizations—to explore the means by which 40 Peters 605. 39 Matt Carlson, Journalistic Authority: Legitimating News in the Digital Era (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 5-6. 20 journalism is produced. Despite this increase in reflexivity, what remains persistent is a utopian vision of the news based upon elements of the twentieth century “ideal of objectivity in Anglo-American journalism, such as balance, fairness, non-bias, independence, non-interpretation, and neutrality and detachment,” all of which are “lauded as hallmarks of professionalism.”41 Fictional programs about television news operations not only play out against this backdrop; they also make their own contributions to the metanarratives of journalism. In the above section, I have provided a brief overview of how scholars of film, television, and journalism have articulated the significance of the fictional depiction of institutions. The literature has shown how cinematic portrayals of journalists build their narratives around conventional filmic tropes that set up clear lines of conflict, the ways in which television programs focused on the police and medical professions provide regularly updated takes on timely issues, and how series about television news are driven in part by a public desire to learn more about the production of journalism. In this dissertation, I build on this literature by looking holistically at television news series as a distinct genre of television programming that—while it is influenced by and draws on other kinds of filmic and televisual depictions—creates its own messages and meanings. 41 Peters 603, 606. 21 Sample & Classification “People need to know what’s coming; news isn’t just the stuff you wanna hear.” –TMS co-anchor Daniel Henderson, The Morning Show42 While, as I have noted in the literature review, McNair identifies a two-tiered classification for films about journalists which separates the genre into primary and secondary representations, the classification of series about television news requires a more nuanced approach. In this section, I classify series about television news into three categories based on the regularity with which they deal with complex issues of the industry: primary television news representations, hybrid television news representations, and television news-adjacent representations. The characteristics that make up each category are by no means strict rules, and there are notable exceptions within each category. What follows is an explanation of each category, along with a brief synopsis of each of the programs I include in this dissertation. 42 The Morning Show, season 2, episode 3, “Laura,” directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, written by Kerry Ehrin, Jay Carson, and Brian Chamberlayne, featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Billy Crudup, aired October 1, 2021, on AppleTV+. 22 Table 1: Sample of Television News Series Series Outlet Years Format Category The Mary Tyler Moore Show CBS 1970-1977 Comedy Hybrid Murphy Brown CBS 1988-1998, 2018 Comedy Hybrid WIOU CBS 1990-1991 Drama Primary Live Shot UPN 1995 Drama Primary LateLine NBC 1998-1999 Comedy Hybrid Sports Night ABC 1998-2000 Comedy- Drama Primary Back to You Fox 2007-2008 Comedy Adjacent The Newsroom HBO 2012-2014 Drama Primary Being Mary Jane BET 2013-2019 Drama Hybrid The Michael J. Fox Show NBC 2013-2014 Comedy Adjacent Blunt Talk Starz 2015-2016 Comedy Hybrid Great News NBC 2017-2018 Comedy Hybrid The Morning Show AppleTV+ 2019-Present Drama Primary Kenan NBC 2021-2022 Comedy Adjacent Firefly Lane Netflix 2021-2023 Drama Adjacent Primary Television News Representations In primary television news representations, nearly all episodes in the series are set within the workplaces of television news and engage in a sustained way with the industry and its issues. Occasional episodes are focused on the personal lives of the main characters outside of the 23 workplace, but on the whole the television news environment forms the central narrative arc of the series. When episodes do focus on the outside lives of characters, their personal problems tend to interact fairly heavily with their jobs. Involvement in the industry is central to the development of the main characters, virtually all of whom are employed in television news in one role or another. Performers typically comprise an ensemble cast, with one or two central protagonists anchoring the series. Primary representations are typically hour-long dramas, and adhere to the conventions of prestige television, including high production value and a single-camera shooting style. While they depict a variety of news formats, they are typically set in large American cities. The five primary representations I will be exploring in this dissertation are WIOU (CBS, 1990-1991), Live Shot (UPN, 1995), Sports Night (ABC, 1998-2000), The Newsroom (HBO, 2012-2014), and The Morning Show (AppleTV+, 2019-Present). WIOU, created by John Eisendrath and Kathryn Pratt, is set at the news division of WNDY, a struggling local television station in an unnamed American city. The series focuses on the budget shortfalls that often beset local news, how the staff deals with ethical dilemmas that arise when reporting stories, and the balance between hard and soft news. The pilot episode sees Hank Zaret (John Shea), who got his start as an intern at WNDY, returning to the station to serve as news director alongside executive producer Liz McVay (Mariette Hartley). The station’s co-anchors are Neal Frazier (Harris Yulin) and Kelby Robinson (Helen Shaver). Created by Steve Marshall and Dan Guntzelman, Live Shot centers on the staff at KXZX-3 Los Angeles Re-Action News. The series’ plots often revolve around the newsroom staff negotiating the boundaries between serious reporting and tabloid news. The ensemble cast includes camera operator ‘Fast’ Eddie Santini (Michael Watson), audio technician Tommy Greer (Hill Harper), news director Alex Rydell (Jeff Yagher), producer Nancy Lockridge (Cheryl 24 Pollak), co-anchors Harry Chandler (David Birney) and Sherry Beck (Rebecca Staab), and reporters Liz Vega (Wanda De Jesus) and Ricardo Sandoval (Eddie Velez). Created by Aaron Sorkin, Sports Night is set at a New York-based nightly sports news program, also called Sports Night,43 that airs on the Continental Sports Channel (CSC). The series explores how the realities of commercial sports news—a genre often infused with entertainment value—conflict with journalistic principles. SN is anchored by Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause). The senior production staff includes managing editor Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume), executive producer Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman), senior associate producer Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd), and associate producer and research analyst Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina). The Newsroom, also created by Sorkin, stars Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, the anchor and managing editor of the New York-based evening show NewsNight with Will McAvoy on the Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel. The tension between public service and ratings forms the central conflict of The Newsroom’s narrative arc. The senior staff includes news division president Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), executive producer Mackenzie “Mac” McHale (Emily