"The perception is that more important people watch news in the evenings than in the mornings"
About this Quote
Reese Schonfeld’s line is a neat little autopsy of how media prestige gets manufactured: not through journalism, exactly, but through scheduling, habit, and the old social fantasy that power keeps banker’s hours. The “perception” doing the heavy lifting here isn’t just a public misunderstanding; it’s an industry bias that turns a time slot into a class signal. Evening news reads as the adult table. Morning news gets coded as background noise for the scrambling household, the commuter, the worker who can’t afford to linger.
The intent is quietly strategic. If you can convince advertisers, executives, and politicians that the evening audience is “more important,” you justify bigger budgets, more serious branding, and the kind of access that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Important people” is deliberately vague, letting it stand in for money, influence, and respectability without having to admit the uglier premise: some viewers count more than others.
Schonfeld, as a journalist and a TV-news builder, is also pointing to how newsroom hierarchies mirror that perception. Prime time becomes the place where careers are made and narratives are “set,” while morning coverage is treated as disposable, even when it reaches massive audiences. The subtext is that “importance” isn’t an objective measure; it’s a story the media tells itself to defend its pecking order.
Underneath the throwaway phrasing sits a darker truth: in broadcast culture, legitimacy often arrives not by being right, but by being seen at the right hour.
The intent is quietly strategic. If you can convince advertisers, executives, and politicians that the evening audience is “more important,” you justify bigger budgets, more serious branding, and the kind of access that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Important people” is deliberately vague, letting it stand in for money, influence, and respectability without having to admit the uglier premise: some viewers count more than others.
Schonfeld, as a journalist and a TV-news builder, is also pointing to how newsroom hierarchies mirror that perception. Prime time becomes the place where careers are made and narratives are “set,” while morning coverage is treated as disposable, even when it reaches massive audiences. The subtext is that “importance” isn’t an objective measure; it’s a story the media tells itself to defend its pecking order.
Underneath the throwaway phrasing sits a darker truth: in broadcast culture, legitimacy often arrives not by being right, but by being seen at the right hour.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
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