Who is your favorite news anchor?
 

Which news anchor is your favorite? Since that could mean many things, try to answer the poll according to the following criteria.

Who best conveys the news in a rational even-handed approach? Who appears to excel in areas other than just reading the teleprompter (i.e. moderating panel discussions and debates, written articles, firsthand reporting)? Who do you trust the most?

Please ask yourself these types of questions and answer the poll accordingly.

Try to separate the anchor from the network. For instance, don't vote for Tom Brokaw just because you like Leno more than Letterman. Don't discount Jim Lehrer because PBS can be boring or Brit Hume because you don't like FoxNews.

I voted for Peter Jennings. I just like the way that he reads the news.

I know this sounds stupid, but I like Jon Stewart.

I like him because he laughs at the ridiculous and seems to hold both sides to the same standard. If you're being a schmuck, Jon Stewart will call you a schmuck.

Cable and Network news seem to be so intently focused on maintaining neutrality that they sound like an army of automatons. They all seem to sound the same and never seem to express an opinion of any kind. They always seem to miss the pitch intentionally.

I like Chris Matthews, even though he talks over his guests most times. I don't know if he counts as a news anchor though....

Jim Lehrer is good evenly balanced coverage, but again there's no opinion. I like an anchor with a little fire in their belly. How am I supposed to get excited and interested in what's going on in the world, when the news guys all sound the same?

I like the O' Reilly, I doubt most of you most do however. I realize he definitly has a conservative edge, I for one find it refreshing, he has a common sense approach, it's just that simple. Sometimes he gets uppitty with guests, but often times it's because they are either being 1) retarded or 2) dodging questions. It's nice to notice that he does hold everyone to the same standard on his show. I like the stories he reports (and fox in general), I feel I get a way more balanced influx of news that is happening compared to the other networks.

All these national news anchors in the poll.........I like <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wls/aboutus/bio/wls_bio_RonMagers.html">Ron Magers</a>. Chicago has some of the best news anchors in the nation, even if they're anchoring the local news :D

Edward R. Murrow.

Ron Magers! Holy shit, that brings back memories! He used to be on SF Bay Area TV in the late '60s / early '70s, and I liked him a lot. He had a sort of wry, intelligent approach to the news. He also hosted and produced a weekly magazine show called "Ron Mager's Electric Impressions" (it was the '60s, it was SF, give him a break) in which, sporting violently-colored turtleneck shirts, he presided over a mix of live music performances (I remember Chuck Berry), animation, comedians, and short films. I thought it was Too Cool when I was 13.

Anyway, I'm glad he's still out there.

All time, my favorite was "Uncle" Walter Cronkite, though he went off the air well before most of you were born. He was a real news guy, managing editor of the CBS evening news, and in those days, the news was actually investigated and reported, not just regurgitated from official press briefings. He had an even-handed approach to the news, and he handled some of America's biggest triumphs and tragedies in a way that was both no-nonsense and sensitive. In those days, anything your hear on the street wasn't considered real until Walter Cronkite said so.

Of the guys around today, I'd say Jon Stewart. He asks the questions that nobody else does. Journalism is caught in a reactionary mode: first, there's the myth of objectivity, which states that you can't report anything but what was said to you, no matter how stupid you know it is. Second, what with cable news and the Internet there is no longer a lead time to develop stories, so they go out without fact checking. If Senator Thus-and-So says something, it's reported flatly. Few journalists check it against the facts, or whether he's contradicting himself.

The Daily Show is satire, but it is valuable because it does the one very important thing that journalism now fails to do -- it actually evaluates what is said and points out stupidity, lies, and self-interest wherever it sees them. The press was supposed to the be the guardian of a free society. But among daily TV news shows, only the Daily Show -- a "fake news show" -- has the guts to really do the job anymore.

I see from the poll result that Stewart is in the lead -- no surprise. Most of the users here are under 25, and when I've talked to high-school/college age people about where they get their news, the Daily Show comes up again and again.

He said news anchor, not political commentator propagandist person.

yeah, i was trying to focus on national news anchors. i tried to steer away from pundits so political viewpoints would be nullified in the results as much as possible. stuck with the national anchors so that all TFP could participate in the poll with equal opportunity to know of all poll options.

that's remarkable that at least a couple of you know of that ron magers guy. it's rare to have a local broadcaster stick out in your mind as much as he appears to.

I personally like Brit Hume the most. I don't really have a great explanation for why. He's not pretty or overly charasmatic, he just reports the news professionally.

Also, I've given this quite a bit of thought and have come to the conclusion that O'Reilly does a good job of holding both sides to the same standard and that anyone who believes otherwise is his/herself so biased that they can't see his neutrality.

I enjoy O'Reilly because 95% (not scientific) of stories are all reported the same way by all the different channels. O'Reilly seems to be the one of the few personalities who report news from a different angle. A lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum don't like him because the truth can hurt.

does the level of jon stewart votes concern anyone else?

Easy: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

How many other news anchors do you know that would literally risk life and limb by placing themselves between a crowed of several thousand unarmed East Timorese demonstrators and an advancing Indonesian military that would soon massacre hundreds despite his or her best efforts to stop it? :(

amy goodman: noted journalist, not really a news anchor in the vein of the thread.

I hate you Puss for making me choose between Lehrer and Stewart. I'm going to have to go for Lehrer as the top anchor and Stewart as the top funny man.

Of course she is. :rolleyes:

"A News anchor (US and CA) or Newsreader (UK and AU) is a person that works in television or radio that hosts a regular news program or provides occasional on air news updates." -- Wikipedia

Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, news program which broadcasts on over 240 radio and TV stations across North America. Amy Goodman is a news anchor in every sense of the word.

If you're still in California, you can catch his brother Paul, who recently started anchoring KCBS in Los Angeles for 2.2 million bucks a year ;)

hammer4all, thanks for the info. she still isn't in the same league as the ones listed in the poll from the perspective i'm approaching it from, but your point is well-taken and i've learned something about democracy now in the process.

I actually like Brian Williams, who will take over for Tom Brokaw after the election.
Most capable, polished, and normal (not injecting his personal political biases into his commentary) of the whole group.

why is this not entertainment?

Dianne Ream.....for unbiased reporting. John Stewart for taking the edge off of the idiocy prevelant in our world.

Jon Stewart. He makes the news not boring.

I find it amusing that one could call O'Reily a "political commentator propagandist person" and not recognize Chris Mathews as a version of the same? Most of the news anchors have a politcal point of view that they report the news from. Of corse that is just my opinion.