Mortimer), senior producer Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.), associate producer Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill), and ACN financial anchor and economist Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn). Created by Jay Carson, The Morning Show stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson, the co-anchors of a morning news program also titled The Morning Show,44 which airs on the UBA network. The series is inspired by CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter’s 2013 book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of 44 For the sake of clarity, from this point forward, I’ll refer to the series itself as The Morning Show, and the fictional news program as TMS. 43 For the sake of clarity, from this point forward, I’ll refer to the series itself as Sports Night, and the fictional news program as SN. 25 Morning TV, which focuses on the behind-the-scenes dramas of network morning news. A major theme of the series is the tenuous relevance of broadcast news in an increasingly digital media landscape. Hybrid Television News Representations In hybrid television news representations, the overall story arc of the series is divided between the personal life of a central protagonist and their job in television news. As such, the setting is typically split between the television news workplace—typically the newsroom and broadcast studio—and the home of the protagonist. These kinds of series regularly engage with substantive issues of the industry, but a great deal of their episodes have little or nothing to do with television news. The personal character development and problems of the protagonist, whether inside or outside work, is a central focus. The main characters are typically composed of the protagonist’s co-workers, as well as their friends and family members who do not work in television news. There are six hybrid television news representations in my sample: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-1977), Murphy Brown (CBS, 1988-1998, 2018), LateLine (NBC, 1998-1999), Being Mary Jane (BET, 2013-2019), Blunt Talk (Starz, 2015-2016), and Great News (NBC, 2017-2018). Created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, The Mary Tyler Moore Show stars Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards, associate producer of the six o’clock local news on WJM in Minneapolis. The series deals with the challenges that are germane to local news operations—such as repeated budget shortfalls and competition among other local stations—as well as exploring larger issues of the public interest and the constructedness of news personalities. The core staff of the six o’clock news includes producer Lou Grant (Edward 26 Asner), anchor Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), and head copywriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod). Murphy Brown, created by Diane English, stars Candice Bergen as the titular character, an investigative journalist and co-anchor of the Washington-based weekly newsmagazine FYI, which airs on a fictionalized version of CBS. The series often deals with the ethical and moral dilemmas of journalism, as well as portraying some of the ways in which a need for ratings can impact coverage decisions. FYI is run by executive producer Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), and Murphy is joined at the anchor desk by straight-laced television news veteran Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), investigative reporter Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), and former Miss America Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford). ​ Created by Al Franken and John Markus, LateLine features an ensemble cast led by Franken as Al Freundlich, a correspondent for a Washington-based late night news program, also called LateLine, which airs on an unnamed broadcast network.45 Highly satirical and often farcical, the series nevertheless deals with many substantive issues of television news, including the protection of sources and the industry’s preoccupation with ratings and audience research. Key supporting characters include Freundlich’s producer Gale Ingersoll (Megyn Price), executive producer Vic Kobb (Miguel Ferrer), and anchor Pearce McKenzie (Robert Foxworth). Being Mary Jane, created by Mara Brock Akil, stars Gabrielle Union as Pauletta Patterson, known professionally as Mary Jane Paul,46 the anchor of the afternoon cable show TalkBack with Mary Jane Paul on the Atlanta-based Satellite News Channel (SNC). The series highlights her struggles to climb the television news career ladder as a Black female anchor who 46 The character is called Pauletta by her family, and Mary Jane by her friends and work colleagues. For the sake of clarity, from this point forward I will refer to her as Mary Jane. 45 For the sake of clarity, from this point forward I’ll refer to the NBC series itself as LateLine and the fictional show-within-a-show as LL. 27 wants to feature stories that are important to the Black community, and explores the tensions between her desire to build herself as a brand and her responsibilities as a journalist. Kara Lynch (Lisa Vidal) is Mary Jane’s longtime producer and best friend. Created by Jonathan Ames, Blunt Talk features Patrick Stewart as Walter Blunt, the anchor of an evening news and commentary show, also called Blunt Talk,47 which airs on the fictional Los Angeles-based cable channel UBS. The series explores how Walter’s public image of a straight-laced newsman clashes with the problems in his private life, and the ways in which television news personalities can act as advocates for social and political issues. The BT staff includes executive producer Rosalie Winter (Jacki Weaver), and producers Celia Havermeyer (Dolly Wells) and Jim Stone (Timm Sharp). Created by Tracy Wigfield, Great News stars Briga Heelan as Katie Wendelson, a segment producer for The Breakdown, an afternoon news program that airs on the Secaucus, New Jersey-based MMN cable channel. The series deals with some of the major issues of contemporary television news, including the rise of digital media, ageism in the anchor chair, and the shifting balance between hard and soft news. The Breakdown, run by executive producer Adam Campbell (Greg Walsh), is co-anchored by veteran newsman and former network anchor Chuck Pierce (John Michael Higgins) and Portia Scott-Griffith (Nicole Richie). Television News-Adjacent Representations In television news-adjacent representations, the series are typically star vehicles that revolve around a central protagonist (or pair of protagonists) whose employment in television news is somewhat incidental to the series’ overall narrative arc. The development and family problems of the protagonists form the central narrative concern of nearly all episodes. 47 For the sake of clarity, from this point forward, I’ll refer to the Starz series itself as Blunt Talk, and the fictional news program as BT. 28 Substantive engagement with issues of the television industry are rare, and when episodes do focus on these issues they mostly do so in the context of developing relationships between the characters. Friends and family are typically central characters, and play a greater role in the narrative than their counterparts in primary or hybrid representations. These series are a mixed bag of televisual formats, featuring a mix of single- and multi-camera shooting styles. There are four television news-adjacent series in my sample: Back to You (Fox, 2007-2008), The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC, 2013-2014), Kenan (NBC, 2021-2022), and Firefly Lane (Netflix, 2021-2023). Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, Back to You is a comedy starring Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton as Chuck Darling and Kelly Carr, the co-anchors of the local evening news on WURG in Pittsburgh. The series touches upon the generational differences in how television news should be approached, as well as the artifice of on-screen banter and chemistry between news anchors. WURG’s news director is Ryan Church (Josh Gad), and its news team includes weather anchor Montana Diaz Herrera (Ayda Field), field reporter Gary Crezyzewski (Ty Burrell), and sports anchor Marsh McGinley (Fred Willard). The Michael J. Fox Show, created by Will Gluck and Sam Laybourne, is a comedy starring Michael J. Fox as Mike Henry, an anchor and investigative reporter for a fictionalized version of WNBC (also known as 4 New York), a local station owned and operated by the NBC network. Despite many of its episodes being set in the newsroom and featuring Mike’s boss Harris Green (Wendell Pierce) as a central character, the series only engages with substantive issues of television news on rare occasions. The main focus falls squarely on Mike’s life with his wife and children as he adjusts to returning to work after a Parkinson’s diagnosis, a storyline that mirror’s Fox’s own life. 29 Kenan, created by Jackie Clarke and David Caspe, is a comedy starring Kenan Thompson as Kenan Williams, the host of local morning show Wake Up With Kenan on WDTA Atlanta. Like other news-adjacent series, Kenan’s main focus is on the protagonist’s family life. However, it engages issues of television news somewhat more regularly than other series in this category, including the often porous boundaries between news personalities’ on-air personas and their personal lives, the divide between hard and soft news, and the significance of ratings. Wake Up is co-hosted by Tami Greenlake (Taylor Louderman) and run by executive producer Mika Caldwell (Kimrie Lewis). Set in the Seattle area, the drama Firefly Lane, created by Maggie Friedman and based on the novel of the same name by Kristin Hannah, follows the lifelong friendship of Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl) and Kate Mularkey (Sarah Chalke). The series shifts between three eras of their lives, beginning with their teenage years in the 1970s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, they work in the newsroom of KPOC Tacoma: Tully as a reporter and later a weekend anchor, and Kate as a copywriter and producer. In the 2000s, Tully hosts The Girlfriend Hour, a nationally-syndicated talk show focused on conversations about women’s issues, while Kate is making a return to the workforce after raising a family. Regrettably, there were several other television news series that I could not include in my sample, due to the lack of accessibility of episodes during my research. These included Mobile One (ABC, 1975-1976), which focuses on an electronic news gathering unit at a Los Angeles station; The American Girls (CBS, 1978), which follows two reporters who travel across the U.S. for a weekly newsmagazine program; Goodnight, Beantown (NBC, 1983-1984), set at a local news division in Boston; TV 101 (CBS 1988-1989), centered on a high school television news production class; and Breaking News (Bravo, 2002), which takes place at a 24-hour cable news 30 network in Milwaukee. My hope is that more of their episodes will become available for screening in the future. Methodological Discussion “Consultants just give advice and go home. Executive producers do the work and get the ulcers.” –FYI executive producer Miles Silverberg, Murphy Brown48 The primary research method I employed for this dissertation was a close qualitative textual analysis of television programming, which involves looking at specific television texts in a detailed and systematic way in order to discern both their meaning and the ways they engage with other texts and discourses. This kind of analysis of television, Jonathan Gray and Amanda Lotz point out, looks closely at what is inside the frame to study how meaning is created, treating everything as an intentional choice by the producers.49 It is a method that, as John Fiske and John Hartley argue, is well-suited to understanding “what the language of television is saying to us.”50 Likewise, Raymond Williams posits that a qualitative textual analysis can reveal how individual television programs function as communicative processes that draw from, create, contribute to, and maintain cultural patterns.51 For my purposes, it is also preferable to a quantitative content analysis, as it allows for an understanding of “the complex significance and subtleties” of television texts,52 and the ways in which they present “a constantly up-dated [sic] 52 Fiske and Hartley 21. 51 Raymond Williams, “The Analysis of Culture,”In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader 5th edition, ed. John Storey (New York: Routledge, 2019), 32. 50 Fiske and Hartley 7. 49 Jonathan Gray and Amanda Lotz, “Programs,” In Television Studies, 2nd ed. (Medford, MA: Polity, 2019), 33. 48 Murphy Brown, season 8, episode 6, “Miller’s Crossing,” directed by Joe Regalbuto, written by Diane English, Alana Sanko, and Marsha Myers, featuring Candice Bergen, Grant Shaud, and Faith Ford, aired October 23, 1995, on CBS. 31 version of social relations and cultural perceptions.”53 A qualitative analysis is appropriate for this project because it allows for depth, nuance, and attention to tensions and disagreements within and between texts, while quantitative analysis aims to produce higher-level generalizable claims. This dissertation is also a work of genre analysis, which focuses on the similarities and differences within a family of programs that share certain traits or engage with similar issues. As Gray and Lotz argue, since any given program within a genre at least loosely follows a certain set of that genre’s rules and conventions, analyzing them as a group allows for making sense of “the world that those similarities and rules invoke.” They articulate that the analysis of genres at specific moments in time, and across time, can reveal “culturally ascendant, enduring, or retreating scripts, messages, or ideologies.” In the same way that series about the police suggest ways for audiences to think about criminality and law enforcement,54 television news series invite viewers to consider certain sets of issues that exist at particular points in time within and around television journalism. An important component of my close qualitative textual analysis of television news series is thematic analysis, which Nowell et al. articulate as a tool that identifies, analyzes, organizes, describes, and reports themes found in a given set of data.55 In using this tool, I followed a set of six step-by-step guidelines laid out by the authors to ensure that my results were trustworthy. I first familiarized myself with my data through a detailed textual analysis of my episode sample, created a set of initial codes to provide a starting framework, searched for themes within the data, 55 Lorelli S. Nowell et al., “Thematic Analysis: Struggling to Meet the Trustworthiness Criteria,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods no. 16 (2017), 2. 