CBS's Faded Legacy 

CBS's Faded Legacy

I received some interesting perspective from my teenage daughter regarding what I perceived to be the tarnishing of CBS's image by their bowing down to Republican pressure by not broadcasting "The Reagans" and their decision to not air ads by PETA and MoveOn.

I grew up in an age when CBS was still regarded as the "Tiffany Network," when it had a well-earned reputation for sterling broadcasting and, dating back to the days of Edward R. Murrow, an outstanding news department. In those days, too, CBS was one of only three nationwide television networks, so its influenced was undiluted by the additional nationwide broadcast and cable networks that have sprung up in the last twenty years. CBS was a big deal.

My daugher, 14, has none of that perspective. In fact, growing up in a cable age, CBS, as a broadcast network with decidedly unexceptional programming, has been all but irrelevant to her. So, although she doesn't think much of their actions that I mentioned at the top, these actions did nothing to alter her image of CBS in a negative way. In fact, if they did anything, they brought CBS to a level of attention in her world that it would otherwise not have had.

I guess the saddest thing about this isn't that CBS's legacy has proven to be inconsequential to people like my daughter. It is far sadder that CBS holds its legacy in such low regard and cares not that as a network it does not measure up to the image (earned or not) that it once had, nor does it strive to live up to that image.