Why don't newscasters retire?

Cafe Society
1

I am interested as to why many newscasters and television journalists seemingly stay on the air forever and never retire, basically working until they are old and near death. I am 44 years old and there have been people on TV that I have watched since I was a little kid.

There are other professions to where people refuse to retire. College football coach is one. So are US Senators and Congressmen. Dictators never really retire either. But back to media people…

The following people have been on TV, forever…

Barbara Walters-This woman has been on TV my entire life. She is 80 years old and does “The View”. She doesn’t really look that different than when I was a kid.

Morley Safer-The 60 Minutes guy has been with the show for 40 years. 40. My parents watches 60 Minutes religiously on Sunday evenings, and Morley’s voice harkens me back to the good old Sunday dinner.

Mike Wallace retired because he was over 90 (90 seems to be the retirement age in this profession). “Hey Mike, you are over 90. You are on borrowed time, take a vacation buddy!”

Andy Rooney is over 90 and does his 60 Minutes bit. I know it is only two minutes with a humorous, grumpy grandfather, but still, for a 90 plus year old man having to wear a suit, be under the hot lights and reading cue cards and being Grandpa Simpson like funny is really something.

Walter Cronkite was doing specials and news stories until he died in his 90’s. CBS forced him to retire at 65 in 1981, if it was up to Uncle Walter, he would of stayed there until the 21st Century (and he had the strength to do that job until probably a year before he died.)

David Brinkley was around until his late 70’s. He retired. Then died.

Larry King is 76 years old and doesn’t want to leave.

There are a lot of old newscasters on local TV. One in my city is a weatherman who has been on television for at least 40 years. He has to be 70 years old and he is still there. There was another newscaster who did the morning news on that channel seemingly forever who worked well into his 70’s.

My guess would be that there is a certain “glamour” to these types of jobs and people do not want to leave it. The money is also excellent. Maybe there is a feeling from the elderly that if they quit working, they will die.

Since a lot of these newscaster people never quit, who will we still be seeing 20, 30, 40 years from now? Anderson Cooper?

2

The vast majority of them are shown the door much earlier in their career and don’t get a second shot. Anchoring is a sweet gig if you can get it, and pays too well and makes you too much of a celebrity for you to walk away willingly.

3

Larry King quit his show. He’ll still do specials, but nothing else.

And I’ve known quite a few that do quit “early”, at least on the local level. Usually it has to do with familial obligations. Unless they’re being fired, and everyone is lying to us.

4

Chet Huntley, David Brinkley’s partner in the 1960s, retired when he was 58. He died four years later of lung cancer…not sure if that had anything to do with it. One newscaster, Bill Jorgenson, said Huntley told him “when you report the news for awhile, you begin to feel responsible for it”.

I don’t know if it’s for the same reasons but a lot of big name classical conductors such as Toscanni, Stokowski, Bernstein, Solti, lived a long time and were conducting to the end. They must feel they like it and it keeps them going. College football coach Bear Bryant was asked what would happen when he retired. He said “I’d croak in a week”. It took him a month after
Alabama forced him to because of age.

5

Their demographic grows senile with them, it’s a reinforcing thing.

6

Notice that the people that you mention aren’t typical news broadcasters. The ones you list are the top national people. The people below that level do retire, sometimes because they are forced out by the networks or stations that they work for. Notice that three of the people that you list work on 60 Minutes. Whatever this program started as, it’s now clear that it’s meant to attract older people to continue watching TV. It’s a special case. The network doesn’t want to hire younger people for it.

Walter Cronkite did retire. He kept doing specials and such for the same reason that a business owner might keep going in once a week to check on the business even after he passed on day-to-day control to his children. Cronkite kept going (and only very occasionally) because he liked doing it and he was still in reasonably good mental and physical health.

David Brinkley retired from day-to-day news broadcasting at the normal age. He kept up a weekly show for the same reason as I’ve said, because he wanted to keep up a part-time presence on the news.

Barbara Walters and Larry King keep working because they essentially own their franchises. It’s not like a news anchor. If they retire, it’s at least a completely different show (and maybe no show at all).

7

I think you are just noticing that many professions are filled with people who could have retired years ago. Think of the actors, old musicians, etc. I think some people just hate retiring and news anchors are just more visible.

8

‘Mo Minetti was leaving the US/AM breakfast show to have a baby. She had been offered a mind-bubbling amount of money to have it on the show, but she had declined, unexpectedly, on grounds of personal privacy and taste. Teams of NBS lawyers had sieved through her contract to see if these constituted legitimate grounds, but in the end, reluctantly, they had to let her go. This was, for them, particularly galling because normally “reluctantly letting someone go” was an expression that had its boot on quite another foot.’

  • From “Mostly Harmless”, Douglas Adams, chapter 2.
9

I think this is a lot of it. If you’re working at a job you love, and/or are in some sense addicted to, you’re not going to want to give it up. And if it’s a job that doesn’t require youthfulness, but rather where experience and eminence are valued, you may not have to.

10

Also outside of New York City and Los Angeles, and to a lesser degree Washington DC, there is a lack of celebrities.

For example in Chicago, our local news anchors fill the need of celebrites. They go to functions and in return get the benefits an actor would in LA for example.

So there is an ego thing about it as well

11

Yep. It’s the same deal with actors. Betty White has been in show business for about 70 years, and is still considered a big name and working regularly in film and television. Most actors & actresses don’t last through their 20s before they give up and move onto another line of work.