CNN’s original host on ‘major difference’ 42 years later: ‘I used to anchor at CNN, now I just yell at CNN’
Former anchor Dave Walker expressed hope the network would revert back to 'basic news coverage'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One of CNN's original anchors didn't hold back Tuesday when it came to his views on the network's changed style 42 years after he anchored its first broadcast.
During an appearance on the first broadcast of "Reliable Sources Daily" on the first day of CNN+, CNN's new streaming service, original anchor Dave Walker, appearing alongside his wife and former co-anchor Lois Hart, recounted the network's original broadcast.
In the segment, first reported on by NewsBusters, Walker, however, let slip his disapproval of CNN's apparent trend towards opinion, telling host Brian Stelter that he now yells at the network through his television and hopes that its new ownership will revert to more "basic news coverage."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CNN's Brian Stelter talks with former CNN anchors Lois Hart and Dave Walker on the launch day of CNN's new streaming network, CNN+. (Screenshot/CNN+) (Screenshot/CNN+)
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At one point during the appearance, Stelter asked Walker and Hart, who both left CNN in 1990, if they still watched the network.
"All the time," Walker stated, with Hart saying, "Of course."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Here's the difference, though: I used to anchor at CNN, and now I just yell at CNN," Walker added, with laughs from Hart and Stelter.
"Everybody does that, too, right?" Hart said.
Stelter joked that Walker could just email him and that the network would take his feedback anytime. He then inquired about their thoughts on cable news and how they felt it had evolved since their time as anchors in the 1980s.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The CNN Headquarters is pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Aluka Berry
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"How do you view how cable news, and now streaming news, has evolved or devolved? What are your impressions of it now versus when you were on the air?" Stelter asked.
"Well, I think originally it was pretty much just 99% news content. There were a few evening programs we had, talk shows, but mainly it was just the news. And that was the major concern at the time - was whether or not we could fill 24/7. As it turns out, we could. We had more than enough news," Walker responded.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And I think as cable news evolved and more competition came into the fray, you had more opinion, particularly in the evening hours. And I would say that's the major difference now, but maybe with the new ownership that may revert to more just basic news coverage now. I don't know," he added.
Hart quickly interrupted Walker, telling her own story about once writing a note saying the network needed "a point of view" that executives held onto, but she now says she "didn't necessarily mean that it had to have a political point of view."
Stelter didn't immediately react to Walker's statement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former CNN president Jeff Zucker and now- CNN president Chris Licht. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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In February, CNN hired Chris Licht, a former CBS News executive, as president to replace Jeff Zucker, who resigned after failing to disclose he was having a personal relationship with a subordinate employee.