In recent weeks two nighttime news anchors were snared in controversies over their recollections and reporting. NBC's Brian Williams took a six-month leave after questions were raised about his reporting in Iraq and post-Katrina New Orleans. Fox News's Bill O'Reilly was similarly called out on the carpet for his own reporting on the Falklands War. (During the controversy O'Reilly has stayed on the air.)
News anchors stake their reputations on the accuracy of the information. Of course networks want to maximize their viewership. But when questions arise over facts, dates, or "shadings" of the truth, broadcasters like Williams and O'Reilly — and the networks who pay them — risk alienating their audience.
No film may have captured the plight of the newscaster better than the 1976 Sidney Lumet classic Network. In it, longtime broadcaster Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch) faces sliding ratings, a network's hostile takeover attempt, and a series of ploys to bring viewers back to their televisions. Some of the conclusions Network arrived at were not comforting.
"Howard Beale is going to be let go because his ratings have been slipping. So on the air, because he's lost his wife, he has no life at all, he decides that he's going to commit suicide on TV," film critic Garen Daly said on Boston Public Radio.
"People are going, 'What? What's going on?' And they realized the ratings spiked!" Daly said. "It just slowly devolves into a look into what sells on TV, and where is the morality versus the reality. It's a great, great satire."
Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Robert Duvall all co-star. Daly said that in the pre-internet era, the film and its stars seemed prescient.
"When you think about it — they predicted YouTube, [screenwriter] Paddy Chayefsky predicted all these things."
The film's most memorable scene comes when Howard Beale asks viewers to open a window and yell along with him, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
"Chayefsky does a great job of slowly devolving the entire situation. He doesn't throw it in your face. Everything follows a logical progression down," Daly said. Ultimately, he said, the blame came full-circle.
"He also goes after the audience for accepting it, and to get out of their boredom by being entertained, rather than being informed. And that is one of the reasons why I love Network as much as I do. He indicts everyone. No one is a sacred cow."
When the heat dissipates from O'Reilly, Williams, or another anchor accused of embellishment or fabrication, that lesson from Network would be one for viewers to take to heart.
>> To hear the entire conversation about Network with Garen Daly, click the audio link above.
