TELEVISION;Weighing the Future of the Network Anchor
Date: 17 December 1995
By Lawrie Mifflin
Lawrie Mifflin
EACH NIGHT AT 6 O'CLOCK, CARrying on a tradition best represented in the public imagination by Walter Cronkite, the three major television networks bring pleasant, respectable-looking, middle-aged white men into American homes to deliver the day's news. The anchor role has long been viewed as the most prestigious in network journalism, and the men who attain it usually stay at their desks for years. Today, Dan Rather of CBS is 63 years old, Peter Jennings of ABC is 57 and Tom Brokaw of NBC is 55. Each has held his job for more than a decade; none talks of retiring soon. And last month, NBC gave Brian Williams, its 36-year-old White House correspondent and substitute anchor, a contract that will pay him more than $1.5 million a year through 2000, tacitly anointing him as Mr. Brokaw's eventual successor and another perpetuator of the Cronkite tradition.
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WORD & IMAGE;THE MURDER BROADCASTING SYSTEM
Date: 17 December 1995
By Max Frankel
Max Frankel
HOW MUCH longer will Americans tolerate the cult of violence that passes for "local news" on television? Even as crime rates subside, the wicked nightly assault on our senses gets louder. The more advanced the technology by which stations prepare their 10 or 11 P.M. summaries of the day, the greater the mayhem they import to arouse our anxiety and disturb our sleep. Deliberate? You bet. Cynical? Completely. And pervasive.
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James Altgens, Photographer at Kennedy Assassination, Dies at 76
Date: 17 December 1995
By Eric Pace
Eric Pace
James W. Altgens, a longtime Associated Press staff member known for his photograph of the anguished Jacqueline Kennedy, seconds after her husband's assassination, clambering onto the back of their car while a Secret Service agent moved to her aid, was found dead on Tuesday in his home in Dallas. He was 76. Mr. Altgens, who was retired, and his wife, Clara, 73, were both found dead at the home, The Associated Press reported. The Dallas Morning News reported on Friday that relatives said the couple had been suffering from the flu but that the police were looking into the possibility that they had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective furnace.
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British Media Get New Ownership Rules
Date: 18 December 1995
Reuters
Britain's media industry appeared to be heading for a possible shake-up of ownership after the publication of new proposals on Friday aimed at increasing cross-holdings between the television and newspaper sectors. The National Heritage Secretary, Virginia Bottomley, said the new Broadcasting Bill, which should take effect by the start of 1997, would prompt British companies to consider mergers between newspaper and television companies.
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U.S. Writer and Aide Wounded in Russia
Date: 17 December 1995
By The New York Times
An American journalist and his Georgian assistant were injured today during fighting in the Russian republic of Chechnya.
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;Algerian Militants Execute Islamic Leaders
Date: 17 December 1995
By The New York Times
Two top leaders of Algeria's Islamic movement were executed by militants in the movement a month ago, the official Algerian press service reported today. The death of Mohammed Saeed and Abdrrezak Redjam by firing squad after a trial conducted by the Armed Islamic Group had been reported earlier in the week by two underground Islamic publications.
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;French Premier Appeals For Labor Reconciliation
Date: 18 December 1995
Reuters
Prime Minister Alain Juppe of France appealed for reconciliation today after three weeks of labor unrest, saying he would offer measures this week to stimulate the economy and promising to hold the line at current plans for tax increases.
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;Red Cross Suspends Activities in Burundi
Date: 17 December 1995
Reuters
The International Committee of the Red Cross says that it has suspended all activities in Burundi after a wave of grenade attacks on aid agency offices. The Red Cross is one of the largest relief agencies operating in Burundi, where ethnic violence pits the country's Tutsi-dominated army against members of the Hutu majority.
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