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The Turmoil Saga of NewsNation


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2 minutes ago, DJonNews said:

You don't need to be shocked about this, though. Practically, none of us should, if their history is anything to go by.

 

Virtually every single major news outlet (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc.), including Fox News and even Newsmax, is providing as-it-happens breaking news coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's passing at the age of 96 (she'll be dearly missed).

 

NewsNation, on the other hand? Would you believe it, they're showing "Blue Bloods" in lieu of any live coverage! The death of Britain's longest-reigning monarch in history (seven decades at the throne) is taking precedence over basically everything else in the news cycle, and still, NewsNation doesn't want to let go of "that beautiful syndie rerun footage..."

 

Way to go, NewsNation. Way to go. Your one big chance, and you blew that, as well... 😔

Time to shut it down now. 

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To be fair FNC was showing boring live coverage of a dull border apprehension at the US/Mexico border (aka them doing their job) with a whining pundit about the 'southern border crisis' as the other news channels switched to coverage before the death was announced, so they were doing worse.

 

Much worse is BBC America, which had...nothing. Not even a 'important news story, go to BBC World News for more information' ticker.

 

And honestly, this was more an international story than the domestic stuff that's NN's forte, so I can't be mad, or disappointed in them. Dan Abrahms is absolutely useless here and they don't have a big international bureau or 'royal expert', and you don't need one of their opinion folks leading coverage.

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7 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

Much worse is BBC America, which had...nothing. Not even a 'important news story, go to BBC World News for more information' ticker.

In fairness to BBC America, it's an entertainment channel co-owned by AMC Networks and BBC. That said, they did roll a ticker pointing viewers to BBC World News and BBC.com:

 

 

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8 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

To be fair FNC was showing boring live coverage of a dull border apprehension at the US/Mexico border (aka them doing their job) with a whining pundit about the 'southern border crisis' as the other news channels switched to coverage before the death was announced, so they were doing worse.

 

Much worse is BBC America, which had...nothing. Not even a 'important news story, go to BBC World News for more information' ticker.

 

And honestly, this was more an international story than the domestic stuff that's NN's forte, so I can't be mad, or disappointed in them. Dan Abrahms is absolutely useless here and they don't have a big international bureau or 'royal expert', and you don't need one of their opinion folks leading coverage.

 

BBC World News is carrying it, but it's a channel that tends to be available only in higher tier packages. They've now started a ticker telling viewers to go to BBC World News or BBC'S website.

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1 hour ago, mrschimpf said:

To be fair FNC was showing boring live coverage of a dull border apprehension at the US/Mexico border (aka them doing their job) with a whining pundit about the 'southern border crisis' as the other news channels switched to coverage before the death was announced, so they were doing worse.

 

Much worse is BBC America, which had...nothing. Not even a 'important news story, go to BBC World News for more information' ticker.

 

And honestly, this was more an international story than the domestic stuff that's NN's forte, so I can't be mad, or disappointed in them. Dan Abrahms is absolutely useless here and they don't have a big international bureau or 'royal expert', and you don't need one of their opinion folks leading coverage.

I partially agree. NewsNation doesn’t have the resources of other outlets because they never invested in international coverage. As far as BBC America goes, they never break into programs for major events, as it’s an entertainment channel. IIRC, the portion of the BBC that owns BBC America isn’t even funded by the British license fee.

 

NewsNation needs to decide what it wants to be. I’d have no problem with this lackluster coverage if they were a pure talk channel; they’d still be trash, but at least our expectations would be a bit lower. NewsNation wants to be a news channel (I think), and any news channel worth its salt needs to be on the ball when it comes to a story this significant. If NewsNation can’t even get on the air with a report from the Associated Press, that’s not a lack of resources; that’s incompetence. When even NewsMax is beating you, that’s a horrible look.

 

EDIT: As of 4:17pm, they’re still showing Blue Bloods. How embarrassing.