54 Gray and Lotz, “Programs,” 57. 53 Ibid 5. 32 reviewed the themes that I had found, defined and named those themes, and finally reported the results of my analysis in the pages of this dissertation in a transparent and detailed way.56 As Morley points out, making sense of television’s images and sounds requires an active process of decoding and interpretation.57 While carrying out my close qualitative textual analysis of television news series, I remained cognizant of Gray and Lotz’s assertion “that analysis is truly critical when it is open to exploring a wide variety of issues, when the analyst has been open to being surprised by his or her textual analysis, and hence when it leads its readers to a better understanding of the text and of how and why that text matters.”58 At the start of my textual analysis, I had no predetermined set of themes that I was looking for—rather, I allowed the themes to emerge in the process of my close reading of the texts themselves. My research involved the screening of over 700 individual television episodes. This close qualitative textual analysis was a time-consuming process, but one that I was able to streamline through the application of an effective workflow. First, I screened each episode, compiling detailed handwritten notes in bullet-point format. These included observations such as how each episode presents certain issues and problems of television journalism, how the characters carry out their jobs within the constraints of the industry, the relationships between characters, and the overall style and production design of the series. A crucial component of the notetaking process was transcribing key quotes from characters, as well as the capturing of screen grabs, some of which are presented as visual aids throughout this dissertation. Next, I transferred my handwritten bullet-point notes into a typed document, with each series having its own section under which notes from individual episodes were nested. This 58 Gray and Lotz 48. 57 Morley, Television, Audiences & Cultural Studies, 76. 56 Nowell et al. 4. 33 allowed me to review the notes more thoroughly and systematically in one place—my handwritten notes had taken up about ten separate notebooks. Reviewing these notes, I then identified three broad themes that were present across the genre: political economy (the depiction of the economic and industrial conditions of the television news industry), professionalism (the depiction of the coverage decisions, standards, and moral and ethical values of television journalism), and personality (the depiction of how the on-air images of television news personalities are cultivated). Following this, I color-coded the notes: red for political economy, blue for professionalism, and purple for personality. I then copied and pasted the color-coded notes into a second document organizing them according to the three themes. This document was then organized into sub-themes within each of the three overall themes. Organizing the notes in this way allowed me to easily identify which episodes I need to return to for further analysis. As the process moved forward, it became clear that the political economy theme composed a larger share of content than the two other themes, and thus ultimately needed to be split into two chapters: one encompassing issues of the public interest and media ownership, and a second devoted specifically to the importance of ratings. The application of this system of note taking and categorization proved useful in streamlining not only the research process but also the subsequent drafting of the dissertation itself. In the subsequent chapters, I compile my research and analysis, demonstrating the importance of studying the genre of television news series. 34 CHAPTER ONE: POLITICAL ECONOMY Introduction “We only have to keep the stockholders happy, and that’s it.” –TMS producer Chip Black, The Morning Show59 Television news series are built on characters negotiating the shifting economic realities of the television news industry, the ground rules of which are informed by both state actors through regulations and public interest requirements, and by media owners who influence the ultimate shape of the product of news. Generally speaking, conceptions of how the news media function under capitalism fall into two paradigms: one in which journalism functions in a competitive marketplace which helps to foster democracy, and a contrasting point of view that sees journalism as an instrument of control that is wielded by powerful private interests. As television news operations have steadily shifted into becoming profit centers within the vast portfolios of media owners, they are often obliged to take into account the broader financial health of their parent companies when making coverage decisions. While media owners do not exert absolute control over the news, they have levers of power at their disposal that can guide the editorial decision-making process. As Eileen R. Meehan articulates, in order to understand the products that television puts out, it is crucial to understand its workings as an industry. A central focus of this approach is to look at the ways in which the state, through legislation and regulation, fosters the conditions in which the television industry operates. The nature of television is informed by relationships 59 The Morning Show, season 3, episode 1, “The Kármán Line,” directed by Mimi Leder, written by Kerry Ehrin Jay Carson, and Charlotte Stoudt, featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Billy Crudup, aired September 23, 2013, on AppleTV+. 35 between state and corporate actors.60 From the late twentieth century onwards, deregulatory policies have allowed for consolidated ownership to reign supreme in the television industry. Although there may be a proliferation of channels and content, true diversity is not achieved because outlets that outwardly appear to consumers as being distinct entities are owned by a very small number of companies.61 Further, there are powerful incentives for owners of television networks to work together to maintain the status quo of limited competition. Keeping a limited rivalry going means that, no matter who is winning the ratings war at any given moment, every competitor in this exclusive club stays highly profitable.62 Speaking specifically about television news, Meehan argues that the coverage that ultimately makes it to air is the result of industrial processes that structure how employees carry out their jobs.63 As Steve McNair has outlined in his book on the sociology of journalism, there have historically been two competing paradigms that describe the ways in which commercial journalism operates in capitalist societies: the competitive paradigm, and the dominance paradigm. In the competitive paradigm, a diversity of media outlets engage in a free and open exchange of ideas that make possible a pluralistic society. The news media function as a “fourth estate” of independent power that serves as a watchdog over other powerful spheres. Privately-owned media gain journalistic independence by virtue of their non-reliance on the state for financial support, while the free market allows for the open competition of ideas. Commercial television news outlets are presented as being independent from the influence of 63 Meehan, Why TV is Not Our Fault, 4. 62 Eileen R. Meehan, Why TV is Not Our Fault: Television Programming, Viewers, and Who’s Really in Control (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), 80-81. 