My comments should have read as follows:

Peter Jennings insisted that international news not be given short shrift during his "second run" as ABC news' sole evening news anchor. Further, it was the "What would Peter do?" mantra- seldom heard at ABC News anymore- and a posthumous tribute to the Jennings brand that brought viewers an ABC news division telecast first titled "World News Tonight" and now abbreviated as "World News." (To be abbreviated momentarily- so as to accommodate the addition of yet another commercial interruption perhaps- as just "News"?)

Over at NBC, the distinction between Nightly News, during the Brian Williams era, and the Diane Sawyer and Scott Pelley broadcasts, overlooked by observers in the OTM segment, is that Brian has a Baby Boomer's sensibility to acknowledge the deaths of cultural icons like David Nelson and Rob Grill, even when Williams' consultants might discourage such common sense, appealing as it is to Brian's core audience if not the audience the consultants seek, but never will reach, simply because nothing Diane, Scott nor Brian might do will convince them to watch dinner-hour network news on anything approaching a daily basis

Stacy Harris
(formerly Domestic Stringer for ABC Radio News)
Publisher/Executive Editor/Media Critic
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://stacyharris.com

The reason network news is on the rise is simply because everyone hates the cable carriers. They’re evil, too expensive and their customer service is incompetent at best. The MOMENT digital TV came online, people cut the cord. When fair competition enters the cable world, people will migrate back to cable shows (including the news) but not until then. So for now, network news wins. Bite me, Comcast.

The closing theme you played from "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" is from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Keith Olbermann uses a few notes from the same piece on his show.

Appreciated the insights from OTM's story on this. But I have to agree with other commenters here that the economy is an even bigger factor here than your story touches on. How strange that you would think to consider that "more unemployed people are around to watch TV news" as a factor much more readily than that those same unemployed people simply can't afford cable anymore! DUH.

Peter Jennings insisted that international news not be given short shrift during his "second run" as ABC news' sole evening news anchor and it was the "What would Peter do?" mantra- seldom heard at ABC News anymore- and a posthumous tribute to the Jennings brand that brought viewers an ABC news division telecast first titled "World News Tonight" and now abbreviated as "World News." (To be abbreviated momentarily- so as to accommodate the addition of yet another commercial interruption perhaps- as just "News"?)

Over at NBC, the distinction between Nightly News, during the Brian Williams era, and the Diane Sawyer and Scott Pelley broadcasts, overlooked by observers in the OTM segment, is that Brian has a Baby Boomer's sensibility to acknowledge the deaths of cultural icons like David Nelson and Rob Grill, even when his consultants might discourage such common sense, appealing as it is to Brian's core audience if not the audience the consultants seek, but never will reach, simply because nothing Diane, Scott nor Brian might do will convince them to watch dinner-hour network news on anything approaching a daily basis

Stacy Harris
(formerly Domestic Stringer for ABC Radio News)
Publisher/Executive Editor/Media Critic
Stacy's Music Row Report
http://stacyharris.com

I came here to say exactly what Ron Davis stated.

I know a good many folks who, out of disgust and disdain with cable fees.

With the option of off air HDTV and more internet options there is tendency for a cord cutter to accept what you have access while supplementing with more focused news sites, many based from cable networks.

It is still an imperious news anchor with a funny voice and dramatic music deciding for the audience what is important and how they should feel about it and it usually follows a left leaning narrative. No thanks.

I the the economy has many people rethinking their need for 500 channels, so many people are cutting back by cancelling their cable subscriptions and just getting over the air HDTV. That would have many people going back to network news.