"There's a sense that things are shifting in real time," anchors Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz explain at TCA 2024
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The co-anchors of “PBS NewsHour” had a stern warning for the media in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump: don’t get ahead of the current story.
“I do think one of our key guiding principles, whether it’s an enormous story like the assassination attempt of a former president or any other story, is not to get ahead of where the story is. A few days ago, the big story was the future of the Democratic ticket. You’ve seen in the last 48 hours that story has really faded into the background,” Amna Nawaz said during a panel for the series on PBS’ first day of the Television Critics Association’s 2024 summer tour.
“There’s a sense that things are shifting in real time and one of the worst mistakes we could make would be trying to get ahead of it,” she continued.
Nawaz also called the events that unfolded on Saturday “one of the most consequential stories we’re covering this year.” She also admitted that she has “no idea” how this story will unfold, adding, “We’re just trying to keep up with things.”
Though the stakes of this particular story are incredibly high, co-anchor Geoff Bennett assured the room that it hasn’t changed the “overall approach” of “PBS NewsHour.”
“The fundamentals of how we cover the news, that doesn’t change at all,” he said.
Looking at media mistakes as a whole, Bennett also said that the media needs to be more transparent with how the news is reported in order to rebuild trust with audiences. “I think we need to be more transparent than ever … that we have a dog in the race. That’s certainly something that we care deeply about in the ‘NewsHour.'”
Bennett and Nawaz, who joined TCA via video, also reported on the overall tone of the Republican National Convention. The two will be reporting from the Milwaukee, Wis., event, which began on Monday. Bennett noted that security at the RNC is “tight” and the general sense of Republican attendees is relief “that President Trump was not more severely injured.”
The pair further elaborated on their news program’s viewership, noting that its audience is “a third, a third and a third,” with those three thirds encompassing Republican, Democrat and Independent viewers. Additionally, the series sees, on average, 2 million viewers a night, which Bennett said “far surpasses our friends in cable.” He also boasted that the program has 6 million monthly livestreams on broadcast and 34 million monthly views on YouTube.
“You will not find a TV audience of that composition anywhere else,” Bennett said. “Our content is resonating. There’s an audience that is desperate for the kind of news programming we provide.”
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