61 Meehan, “Watching Television,” 250. 60 Eileen R. Meehan, “Watching Television: A Political Economic Approach,” in A Companion to Television, edited by Janet Wasko (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 238, 240. 36 political parties, the government, and advertisers, and their avowed adherence to serving the public interest is positioned as key to maintaining a pluralistic liberal democracy.64 By contrast, in the dominance paradigm, commercial journalism is conceived of as being utilized as a cultural apparatus by powerful members of a stratified society to maintain relations of subordination and domination via three mechanisms. The first is economic control, where a small number of wealthy individuals and groups own media institutions and thus have the power to discourage or shut down coverage that could criticize or damage their interests. Here, economic control is not limited to media owners, as anyone who has enough wealth and power can influence media through other channels such as advertising and public relations campaigns. Second is political control, where the legislative and regulatory structures of journalism are designed to cement the dominance of the wealthy and powerful. The third and final mechanism is cultural control, where, through either privileged upbringing or acculturation, a high number of journalists adhere to ideological systems that support the maintenance of dominant social and political structures.65 McNair asserts that neither the competitive paradigm nor the dominance paradigm are sufficient to account for the complex ways that journalism operates in contemporary capitalist societies. While news media ownership remains concentrated, it is exceedingly difficult for any one ideology to remain dominant for any significant length of time. Liberal journalism is indeed biased toward capitalism, but not toward an unchanging capitalism where domination and subordination are rigidly fixed. A more accurate way to describe modern journalism, McNair argues, is a chaotic flow model in which ideas may “aspire to dominance but will not necessarily 65 McNair, The Sociology of Journalism, 22-25. 64 McNair, The Sociology of Journalism (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), 19-21. 37 achieve it” (emphasis in original).66 Indeed, while media ownership and control translates into cultural power, the degree to which this occurs is challenging to precisely measure. Even though the extent of the effects that media has are unknown, the widely accepted fact that it has some kind of effects makes it a desirable property.67 As Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel articulate in their book, The Elements of Journalism, news in the twentieth century outwardly espoused a Platonic ideal of separation—a kind of “firewall between the news and the business side of news companies.” This notion was a “misguided metaphor,” encouraging a “willful ignorance” among journalists about the very industries they worked for, which often led to them being “outmaneuvered” by their corporate bosses. Further, if the two sides of this supposed firewall are indeed working at cross-purposes, “the journalism tends to be what gets corrupted.”68 In the contemporary media landscape, the authors argue, it has become increasingly difficult for news to stand on its own as a viable business, and its production is synergistically bound up with a range of other products and services that make up the portfolios of new outlets’ parent companies.69 Indeed, as Deborah L. Jaramillo points out in her book on cable news coverage of the early days of the Iraq War in 2003, television news cannot be separated from its context as part of the larger media industry.70 Kovach and Rosenstiel point out that as economic efficiency evolved into a major concern in the wake of media competition and consolidation, news managers and producers increasingly came to be judged and compensated not based on the quality of their reporting but on how much their activities contributed to the larger well-being of the corporations of which 70 Deborah L. Jaramillo, Ugly War, Pretty Package: How CNN and Fox News Made the Invasion of Iraq High Concept (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009), 22. 69 Kovach and Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism, 41. 68 Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect 4th edition (New York: Crown, 2021) 85-86. 67 Ibid 102-03. 66 Ibid 28-29, 31, 33. 38 they are but one component.71 By the early twenty-first century, the majority of news executives worked under some form of Management by Objectives (MBO) program: a management strategy dating to the 1950s which set goals and attached rewards for achieving them as a way to coordinate and monitor productivity. This led to a kind of hierarchy of loyalty: reporters and editors were still committed to serving their audiences, but this was secondary to supporting corporate objectives.72 Put another way, as Jaramillo writes, “television news has transformed from a public service into a profit center that operates more or less overtly in the service of corporate parents.”73 McNair asserts that there are two ways in which economic forces impact American journalism. The first is that the news is an industry with private ownership.74 In the United States, public ownership of media is almost entirely eschewed, in part based on concerns that it could be turned into an apparatus of state power.75 Owners are basically free to do with the news media as they wish, and their employees are subject to their power in the same way that an employee of any privately-owned company would be. Star personalities are sometimes able to use their reputations and notoriety as a currency to buy editorial autonomy. However, for the most part, media owners exercise “proprietorial control” over journalistic output by appointing like-minded people in key management positions who, generally speaking, are there to carry out the will of their bosses. Even when prospective media buyers pledge that a news division will have editorial independence, these promises are hardly ever honored once a deal is closed and a new owner has officially taken the reins. The second element is the fact that journalism is a commodity for sale in a crowded information marketplace, and as such must provide a product 75 Ibid 92. 74 McNair, The Sociology of Journalism, 101. 73 Jaramillo, Ugly War, Pretty Package, 38. 72 Ibid 82-83. 71 Kovach and Rosenstiel 68. 