The Death of Broadcast News: Strange Bedfellows, Ep. 14

Tonight at 9 P.M. Eastern on "Strange Bedfellows" we discuss the Death of Broadcast News on Episode 14 and take a look back at some of the legends who personified excellence.

This week, my Maverick News co-host Rick Walker and I are taking a break from current events and instead looking back in time at some of the pioneers of broadcast journalism. Watching them in our formative years taught us everything we know. (And there is still much they can teach journalists today.)

It will be 40 years next month since the tragic death of NBC News anchorwoman Jessica Savitch.

Savitch died in an automobile accident at the height of her career in October, 1983. We will show you some highlights from her life in TV News, and talk about how Savitch struggled against the male-dominated newsroom culture of the 1970s and 1980s. We'll discuss why Savitch still fascinates, even 40 years later.

We will also pay tribute to TV news legend David Brinkley on the 20th anniversary of his passing, look back at his best moments from the dawn of television news in the late 1940s through the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" of the 1950s and 60s, and his remarkable career at NBC and later, ABC News. We will show you why David Brinkley was the gold standard of broadcast news -- a standard so high, it can probably never be matched.

Brinkley and Savitch were (and still are) my two greatest influences in journalism. We will tip our hats to both of these giants on this special edition of “Strange Bedfellows” Saturday night, and talk about the impact they had on our own long careers in broadcast news.

Walter Cronkite, Roger Mudd, Frank McGee, Hugh Downs, Chet Huntley, Barbara Walters, Frank Reynolds and more appear in this exploration of “old school” journalism.

We will discuss why the mainstream media lost the public’s trust, and most importantly, how to get it back.

Rick and I spent 35 years in the corporate news media. We worked in this industry at a time when news reporting was still objective and unbiased, before the Fairness Doctrine was abolished by President Ronald #Reagan in the 1980s. We'll talk about why that -- and President Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- destroyed the integrity of broadcast news.

At Maverick News we still believe that honest, straightforward reporting is the best kind.

If you agree, join us Saturday night for a special edition of “Strange Bedfellows.”

We will play you some examples of what we consider great broadcast journalism from the greats who inspired us to devote our lives to this public service — because news is supposed to be, above all, a service to the public...not corporate profit-driven infotainment, partisan narrative-pushing, government propaganda, or social media clickbait.

We have a few surprises for you as well: some embarrassing old tapes from the archives of our own careers proving just how old we are! (yes, I even have tapes of my coverage from the Reagan administration!).

Join us for a powerful show that will bring back some memories for our older viewers, teach the younger ones, and and we'll have some great laughs, too!