The number of Denver television anchors and reporters who have departed over the past year has been brutal, but the behind-the-camera exodus has been just as bad. Joanne Ostrow at the Denver Post reports today that CBS4 producer Vicki Hildner’s contract was not renewed. Hildner’s resume includes a Peabody Award and 40 Emmys in her two decades at CBS4.
One Peabody, 40 Emmys, Zero Jobs
Denver Public Relations Blog 
It’s a race to the bottom. Vicki was among the best in the biz! Here’s to better days for ahead for Vicki via a cushy PR job or a gig with a bigger audience where she can continue to regale us with her masterful storytelling.
Let’s face it, the electronic news media are headed down the same path as print media. It’s no longer about news. The goal is to capture eyeballs and they have discovered that you don’t have to invest in generating original, quality content to do that. Just stick a couple of pretty faces behind a desk and have them read the teleprompter. They don’t have to understand or believe what they are reading. CNN went through its purge of “seasoned” journalists about 10 years ago.
While this is sad to see, for me it is more frightening than sad. We are on the brink of being without any trusted, independant sources for information and analysis. Blogs (no offense) and Twitter aren’t the answer. A portent of the future can be found in a recent presentation by Google’s CEO to a group newspaper publishers. He argued the goal of “news” organizations should be to entertain their readers/audiences.