39 that is both useful and desirable for audiences.76 This chapter will focus on the first element; I will be exploring the second in detail in the following chapter on the centrality of ratings numbers to television news. In this chapter, I explore the ways in which television news series portray the political economy of television news through three major themes. First, the genre makes visible the somewhat abstract struggles around how the television news industry fulfills its responsibilities to serve the public interest while also remaining commercially viable. The genre engages with the ways in which television news media might adapt to a changing media landscape where, thanks in part to neoliberal economic policies, the concept of the public interest has become increasingly defined in terms of viewer choice in a competitive marketplace as opposed to a traditional conception of public service that puts the support of democracy front and center. Second, the genre sets up constant battles between television journalists and the owners and executives that comprise the bureaucracy of the television industry. On the whole, owners serve as the primary antagonists of the genre—they are sometimes portrayed as outright villains—who regularly make moves to compromise the quality of journalism to serve their own interests. Third, the genre deals with the anxiety that television news could potentially be taken over by large technology companies who in no way share the same values or commitment to public service that is espoused by journalists. These storylines, which are most prevalent in the respective third seasons of The Newsroom and The Morning Show, engage with the ways in which television news operations literally become saleable commodities that can be diminished or sacrificed altogether in service of profit for enormous corporations. 76 Ibid 101-03, 107-08 40 Television News & The Public Interest “There’s a difference between good television and journalism.” –Murphy in the Morning co-anchor Murphy Brown, Murphy Brown77 In her book on the public interest in American broadcasting, Allison Perlman identifies the public interest standard as “a discursive construction, something that is produced through social conflict over control of the airwaves rather than something that exists independent of power struggles. The public interest is not a singular, knowable thing. It is a device which reflects the interests of the person or community who invokes it.”78 In the case of national broadcast news on television, both the definition of and execution of the public interest are informed by the organizational structures that undergird the news programs themselves. The flexibility of the standard is due in large part to its imprecise articulation by the federal government. The concept of the public interest emerged in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a vague standard against which the granting and renewal of broadcast licenses would be measured. The Radio Act of 1927 stipulated that, “If upon examination of any application for a station license or for the renewal or modification of a station license the licensing authority shall determine that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by the granting thereof, it shall authorize the issuance, renewal, or modification thereof in accordance with said finding” [emphasis added].79 As Perlman argues, the Radio Act expressed an ideology that privileged the national and commercial over the local and noncommercial, reasoning that the public interest 79 “Radio Act of 1927,” in Documents of American Broadcasting, ed. Frank J. Kahn (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968), 41-42. 78 Allison Perlman, Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles Over US Television (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press), 7. 77 Murphy Brown, season 11, episode 1, “Fake News,” directed by Pamela Fryman, written by Diane English, Skander Halim, and Gina Ippolito, featuring Candice Bergen, Faith Ford, and Joe Regalbuto, aired September 27, 2018, on CBS. 41 was best served by the high technical quality that could be provided by well-resourced private stations.80 While the Communications Act of 1934 employed slightly modified language, citing “the public interest, convenience, and necessity” [emphasis added],81 it left the qualifications that would fulfill the standard indistinct. These two pieces of legislation effectively placed the job of defining and executing the public interest in the hands of the broadcast industry. Such a stance would be consistently perpetuated as broadcasting developed. In 1946 the FCC published “Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees,” which stated that, Primary responsibility for the American system of broadcasting rests with the licensees of broadcast stations, including the network organizations. It is to the stations and networks rather than to federal regulation that listeners must primarily turn for improved standards of program service. The Commission, as the licensing agency established by Congress, has a responsibility to consider overall program service in its public interest determinations, but affirmative improvement of program service must be the result primarily of other forces.82 In other words, while the government held licensing authority based on a public interest standard, it fell to broadcasters to interpret what it meant to adhere to that standard. Likewise, in a 1960 programming policy statement the FCC declared that “the principal ingredient” of the public interest obligation “consists of a diligent, positive, and continuing effort by the licensee to discover and fulfill the tastes, needs, and desires of his service area. If he has done this, he has met his public responsibility.”83 Indeed, the document lays out a set of fourteen “major elements necessary to meet the public interest, needs and desires [...] as developed by the industry and recognized by the commission.” Programming types ranged broadly, from news 83 “Report and Statement of Policy re: Commission en banc Programming Inquiry, FCC 60-970, July 29, 1960,” in Documents of American Broadcasting, 217. 82 Federal Communications Commission, “Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees” (Washington: Federal Communications Commission, 1946), 54-55. 81 “Communications Act of 1934,” in Documents of American Broadcasting, 70 80 Perlman, Public Interests, 15-16. 42 and public affairs shows to sports coverage and entertainment. In effect, virtually any program could fulfill the public interest, as long as its airing was the result of the “honest and prudent judgments” of the licensee.84 While the statement focuses primarily on the imperatives of individual stations, it cites network programming as constituting “an integral part of the well-rounded program service provided by the broadcast business in most communities.”85 As in the Radio Act and Communications Act, the importance of nationally-focused broadcasting is given special consideration, lionizing commercial networks as exemplary caretakers of the public interest. This is consistent with federal policies that had given rise to a US broadcasting system that privileged high levels of latitude for commercial entities. The programming policy report illustrates how the FCC embraced its role as an instrument of soft power, arguing that an unclear public interest standard was in no way an impediment to its authority for enforcement.86 Under the leadership of Newton Minow in the early 1960s the FCC would attempt to wield its licensing power more assertively. In May 1961 Minow, after barely two months as the commission’s chairman, addressed the National Association of Broadcasters. What would become known as the “Vast Wasteland” speech was an articulation of a more stringent definition of the public interest based on the difference between debasement and enrichment. Minnow posited that in the name of profit and ratings, television had trafficked far too heavily in the former while relegating the latter to the medium’s margins. “Your industry possesses the most powerful voice in America,” Minow argued. “It has an inescapable duty to make that voice ring with intelligence and with leadership...It is not enough to cater to the nation’s whims – you must 86 Ibid 215. 85 Ibid 219. 