Dave McElhatton was no Cronkite, but he certainly was the major pulse in Bay Area TV news in the 70's, 80's and early 90's.
Someone asked me what he'd think of today's dreck-a-thon at the nation's #4 market. He'd be fried. He'd professionally puke. No wonder.
Sure, things have changed. The universal bleeding in newsrooms, (save for KTVU,) was nowhere to be seen during the prime of McElhatton's tenure. Internet presence hadn't become so pronounced. But the gist of real newsroom action was paramount and today it is lost amidst the no-names, the idiotic "news" personnel that make up a large part of the local operations today.
How pathetic this market has become. A market of doofus' leading the way who haven't a clue how to run a legitimate news operation. Scores of "talent" that are fortunate enough to work cheap, possess perfect parts of parts of their anatomy, and kowtow to the numbskull's that work in upper management whose "management" style and "technique" have systematically screwed up the entire business. To be blunt, yes they haven't a clue. They're worthless dolts that made their way through the Rubik's cube of organized schlock.
And I haven't even mentioned the word "consultant."
Mac's legacy, at the very least, is to look at the "then" and "now" of today's sordid and sorry state of local TV News. Sure, there are forces today that weren't around a decade or two ago that dramatically altered the business. But content and personnel? No sir.
Just take a look at the crap we have today. Save for Channel 2, (and most of their top guns are leaving and/or taking buyouts,) the vast majority of the local outlets are a monumental joke. And I'm being kind.
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I wonder though if he might have felt todays's news of scramble and VJ's is like what he did in radio back in the 50-60's? And that the heyday of 4 local news stations paying near million dollar a year salaries didnt foster that whole clone, play- it- safe- news of that era?
ReplyDeleteThe net,bloggers,cable compared to the rare Woodward and Bernstein investigation of then. More news now..and faster.
AND who can ever forget his rolled eyes when he said he could hear the foghorns-and Joel Bartlett took that to mean make a foghorn sound on live news? "No Joel (with eyes rolling) I meant REAL foghorns" Classic Dave.
Mac would puke for sure. I'm sure going back further, the likes of Wanda Ramey and John Weston would also be horrified too. They were true legends and pioneers in this market when Mac was still in high school.
ReplyDeleteSigh......
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