Here at Eat The Press, we've sort of recently taken up a great cause: Charles Gibson: Why Not? Funnily enough, we do so knowing full well that the news-viewing public has already made up their mind, tuning into ABC's World News Tonight and lifting it above its network competition. Call us shallow, but we're still surprised that the ready, steady Gibson doesn't seem to get the sort of industry buzz that should accompany his success.
It's likely that the major bushel that hides his light is his "Man in the Middle of the Dial" reputation: constantly drawing comments on either side of Gibson are NBC's Brian Williams, who's frankly become a stronger pop-cultural presence than a news anchor, and the hot mess from CBS, Katie Couric. It probably doesn't help that in many circles, he's still thought of as the Guy Who Came From Morning to replace Peter Jennings, ending up as the accidental anchor after near-tragedy and impending maternity scuttled plans for Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas to take over at ABC.
So, we get why Gibson comes off as an afterthought, but secretly, we kind of hope he starts getting his due. So you can imagine how excited we were to see Jon Friedman step up today and throw some compliments Gibson's way:
Plenty of business journalists covered the TV-news ratings like they were attending baseball games, concentrating on the final scores. There wasn't much analysis about what it means that ABC and anchor Charles Gibson had, for now, overtaken NBC and Brian Williams. I'd hope that networks would take their cues from ABC's low-key, news-first approach. Pssst, it works!
That's a fairly to-the-point pat on the back, and the kind of statement that should garner some attention. Now, here's the bad news--the compliment came in a tacked on graf buried on page two of Friedman's column. Sigh. Figures, doesn't it? Sorry, Charlie: even when you're winning, you just can't win!
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