84 The fourteen elements were as follows: Opportunity for Local Self-Expression, The Development and Use of Local Talent, Programs for Children, Religious Programs, Educational Programs, Public Affairs Programs, Editorialization by Licensees, Political Broadcasts, Agricultural Programs, News Programs, Weather and Market Reports, Sports Programs, Service to Minority Groups, and Entertainment Programming. “Report and Statement of Policy re: Commission en banc Programming Inquiry, FCC 60-970, July 29, 1960,” 219. 43 also serve the nation’s needs.” In addition to scolding broadcasters, the address treated television audiences with condescension and respect simultaneously; the majority of Americans had decidedly poor taste, yet they deserved better content, and it was up to broadcasters to provide it.87 As Laurie Ouellette points out, the speech simply “dismissed popular genres instead of proposing creativity, diversity, and noncommercialism within them”; for Minow, “better television meant upgraded programs imbued with educated and masculine connotations, like legitimate plays and panel discussions” [emphasis in original].88 The value of news programming to broadcast television, both in terms of serving the public interest and contributing to a network’s brand image, is an important area of scholarly discourse. In his book on the early years of CBS News, Mike Conway points out that nightly newscasts were a way for networks to compete with and distinguish themselves from one another, a stance that was ramped up with the 1948 political conventions and presidential election night, which began an ongoing arms race for “more extensive coverage, technological innovations, journalistic scoops, and any other aspects that would give them bragging rights.”89 The networks would invest even more heavily in television news throughout the 1950s and 60s – with CBS and NBC expanding their nightly newscasts from 15 to 30 minutes in 1963 – burnishing their images in the wake of the quiz show scandals, which involved game show producers providing secret assistance to certain contestants.90 While the FCC made no specific provisions requiring news on broadcast television, there was implicit pressure within its rules that such programming was key to ensuring license renewals. Since the FCC “did not investigate 90 Ibid 301. 89 Conway, The Origins of Television News in America, 250. 88 Laurie Ouellette, Viewers Like You? How Public Television Failed the People (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 32. 87 Newton Minow, “Television and the Public Interest: delivered 9 May 1961, National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, DC,” http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm. 44 http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm the quality or amount of money invested” in early television news efforts, many of these programs were bare-bones affairs, produced simply to stay in the good graces of the government body.91 The FCC has sometimes made more assertive suggestions as to how the public interest can be served by news and public affairs programming. In “Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees,” news is positioned as a potentially lucrative enterprise as well as a matter of national service upon which the survival of democracy depends. The report, released shortly after World War II, cites how the genre has “achieved a popularity exceeding the popularity of any other single type of program,” and that “if broadcasters face the crucial problems of the post-war years with skill, fairness, and courage, there is no reason why broadcasting cannot play as important a role in our democracy hereafter as it has achieved during the war years.”92 Here, news is positioned as a marketable product that can make and keep broadcasting vital to the everyday lives of American citizens. “Probably no other type of problem in the entire broadcasting industry,” the report goes on to state, “is as important, or requires of the broadcaster a greater sense of objectivity, responsibility, and fair play.”93 For networks, the establishment of national news operations emerged as a solution to meeting the public interest obligations of their affiliate stations, keeping the FCC satisfied, and generating viewership, pride and prestige. The responsibility of television news as a means of fostering democracy by providing the public with timely and relevant information is explored by The Mary Tyler Moore Show in “The Snow Must Go On.” The episode is set during election night in Minneapolis, for which WJM is airing special coverage from its studio. For the first time since she was hired as associate 93 Ibid 40. 92 “Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees” 39. 91 Ibid 260. 45 producer, Lou Grant has decided to give Mary Richards authority over the show, which makes Mary extremely nervous. In an added bit of complexity, the city also happens to be experiencing a severe blizzard, which knocks out the telephone line that is providing the newsroom with election returns, effectively paralyzing the broadcast. The results of the mayoral contest are stuck on “Turner 85, Mitchell 23” for hours, but Lou reminds Mary that WJM still has to provide election night coverage even if it has no information coming in because this was contractually promised to sponsors. If the station were to switch to alternate programming, WJM would be in breach of that contract—the advertisements would still run but the station could not collect any fees from airing them.94 Figure 1: In The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Richards pushes for reporting accurate election results.95 Needing to “stay on the air until a winner is declared,” Ted Baxter is forced to vamp for hours, leaving him exhausted. His spirits are lifted during a commercial break, when he tunes 95 The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “The Snow Must Go On.” 94 The Mary Tyler Moore Show, season 1, episode 8, “The Snow Must Go On,” directed by Jay Sandrich, written by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, and David Davis, featuring Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, and Valerie Harper, aired November 7, 1970, on CBS. 46 into competing local station Channel 3, and gleefully reports back to Mary, Murray Slaughter, and the rest of the newsroom staff: Ted: Hey, listen, everybody! Channel 3 just predicted Turner a winner, and signed off! All we have to do is declare Turner a winner, and we can all go home! Mary: No, hold it, hold it just a minute. Murray: What was that? Mary: That was “hold it just a minute.” We can’t go on with that information. It’s not official. Murray: It’s official enough for me. Mary: Murray, no. We have an obligation. Murray: Mary, all those people out there are sleeping. I feel no obligation to sleeping people. Mary: Well, I’m sure at least Turner and Mitchell aren’t sleeping; it wouldn’t be right, it would be dishonest. As a journalistic outlet, Mary believes that WJM has a mandate to report accurate election results that can be independently verified—simply parroting Channel 3’s projections without having any information of their own would constitute a betrayal of their audience. Her stand is rooted in the concept that the public interest is about serving news viewers first and foremost as citizens. Ted insists that he will announce Turner as the winner, assuming that his authority as lead anchor will make Mary capitulate to him. This