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Stewart: Go Ahead & Tinker, But You’ll “Be Judged When The Crap Hits The Fan”

By Brian on October 30, 2006 12:37 PM

Friday was Jim Stewart‘s last day as a CBS News correspondent. He took some time talking to Public Eye about his 16 years at the network. This part of the Q&A is especially interesting:

  A lot of the networks are trying to lure younger audiences. That’s something that’s always been part of the game. Do you think in seeking that audience they are alienating the audience that exists?

That’s a question for the suits. I don’t know. I think that if you have, as I said before, 338 channels to choose from, and you deliberately flip through all the things you have to flip through to get to the CBS Evening News, I think you’ve made a conscious election and statement that, ‘Hey, I want to see the news.’ So if you don’t show them news, why should they watch you?

That’s not to say that we’re not. This is where I get into trouble, but I’ll say it anyway. I think you tinker around the edges of a news broadcast all you want, and that’s good. But you will be judged when the crap hits the fan. When people aren’t watching you out of curiosity, they’re watching you out of a burning hunger and fear and desire to know what’s going on. If you don’t remember 9/11 for that reason, then, there is no better example.		  

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