Peter Imber

Fifty years ago at the height of his popularity as “The most trusted man in America” Walter Cronkite and the CBS Evening News averaged nearly 30 million viewers a night. Today, the three major network television evening news broadcasts have a combined audience every night that is half of that. How this happened will be the focus of this talk which will examine the history of TV news, the impact of technology, the influence of corporate control of the networks, the rise of cable news and the growth of social media as a news source.

Peter Imber worked in the ABC News Los Angeles Bureau for 26 years as a producer for ABC News’ broadcasts, including World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Nightline with Ted Koppel. During his career he covered the Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King beating, the O.J. Simpson trial, the Columbine school shooting and other major news stories. His work was nominated for National News Emmys four times, winning once and he has received a DuPont-Columbia Award and a National Press Club Award. Imber graduated from Dartmouth College and lived on a kibbutz in Israel for seven years in the 1970s and served in the Israeli army. He retired to Maine in 2010 and is a past president of the Camden Conference.