Edited by nycnewsjunkie
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Then again, even when taking seriously the fact that NewsNation doesn't exactly have a large international bureau, they've missed their chance to go to live breaking news coverage outside of their regular news hours more than a few times throughout their history, including a breaking news story that they missed which happened near their own backyard on July 4th earlier this year! (WGN even beat NewsNation to it, and NewsNation has the station right at their fingertips!)

 

That being said, missing out on a big chance for live breaking news coverage is nothing new for NewsNation, including on the domestic front.

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I just tuned in to "Dan Abrams Live." Hopefully what I'm about to say answers questions as to why NewsNation, as always, was asleep at the wheel when it came to breaking the news as soon as possible, especially during their sweet spot of off-net reruns.

 

Okay, here it goes... the show just ran a story that basically went like this: "Don't get me wrong: We all loved and respected the Queen, but cable news seems to be obsessed with the British royal family, as they covered no other stories except the Queen's death for hours on end! They even ran nonstop coverage relating to the Queen before news of her death was announced, simply because her doctors were 'concerned' that she was in poor health!"

 

Far be it from me to go into full context on the topic at hand, but the Queen's death was far from the only story covered, as news outlets (like Fox News, as mrschimpf said) were covering other news stories to balance out the time. These were all earlier in the day before her death was announced. It wasn't until the saddening news came that the news cycle came to a screeching halt. Even international news outlets far beyond America and the UK were covering the death endlessly after initially focusing on a wide breadth of news stories earlier in the day, like Seven Network in Australia, Newshub in New Zealand, and CBC News in Canada. Believe it or not, the PBS NewsHour was also business as usual at first, as it too covered a wide variety of stories (one of them including the Queen's death) before finally devoting an entire special report on the Queen's legacy at 8pm Eastern after the NewsHour was over.

 

It was the Queen's death that led to a ton of last-minute scheduling changes being made on very short notice, both globally and domestically (even though this was expected to happen sometime). Too bad no one at NewsNation got the memo, and it was planned all along this time around. Why? Because they just had to prepare a segment on Dan Abrams Live questioning why cable news felt the need to cover nothing but the Queen's death and how we Americans are so "obsessed" with the British royal family.

 

I mean, this is just sad.

Edited by DJonNews
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53 minutes ago, DJonNews said:

Even international news outlets far beyond America and the UK were covering the death endlessly after initially focusing on a wide breadth of news stories earlier in the day, like Seven Network in Australia, Newshub in New Zealand, and CBC News in Canada.

To be fair, she was officially the queen of those countries as they’re part of the commonwealth, so it makes sense they would prioritize coverage. Still, your point stands. France 24 and Germany’s DW had live coverage all day.
 

Anyway, back to NN. Covering major events raises a news organization’s credibility. It means viewers will instinctively turn to them whenever something breaks. If they continue to miss news that break between 10am-5pm, like this or the July 4 shooting, people will be conditioned to not tune into NN for breaking stories in the future. I had faith in NN, but going from “the most impartial unbiased news you’ve ever seen” to less rabid political shows and indifference to major stories just isn’t it.

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Someone asked if Cuomo's left-wing CNN material is designed to balance out the Shine influence. I believe it's worse and more pathetic than that. Between Cuomo's attempted comeback story and Abrams' constant bitching about the state of (cable) news, they seem to be setting up not an "Us v. Them" political bent, but an "Us v. The World" attitude, where they think the viewer will see them as a sympathetic underdog. I can't even make fun of how lame and sad that is, because they're even sucking at playing the victim.

 

YIKESNATION.thumb.png.25dea9f57d2cdf04554e9da6f610ca03.png

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Look, I’m not some sort of sappy royalist who thinks the American networks should cover nothing but the British Royals for the next ten days. I’m not a fan of the American obsession over British royalty either, and while Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable woman and head of state, the institution of the House of Windsor is extremely flawed. Also, Prince Andrew can kiss my Royal Irish A$$™.

