More news shows put hosts on soapboxes

If one were to scan the staff rosters of television's news divisions, the name "Howard Beale" would not appear. But if there is grandfather for the current climate of TV news then Mr. Beale may be as good a name as any.

It was Howard Beale, the fictional anchorman in the 1976 film "Network," who took to the air and ordered his viewers to open their windows and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Once far-fetched absurdism, Beale's attitude is increasingly becoming standard-operating procedure as news programs, in the past hesitant to express opinions, are setting up soapboxes for finger-wagging ranters during prime time.

Last night, for instance, MSNBC welcomed America's favorite white-haired liberal, Phil Donahue, and his "special interviewing talents" to the network. Also furthering the trend is the Fox network. On Thursday, it premiered its weekly newsmagazine "The Pulse," which brings much of the opinionated conservative crew – including Bill O'Reilly – from cable's Fox News Channel to the broadcast world.

There have even been changes at CNN's "Crossfire." Once a half-hour news program featuring straightforward, if occasionally testy, exchanges between liberals and conservatives, it has become an hour-long show with a studio audience and humor segments. The show's new ad campaign features the hosts in boxing garb.

Andrew Tyndall, who monitors television news in his weekly newsletter The Tyndall report, says the new shows mark a shift in news programming.

"The changes at MSNBC (which is moving its nightly news for the Donahue show) really change the mission of the network. They have decided to become more like Fox, more opinion." Meanwhile, he says, Fox is taking the gamble that "the in-your-face approach that works with every other broadcast format will also work with news in prime time. I guess they figure, why not?"

Why not indeed. Any channel surfer who paused to watch the opening of "The Pulse" might have momentarily thought he was watching a game show. The set, which appears to hold all the strobe and spotlights of a Regis Philbin quiz show, flashed and flickered as a rock-style riff played with a voice yelling "We are The Pulse!"

The show led off a segment from "top investigative reporter" Geraldo Rivera on how illegal Muslim immigrants may be sneaking over the Mexican border. Back in the studio, anchor Shepard Smith asked the TV audience, "Could they be in your backyard?" and added with dread, "Keep your eyes open."

But if fright isn't your cup of tea, "The Pulse" also features the person they dub "the most controversial journalist on television" – Fox's Bill O'Reilly. He appears in a weekly segment entitled, rather Beale-esquely, "Who's Annoying Me Now." On Thursday, O'Reilly was annoyed by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, who "makes Barney Fife look like Sherlock Holmes."

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