12. The three major networks dwarfed public broadcasting in news
In 1970 American television news was dominated by the three major networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC. Local affiliates produced news of their own focusing on the regions in which they broadcast. In 1973 the Senate held the Watergate hearings, and Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, both veteran newsmen, covered them for the Public Broadcasting System. Their award winning coverage led to the creation of the Robert MacNeil Report on New York’s WNET, followed by the MacNeil/Lehrer Report which broadcast on PBS stations around the country. In 1983 the news program expanded to one hour and was renamed the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Because the program was and is broadcast on public television, there are no commercial breaks.
As with most media outlets in the United States the program was accused of being biased to the left by conservatives, and to the right by liberals. Independent studies have placed the broadcast in a more centrist position. By the late 1990s almost all public broadcast stations in the United States carried the News Hour, and it was broadcast in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and across the world on the American Forces Network. It is also broadcast on the Voice of America. Despite its popularity around the world the News Hour never threatened the dominance of the three major network’s news programs, which continued to broadcast in the half hour format for regularly scheduled broadcasts, only expanding their programs under exceptional circumstances.