The Inbox....

A number of you are weighing in on what is happening at Nexstar’s News Nation. We thought we would share a few of those emails we got with you.

Email:

Hi Scott,

Loving FTVLive, as always!

About the NewsNation implosion. I would make just one small point.

I had such high hopes for them. I was so looking forward to an "unbiased" news channel.

Then I watched their first day. Trump had just done some incredibly outrageous thing & every media outlet had been all over it. NewsNation ignored it and spoke of "The President" in the kind of reverential tones reserved for the Pope.

The first "special" report they ran... at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests... was about the difficulties faced...by police. How unfairly they've been treated.

So I'm not surprised about the hiring of Bill Shine. Or the departures of so many who now feel they were misled.

NewsNation isn't "moving" to the right. It was always there.

Keep up the great work.

Email:

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Tribune went under because Peter Ligouri and Sean Compton poured a ton of money into WGN America. It killed Tribune. They had to sell

Along comes Nexstar, so what are they doing? They’re swallowing the same poison pill. Does Sean Compton have compromising photos of everyone in broadcasting? He’s the common denominator here and Perry is not only buying his failed act, he wants more of it. A morning show now too?

Nexstar may be too big to fail and we know broadcasters can’t help repeating the same mistakes over and over but this one may be the dumbest of all time.

Email:

There are several huge reasons that News Nation is failing, in my opinion.

First.. the approach is all wrong. Stories from the Nexstar stations need to be local stories that can be easily adapted to national interest. It's all in the writing. You have to write those local lead-in's, NATIONALLY. You have to structure them differently. To a good imaginative writer, this is not difficult. If the news writer or producer is enthusiastic about it, the magic words are there. You simply have to make that local story in Peoria, interesting to people in Raleigh-Durham. You can only do that in the writing. You can also make a difference by re-editing the package, taking out some of the local references. It is NOT difficult.

Second... the anchors are all wrong for that show. Frankly, they are boring, seemingly uninterested in any story they're reading. Part of it are the words they're reading, but most of it is just flat deliveries. They just do not seem comfortable.

Third... timing is everything. News Nation has changed time on several occasions. It's not finding an audience because people never know where to find IT.

Fourth is the news approach. The world does not need another Fox News anymore than it needs another CNN. It does need a national newscast that is free of any political coverage. Yeah, I said it. Who cares what's going on in Washington right now? Who cares about Democrats and Republicans and what they think? In a political season, yes. Do political stories. Outside of a political season, can them. Nobody cares.

There are other subtle changes that News Nation needs to make, that won't get made. I crossed News Nation off my watch list after the second or third show. I haven't watched it since, and won't. I also haven't even bothered to watch Sinclair's National Desk. In my opinion, they are both and equally gigantic wastes of valuable viewer time.

DM:

Nexstar needs to throw in the towel on News Nation. It’s clearly not working and throwing money at it isn’t going to make it better.

Perry Sook needs to bring his focus back to local news!