Mike Maney

Yesterday I posted about the decline of American broadcast journalism, singling out Katie Couric’s journalistic skill in reading words on a screen. Today, Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine has an interesting post highlighting comments from the director general of the BBC on the death of the news presenter (i.e., celebrities like Couric).

Over the past year or so, I’ve started to rely on the BBC — on the web and on XM Radio — as the reasoned journalistic voice on global and political topics. Now, I’m sure they aren’t perfect, but its reporting, its tone, its balance and its objectivity give it credibility that the once-watched network news shows no longer deliver (I chose “shows” because the 5, 10 and 11pm newscasts have long since crossed the line from journalism to entertainment and advertising vehicles).