proves to be a miscalculation, as Mary quickly responds that she will fire Ted if he does not follow her instructions; Ted quickly backs down.96 The incident serves as a crucial means of character development—Mary had been hesitant in leading her first broadcast, but when push comes to shove she is able to assert herself to maintain the public interest. The broadcast continues to run into the wee hours of the morning until another WJM employee, Chuckles the Clown (Richard Schaal), arrives at the studio in full costume to shoot his regularly-scheduled children’s program. Chuckles shows Mary that morning’s newspaper: Turner has officially conceded and Mitchell has been elected mayor of 96 Ibid. 47 Minneapolis. With Ted exhausted, Mary asks Chuckles to announce the news live on-air, ending the marathon coverage. Mary’s principled stand, which she always believed was the right thing to do, turned out to save WJM from making an inaccurate election call that would have damaged the news division’s credibility with the public.97 During the 1980s and 1990s, the public interest standard became the subject of renewed debate as the FCC moved to embrace neoliberal economic policies ushered in by the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Perlman argues that while these policies were touted as deregulation, they can be more accurately described as an alternative model of regulation, one committed to sanctifying the property rights of corporations, preserving the previously awarded advantages to players within various economic sectors, and imagining consumer behavior as the best arbiter for determining the public good. Within this regulatory paradigm the circulation of diverse programming was imagined as something that a robust marketplace yields, not an actionable public interest goal.98 Indeed, during this timeframe there were voices within the industry whose ideas about the public interest were informed by the conception of broadcasting primarily as a private enterprise, the rights of which should not be impeded. In this milieu, there were voices that posited that a public interest standard for broadcasting should not exist at all, as it placed limitations on commercial broadcasters’ abilities to compete in the marketplace. One such opinion came in 1988 from commercial broadcasting executive Ted L. Snider, whose holdings at that time included the Arkansas Radio Network. Snider rejected the concept that the American people own the broadcast spectrum, arguing that unlike the technological infrastructure used to access them, the airwaves are a non-ownable entity that cannot be depleted and thus have no intrinsic 98 Perlman 98. 97 Ibid. 48 worth. Within this context, Snider argued, broadcasting is subject to an unfair standard that is not applied to other industries that serve the public, which are only required to adhere to minimum technical standards of operation. The imposition of a public interest standard was thus unconstitutional, Snider posited, as it afforded the government the power to “invoke its will on” programming, limiting freedom of speech rights afforded under the First Amendment.99 Snider’s line of reasoning was consistent with the “marketplace approach to regulation”100 that became the dominant framework within which the broadcast industry continues to operate to the present day. This philosophy became codified with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As Katherine Cramer Brownell points out in her compelling book on the importance of politics to the development of cable news, while the Communications Act of 1934 had fostered the conditions for a commercial, rather than a public service broadcasting system, it had also mandated that the privately-owned media monopolies that would emerge promote the public interest. While this did gave way to a flawed system that elevated a fairly narrow approach to current events skewed toward a white, male, elitist point of view, the 1996 legislation “eliminated any public interest requirements, allowing private businesses to focus merely on providing consumer choice without any expectation or incentives to create tools or programs that informed citizens.” The cultural consequence of deregulation, Brownell argues, was a television industry which served “a public appetite for entertainment and distraction,” and that treated news programming as “a market commodity, not a civic necessity.”101 Murphy Brown deals with the struggle to uphold journalistic standards to serve the public interest in the face of cost-cutting by its corporate parent. In “Terror on the 17th Floor,” the CBS 101 Kathryn Cramer Brownell, 24/7 Politics: Cable Television & the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023), 299-302. 100 Perlman 98. 99 Ted L. Snider, “Serving the Public Interest,” in Public Interest and The Business of Broadcasting: The Broadcast Industry Looks at Itself, ed. John T. Powell and Wally Gair (New York: Quorum Books, 1988), 88-91. 49 network is purchased by American Industrial, a conglomerate that manufactures a range of products including home appliances, military weapons, and frozen foods. The company sends in its in-house “management specialist” Barbara Boyle (Nancy Youngblut) to study the news division and find ways to “streamline” the network. “It just means a little budget adjusting, trimming the fat,” says Boyle, insisting on a twenty-five percent cut across the board. In a move that illustrates how executives are never willing to make any real sacrifices to their own working conditions, compensation or perks, news division head Gene Kinsella (Alan Oppenheimer) proudly offers to cancel his subscription to TV Guide, as if giving up a seventy-five cent-per week magazine will lift an enormous weight from the network’s balance sheet. Boyle’s list of cuts range from petty nickel-and-diming that includes forcing newsroom staff to log all personal telephone calls so they can be billed to employees, to changes that have a material impact on newsgathering and production such as a refusal to give Frank Fontana a proper disguise budget for his undercover reporting, and the firing of a camera crew.102 Incensed that Boyle’s cuts are having a material impact on the quality of FYI’s journalism and the livelihoods of the people who work on the show, Murphy travels with Miles Silverberg to American Industrial headquarters in New York. They are met with a conference room full of interchangeable, thirty-something, Ivy League-educated white men, all of whom have a vice president title. These corporate lackeys suggest even more ridiculous and draconian measures than Boyle. How about FYI cutting expenses by travelling only on cheaper days of the week? Miles points out that news events cannot be scheduled around convenient travel days. Last year, he says, FYI produced an award-winning story that the public needed to know about cracks in an 102 Murphy Brown, season 3, episode 17, “Terror on the 17th Floor,” directed by Barnet Kellman, written by Diane English, Sy Dukane, and Denise Moss, featuring Candice Bergen, Pat Corley, and Faith Ford, aired February 18, 1991, on CBS. 50 Alaska oil pipeline, and needed to fly across the continent to report it. Nix the travel altogether, the VPs suggest: just put a reporter in a parka, stand them in front of a photo of a pipeline and add in some fake snow! “This is the news,” exclaims an exasperated Miles, “not a Steven Spielberg movie!”103 For American Industrial, cutting corners