Davis Merritt: Williams case shows perils of celebrity journalism

Brian Williams did something – perhaps several things – careless and unprofessional that probably will cost him his $10 million-a-year job at NBC. That’s tragic for him and his family. It’s also jolting, in the short term, for the leaders of the network and its shareholders.

For the rest of us, not so much, because who reads the news to us is, and should be, very nearly irrelevant.

So why all the media kerfuffle when, as always, the departed anchor will be a dim if pleasant memory only a few days after his replacement, sort of like last week’s cheese souffle?

It’s a big story on all the network news and talk shows because Williams and the other newscasters and directors are all acorns from the same tree in a self-contained ecosystem.

Williams is the product of a system that television evolved for producing news anchors, and the system is stuck in one mode. The template for newscast anchors, judging by the dull consistency of its output, hasn’t changed in 40 or 50 years. It draws on an apparently endless national supply of earnest, nearly handsome and almost beautiful 40-somethings with good eyes and decent voices capable of projecting a range of barely perceptible but believable emotions, and possessing some interest in journalism – often, regrettably, in that order.

The system’s objective is to merge appearance, personality and reporting experience into a package that will best help the network sell advertising by attracting the largest, most consistent audience.

That’s understandable and, up to that point, acceptable. But the rest of the template creates the conditions for catastrophe.

The Chosen One must be seen as not just the face of the newscast but its heart and soul – its brand, to use a loathsome and dangerous modernism. That means celebrity journalism and all that goes with celebrity today. It means ace reporter parachuting into edgy situations and doing live standups in safari shirt or flak jacket and helmet, getting yet another ticket punched; schmoozing at gatherings of advertisers, agencies and associations; yukking it up with late-night show hosts; and, near the end, writing a book or two.

The system needs to change, becoming more centered on journalism and much less on show business. That would require both conceptual and operational changes.

The changes are needed now because in the flattened, fragmented information environment of 2015, the national networks – both broadcast and cable – still reach a larger proportion of the population than any other news outlets, so they are uniquely positioned to provide the shared information that citizens need to govern themselves.

But it’s not going to happen because the multibillion-dollar business model of network news is shackled to that traditional template, and any network trying to break the pattern will quickly have new bosses and revert to form.

Perhaps, over time, a nonbroadcast website that attracts equal numbers of people and their many devices will emerge from the dizzying tangle of Internet contenders, but meanwhile we must rely for informational consistency on a flawed system.

NBC is still running its internal investigation of Williams because its reputation is at risk. Who should take the fall for that, Williams or his enabling bosses?

It might be more useful to the nation and cathartic to NBC and the rest of journalism to investigate how it could reform the system that produced a Brian Williams.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Davis Merritt: Williams case shows perils of celebrity journalism."