 

That being said, when a 70-year head of state passes away and news outlets from the UK, the Commonwealth nations, the U.S., and all around the world cover it on the *day* of her death, that isn’t obsession; that’s news. “American obsession” isn’t an excuse for one network’s gross incompetence, ineptitude, and stupidity from the top down. When every network, news outlet, newspaper, idiot with a camera, and their mothers are all reporting on this story, that means it is an event of *international* (a word that NewsNation’s staff likely had to look up in the dictionary) significance. It is not the time to run a Blue Bloods rerun and bitch about the whole thing in prime time.

 

That being said, I will admit to having one obsession: NewsNation itself. As I write this, I am well aware that I am spending WAY too much time and energy on a channel that gets outpaced by Newsmax in terms of both viewership AND news coverage. Yes, even Newsmax, which was born out of an opinion magazine and has always had serious credibility issues, is more of a news channel at this point. NewsNation is not a serious news outlet, and unless there is some cataclysmic event at the network itself, it does not warrant any more of my attention, time, or energy. I imagine many others can say the same.

 

One last thing and then I’ll shut up about this farce of a channel for good: Even NewsNET did a better job with coverage today. They ran this story on their channel at 2:30 PM ET. YikesNation indeed.

Edited by nycnewsjunkie
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You are very correct. Dan Abrams said on his show that he doesn't understand why cable news loves to harp on the British royal family and how we Americans are "obsessed" with it.

 

One, I beg to differ on the "obsession" part. Two, they're just doing their job! Nobody's harping on anything! They're just telling it like it is and reporting on what they're seeing. Often, they'll also do this while they're on the scene, by which I mean "on location" at the site of, say, London, for example.

 

Gross negligence of highly important news that is being broken literally everywhere else but NewsNation can't be played off as cable news "obsessing" over something trivial, much like how the July 4th shooting in Chicago just a few miles away from the WGN building (where NewsNation is housed) can't be played off as us being "obsessed" about something that we could've very well yawned at, even though this is July 4th we're talking about, you know, America's birthday!

 

The news cycle runs a lot faster than those at NewsNation think, and their choosing to air reruns of "Blue Bloods" over wall-to-wall breaking news coverage isn't befitting of a channel like NewsNation. They wanted to be a news channel. So far, they're still not being it, even when we completely disregard the fact that NewsNation is still airing completely unrelated syndication programming that can be found basically everywhere else, including streaming services!

 

Not having an international bureau is fine, as long as you can still break the news of something that may have importance on us Americans, like, oh, I don't know... Britain's longest-serving monarch in history passing away at 96!

 

It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. When news like this breaks, you need to come on the air as soon as possible. Same for important tornado warnings, flood warnings, whatever!

 

Otherwise, expect to lose a lot more viewers and trust than you've already lost simply because you think we're "obsessing" over news that is being covered practically everywhere else but here! NewsNation should know that by now, and yet, they still don't!

Edited by DJonNews
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Reading the previous few posts there is a common theme.  Despite its name, NewsNation is not a full fledged news network.  It is part time to begin with, is inflexible with the 24 hour ever changing news cycle.  It has many limitations on covering major stories and events.  It seems more a read a wire service, splice in some video, make it about the personality service.  For those of us of a certain age who remember the beginnings of CNN (and even the short lived Satellite News Channel from Group W) they may have been run on the cheap but committed full time to the news and had agreements in place all over the globe for breaking news.  The UK and US are intertwined in their special relationship.  Could NewsNation have had a deal in place with the folks who do ITC, Channel 4 or Channel 5 News (assuming BBC has deals in place and has coverage of BBC World on many cable lineups and Sky is owned by NBC Universal)?  In some ways you can look at this as a test of NewsNation's ability to cover a major international story and they failed, miserably.  The good news is very few people probably tuned in to watch Dan Abrams kvetch (His ratings are minuscule to begin with and the opening NFL game was on last night) and Cuomo and whoever else Nexstar decides to bring in won't increase viewership much.  At the end of the day, NewsNation is not the go to channel for breaking news stories of any significance.  I'm not sure it ever would be.

