Just when I thought that network TV news was heading towards its deathbed, along comes the writers’ strike to save it for another day, or viewing, whichever comes first or has the shorter duration and attention span. TV news can now be more important than ever. At least it is live, meaning the anchor, a reporter now and then, and a guest to interpret the news is a mainstay of most news programs. The writers on these shows are under contracts different from the one involved in the strike. The news networks should not ignore this open opportunity.

TV news is in a position to take advantage of a situation where the audience will no longer have its favorite sitcom, its favorite drama, or its favorite late night show to watch. Repeats have already started. Do we really want to watch Jay Leno and David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel talking to actors about a movie released six months ago? Do we want to see Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert in repeats, commenting on yesterday’s news? I don’t. Can these personalities perform without a stable of writers, in some cases as many as a dozen, who churn out new material as if they were on an assembly line? Should the networks give each of these comedians 3 minutes to comment on the day’s events, as stand-ups seated behind a desk in a morning news studio? Who would write their material? Can these men, because there is not a woman in sight among them, perform on cue without cue cards?

Opportunity does not knock often, especially in news broadcasting. I recall past strikes at the networks when those in power did nothing original to fill the gap of old or semi-comatose programs. Will the networks make more documentaries? They make almost none now, so one or two in the works would be a vast improvement. Will there be new emphasis on the once fertile but now dying breed of magazine shows? Probably, but they are not difficult shows to produce and once in production, they are very easy to cancel. Without anything ventured, there will never be any gain.

Some of the audience will certainly gravitate further to the Internet. This does not include the young who are already there. Yet there is mounting evidence that the older segment of our population is moving slowly but surely to the Web as the ability to navigate the Internet becomes easier. Web sites will see more traffic because of broadband and it’s now higher quality. The addiction to social networks and the interactivity they foster will surely grow. Increased advertising might flow to those sites and profitability may soon come, but don’t bet the house on it, at least not yet.

Does any of this mean that once the writers’ strike ends, those who fled TV for potentially higher ground will return to the numbing round of simplistic programming found on TV? Not necessarily, or not at all. There is also the question about the quality and accuracy of information on the Web. Rightfully much of it is suspect. That attitude will not change as long as those who supply the information have fewer and fewer qualified people looking over their shoulders.

Some critics who believe the Web is better only pander to that which is new. It is not difficult to become excited by so-called fresh approaches to processing information. Commentators put aside that those now full-time users of the Internet are an audience who, in recent years never watched much TV anyway. For them, the writers’ strike is meaningless. I believe the strike is also meaningless to many just plain folk. Some of these TV viewers will surely desert their favorite networks and channels but not in enough numbers to make a difference. The news divisions at the broadcast networks will not take advantage of this grand opportunity to give audiences anything new. In the end the entertainment programmers will stumble just enough on their way to making less money, but a ton of it anyway. I cannot and will not predict how the writers will fare. I think they will be better off when the strike ends. But I do not think the audience will benefit at all. One day, the couch potato may rise and fight back, but that will not happen any time soon, though the erosion has already started with the slow but steady flight to the Internet.