It was a hugely influential and pop culture-defining thirty-six-year run for MTV News. Today, it was announced that Paramount was shutting down the department as part of larger layoffs.
It originally launched as a single show in 1987 with Kurt Loder. It eventually grew into a news outlet for Generation X and older millennials. Traditional news like CNN and Fox News didn’t cut it for that generation.
MTV News created stars out of people like Kurt Loder, Tabitha Soren, SuChin Park, Gideon Yago, Alison Stewart, and other correspondents. It had an eye for younger generations interested in music, pop culture, politics, and other topics that might not have catered to the traditional network evening newscasts.
The popularity and reach of the program arguably peaked in 1994 when they had then President of the United States, Bill Clinton on for a town hall about violence in America. It was a mix of hard-hitting questions about violence and other lighter topics such as “boxers or briefs”.
That joke would continue throughout the heyday of the show with Town Hall appearances from Barack Obama, Bill Gates, John McCain, and others.
The series earned Emmy and Peabody Awards for their reporting of natural disasters and the Iraq War.
MTV News In The Modern Era
For more modern viewers, the news landscape is much harder to break into and stay in. With outlets like Buzzfeed, Vice, and The Ringer appealing more and more to younger generations, MTV News got pushed out of the top spot.
With this competition and greedy budget cuts from their parent company Paramount, it was only a matter of time before MTV News was pushed out for good. It’s a troubling development where other companies like Vice and Buzzfeed are cutting news departments from the budget.
MTV News was part of our cultural lexicon for thirty-six years. We wish well to any of their staff facing cuts and layoffs.
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