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Oh, but it will be a full-fledged news network. It's just going to take longer for NewsNation to be so, as they won't be going to an all-news schedule until 2024 at the earliest.

https://thedesk.net/2022/09/newsnation-nexstar-24-hour-news-channel-plans/

 

Speaking of, Matthew Keys posted a tweet yesterday that I feel should be worth paying attention to, since it validates what I said earlier about NewsNation being far behind when it comes to news being broken outside of their news hours:

Edited by DJonNews
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29 minutes ago, RGSJenkins said:

Which wasn’t shown on the main channel.

(deadpan) Oh, yeah. I knew that was coming.

 

Let me guess: "Blue Bloods" over live coverage on the main channel?

Edited by DJonNews
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NewsNation is pathetic when it comes to breaking news, hell Thursday, "NewsNet" & One America News were both covering the news out of the UK regarding the Queen.   At this point it's fair to say News Nation is simply a pass through news network focused on only domestic news and a poor one at that.   

 

NO ONE I know watches News Nation, no one I know has ever heard of News Nation. 

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NewsNation has problems. Lots of problems.

 

Hiring Cuomo isn't going to fix any of them, now that I think about it. Sure, it may increase ratings, but the bottom line is this: They are heavily unreliable when it comes to breaking the news outside of their news schedules.

  • "The Queen passed away at 96?" Too bad, no news for you!
  • "July 4th shooting in Chicago right near WGN station headquarters?" Ha! Tough luck!
  • "King Charles III gives speech?" Better luck next time, television viewers!

It's going to take a lot more than just a ratings increase and "star-studded" talent for NewsNation to finally get to the promised land, and having an "Us vs. The World" narrative as perfectly demonstrated on "Dan Abrams Live" two nights ago when the Queen died is absolutely, positively not one of them. It's okay if a news organization doesn't have the resources that other more established organizations have, but to habitually miss out on big news like this?

 

Perhaps the people who hoped NewsNation would improve as time wore on have given false hope to some extent. No wonder NewsNation has become the laughingstock of the news industry, not just from a ratings standpoint, but from a trust standpoint, too.

Edited by DJonNews
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What I don’t understand is that they keep boasting that they have the news resources of all their station. Here in NYC, PIX broke in with a bulletin, why not show that? In fact to make it look like a NN bulletin, put the reader in front of a green screen with a NN background for the national, and a local branding for the station

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15 hours ago, DENDude said:

NewsNation is pathetic when it comes to breaking news, hell Thursday, "NewsNet" & One America News were both covering the news out of the UK regarding the Queen.

Not only were NEWSnet covering the Queen’s death, they actually have someone stationed outside Buckingham Palace to cover the death.

EA9A4148-DD38-45EF-B753-32ACD49F9C1B.jpeg

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18 hours ago, DENDude said:

NewsNation is pathetic when it comes to breaking news, hell Thursday, "NewsNet" & One America News were both covering the news out of the UK regarding the Queen.   At this point it's fair to say News Nation is simply a pass through news network focused on only domestic news and a poor one at that.   

 

NO ONE I know watches News Nation, no one I know has ever heard of News Nation. 

 

I'm sure over its history, NewsNation is known by most people when it had any WGN related branding. I'm sure most people outside of TV and news enthusiasts have never heard of NewsNation. I'd bet most people I know have never heard of it unless they casually scroll through the guide. I had high hopes for the network, but the constant talent and programming changes compared to other outlets doesn't help either. It seems like maybe it's time to go back to general entertainment if the incoming changes don't move the ratings. I don't think the non-Chicago version of WGN America from 2014-21 was popular either with the exception of maybe a few originals.

3 hours ago, jd285 said:

Not only were NEWSnet covering the Queen’s death, they actually have someone stationed outside Buckingham Palace to cover the death.

EA9A4148-DD38-45EF-B753-32ACD49F9C1B.jpeg

 

Had no idea Newsnet had a European correspondent.

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