Hard News Falls on Hard Times

Re “Dumbing Down the Airwaves,” letter, March 6: I have always enjoyed and respected Ted Koppel and consider him and “Nightline” an excellent example of a TV news magazine. However, the demise of that program simply reflects the changing demographics of the broadcast network viewership and the evolution of a multitude of 24/7 cable news outlets offering every possible variation of current and historical events coverage.

As a satellite TV customer, I am about to lose my ABC-NY programming because I am within the reception sphere of a local ABC affiliate (Palm Springs). Reviewing what ABC programs that loss would affect, I found that I only watch two of its offerings in an entire week, both on Tuesday night. My TV is normally tuned to Fox News Channel, CNN or MSNBC.

William Merrill

Morongo Valley

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Disney and ABC wanting to drop “Nightline” and “Politically Incorrect” is unpatriotic and borders on evil at a time when Americans need, more than ever, to be well informed. To think in terms of profit by eliminating nearly all hard news from network TV is disgraceful.

Network news is barely news anymore. It is entertainment. Who cares if people who don’t have cable know almost nothing about what is going on in their country or in their world? If we continue to keep the people ignorant, we shall undermine and eventually destroy our democracy. That “Nightline” has become “irrelevant” is the opinion of only those who have no clue as to the respect Koppel has earned as a journalist for getting to some kind of reality and truth in the vast wasteland of network TV.

Sondra Barnes

Van Nuys