Feb 23, 2015 4 min read

This just in.

Brian Williams should not be fired for exaggerating his experience while in a helicopter in Iraq.

He’s suffered enough.

And – breaking news – it may not be entirely his fault.

Did Brian Williams’ memory play tricks on him or was he intentionally playing tricks with viewers? Either way, Williams most likely became entangled in the same predicament facing all television newscasters – an unwritten, unstated but very much silent directive to make news something it isn’t.

That ranges from announcing “breaking news” for news that is neither breaking nor necessarily even news to promoting upcoming details on weather “events” that clearly are no such thing. It also includes referring to the newscast as a “show.” News by definition is information, not entertainment. Informative newscasts, however, don’t spike ratings nearly as much as entertaining ones. Just ask the producers of “CBS This Morning,” the most straightforward – and consequently – the lowest-rated of network news programs.

News has become big business. On a local level, news is the station’s cash cow. It’s why local newscasts begin at 5 a.m. and run intermittently through 11:30 p.m. On most days, there isn’t nearly enough news to fill all of those hours, and much of the reported news has limited – very limited – appeal.

However, carving out large blocks of a schedule for news broadcasts makes sense. It brings in significant advertising, it contains the “live” element that is increasingly important for ratings and it’s a convenience for viewers. No station expects viewers to tune in for an entire morning or afternoon broadcast. That’s exactly why there is so much repetition of weather and top news stories. It’s filling in the gaps that’s the problem. To fill those gaps of time, producers insert features on everything from animal shenanigans to news personalities trying their hand at plowing snow, training for the Olympics or working at a fish fry. That’s not news.

But it is why newscasters must now be personalities who connote intelligence, trust, fairness and the perception that if you asked them to your cookout, they’d be right over with their special-recipe potato salad. To keep viewers tuned in, news readers must come across as your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker. And to that extent, we’ve come to expect them to share stories, knowing full well they may be embellished.

Once, diction and concise delivery were priorities. Now, it’s all about personality, looks and “likability quotient.”

If the news business is this cutthroat on a local level, and it is, one can imagine what occurs at ABC, CBS and NBC. Network executives examine ratings daily; even small drops in viewers may be blamed on something as big as the wrong lead story or as small as a wrong-colored tie.

Among the networks, it’s a nightly skirmish, a weekly battle and an ongoing war. As NBC’s commander-in-chief, Williams was expected to deliver victories, and on most nights, ratings verified that he did just that. Williams knew how to corral an audience, whether it was by augmenting his trusted newscaster image with a jovial personality (he was a regular on various talk shows), providing necessary gravitas on important issues or, unfortunately, becoming part of the story.

I talk back to the television in frustration more during newscasts than during Steelers games. I like the no-nonsense delivery of the “CBS Morning Show.” I prefer Walter Cronkite’s delivery style. But that’s not “the way it is,” anymore.

Williams offered viewers what exhaustive research indicated they wanted – personality, charm and a hands-on approach – reality programming, if you will. Evidently, news is becoming all too akin to reality programming. In other words, not real at all.