If Only All 3 Anchors Signed Off--in Protest

According to the television industry rumor du jour, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw plans to retire. Brokaw is taking a 10-week vacation--uncommon even for marquee news performers--which could mean, the gossip suggests, that he’s ready to become a peacock pensioner (Morning Report, July 7).

Done right, his leave-taking could be a splendid moment. In fact, to begin the resurrection of TV news, Brokaw and his competitors Peter Jennings and Dan Rather all should retire.

That’s right. All three of them. Quit. Hang it up. Walk away.

They should do it together. Tom, Peter and Dan ought to call a joint news conference to say, “We’re mad as hell about television news, and we’re not going to give it anymore.”

The anchors often lament current problems in broadcast journalism: corporate influence and content corruption, dumbed-down news, gutted foreign bureaus, obsession with half-wit celebrities, impatience with ideas. They frequently ride limousines up to Columbia University or some similarly prestigious venue and issue hard-hitting calls for higher quality.

Unfortunately, no matter how often they speak out, nothing happens.

The news looks dimmer every day. Journalists grow gloomier, at network and local levels. It will take a dramatic personal statement, I believe, to illustrate the bone-deep despair among television news workers.

A couple of months ago, the respected publisher of a San Jose newspaper abruptly resigned, claiming that his corporate masters were sacrificing journalistic credibility at the altar of short-term profit.

It was a great moment. News people cheered. The publisher was invited to give speeches and accept awards.

But after a few days, he fell off the public radar because he had no star power.

Tom, Peter and Dan have it, big time. They could milk the story of their discontent for months. By forfeiting their multimillion-dollar salaries, their lofty positions among the media elite, their claims to national fame, they would fire a live shot heard round the journalism world.

It wouldn’t be easy. These good anchors surely care about their work and the news divisions where they have toiled for decades. Perhaps they feel a duty to stay. They may ask, “If we leave, won’t our cheap networks just replace us with pliant, inexperienced readers?”

Yes, they probably will. It won’t matter, though. Why? Because in today’s television news climate, those estimable journalists have become the functional equivalent of pliant, inexperienced readers.

The greed-is-good corporate ethic has overpowered them in their own workplaces. Their calls for quality and responsibility are unheeded, despite their supposed influence and prestige. Their masters figure that the comfortable anchors are not going anywhere, no matter how bad it gets.

So, Tom, Peter and Dan: Go, before it gets even worse. Use your writing skills and your respected voices to speak up. Do it for your colleagues, who care but don’t count. Do it for a public that is not composed entirely of idiots, as your bosses believe.

Quitting will not diminish your stature. You’re still big. It’s the newscasts that got small.

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James C. Mitchell teaches journalism at the University of Arizona in Tucson.