Network, The 1976 film about a ratings-challenged news anchor who vows to kill himself on the air, and sees his Nielsen numbers skyrocket as he delivers loose-cannon jeremiads about politics and media and corporate America to viewers, is set to premiere on Broadway. Bryan Cranston plays anchor Howard Beale.

While the story is set four decades ago, the play — and the not-so-dated movie before it — raises some pressing and familiar issues about the media’s role in our lives today.

Beale is wrestling with the public’s dedication to the almighty box sitting in their family rooms. “This tube is gospel, this tube is the ultimate revelation,” he shouted on the stream-of-consciousness-driven Howard Beale Show, which took the place of his staid newscast. “This tube can make or break presidents, popes and prime ministers. This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world!”

The Howard Beale Show is something of a precursor to the personality-driven, soliloquy-rich content one finds on cable news today. The film, said The New Yorker, “was uncannily prescient about our outrage-fueled news-as-entertainment culture, foreseeing the likes of Sean Hannity, Jerry Springer and Laura Ingraham by decades.”

Every night, some 27 million to 29 million people tuned in to see Walter Cronkite deliver the CBS Evening News, according to Forbes magazine. Beale did a little better than the Most Trusted Man in America as his new program took off. As the anchor starts to become unglued, he’s visited by a ghost. He asks the apparition why he’s been approached. Because you have 40 million Americans watching, he is told.

People loved watching Beale’s “angry prophet” routine, but as happens with viewers, they lost interest over time. His boss, Diana Christensen — she’s played by Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany — tells Beale he’s “dropping like a stone” when his audience share falls below a 40.

Network chiefs today can dream about that 40 share. The average audience for the evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC stands at 5.2 million viewers apiece, said comScore TV Essentials, a 7% drop from the year before.

But that’s not to say people aren’t consuming awesome amounts of media. Last year, Fox News Channel generated some $2.67 billion in revenue, CNN tallied $1.59 billion and MSNBC took in $798 million, according to SNL Kagan. Seeking to reach its consumers on the go, Fox News launched its OTT product Fox Nation last week. For six bucks a month, users get on-demand programming starring the likes of star-polished personalities Tomi Lahren, Britt McHenry and Sean Hannity.

Fox News senior vice president of development and production John Finley likened the new channel to a combination of Netflix and Facebook Live. “It’s kind of a hybrid mix between the two,” Finley said, “in terms of format and offerings.”

It’s safe to say Beale would be blown away by Netflix, even though he would probably be disappointed by the platform’s lack of news. Netflix is spending close to $13 billion on original content this year, according to The Economist, way up from $8 billion a year ago. If one can’t swing the eleven bucks a month, one can simply stand in Times Square, a quick hop from where Network shows at the Belasco Theatre, and watch the massive digital billboard showing Netflix clips all day long.

Standard Deviation

Beale also lamented the breakdown in the lofty standards the news business once held itself to. “Television is not the truth,” thundered Beale. “Television is a goddamn amusement park. Television is a carnival, a circus, a traveling troupe of acrobats and storytellers, dancers and jugglers and sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players.”

Speaking with The New York Times, Cranston — who, of course, played methamphetamine-making Walter White on Breaking Bad — shared his own thoughts on the state of news media. “We’re seeing it now, very clearly: agendas of different outlets, to promulgate their ideology,” he said. “Whether it’s liberal or conservative. It doesn’t matter, it’s out there. And you listen to the people who agree with you for affirmation, and you listen to the other side so you can get angry and shout at them.”

TV news today, Cranston added, is a “news-entertainment program.”

Fittingly, oversight of Beale’s program gets shifted from the news division to programming, with all the entertainment series. As programming chief Diana Christensen discusses the show with news president Max Schumacher, played by Tony Goldwyn, who portrayed the U.S. president on Scandal, she doesn’t think much of the network’s news standards. Its newscasts are “straight tabloid,” she says, mentioning a recent 1½-minute story about a naked lady riding a bike through Central Park. “I don’t think I’ll listen to any protestations of high standards of journalism,” Christensen scoffs. “If you’re gonna hustle, at least do it right.”

Speaking of U.S. presidents, Beale might be prepared to leap — rather than scream — out the window over a president who derides stories that criticize him as “fake news,” and famously denied a press pass to a CNN reporter he often clashed with. (Jim Acosta’s credentials were restored days later.) Just last week, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his desire for a federal news network, because, he said, CNN does not do a good job of portraying the U.S. A “worldwide” network would “show the World the way we really are, GREAT!” he said on Twitter.

The general public’s opinion of TV news isn’t a whole lot higher than the president’s. Some 50% of U.S. adults get news regularly from television, according to a study earlier this year from Pew Research. That’s down from 57% a year before that.

Around 46% of Americans turn to local TV for news, ahead of the 31% who use cable news and 30% who turn to broadcast network stuff.

And 43% of Americans often get their news online, while Pew said a whopping 93% of U.S. adults get at least some news online. Plenty of online sources are legit, with veteran reporters covering the basics of journalism. In the coming weeks, CBSN Local premieres, marrying CBS News’s four-year-old streaming channel with its local news outlets. WCBS New York is first.

But countless other online news sources fit the president’s fake news description.

Remote Vote

Christensen, Network’s network programming chief, says TV networks have little responsibility to deliver responsible, virtuous content. “We’re not in the business of morality,” she tells news chief Schumacher. “We’re in the business of business.”

Its TV network was just one aspect of the portfolio belonging to Communications Corporation of America, the fictional behemoth in Network. CCA presaged the corporate monoliths controlling the media today.

Can we hold our news sources to higher standards than Christensen does? After all, the viewers are ultimately the ones who decide if a news network thrives or dives. Might we take a more active role, with remote or mouse or phone in hand, in clicking off the outlets offering news that does not hit our standards?

Howard Beale implores his viewers to take a stand against the untruths he felt were streaming out of the tube back in the ’70s. “Turn off your television sets!” he howls. “Put an end to this madness. Strike a blow for sanity. Right in the middle of this show. Turn off your TVs and set yourself free, goddamnit!”

His bosses weren’t wild about that message from their ornery host, but it didn’t end there. “Get up out of your chairs right now, stick your heads out the window, and yell,” Beale memorably exhorts, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

Just when you think Donald Trump's attacks can't get more caustic or inclusive comes the self-described "wrecking ball" aiming at all of D.C.

The president is finding enemies all over Washington's "swamp," according to the latest rabble-rousing fund-raising email from the Trump-Pence campaign committee, sent midday Tuesday (Oct. 31).

Related: Trump Says Mainstream Media Out to 'Bring Down' Administration

Citing a Time magazine story about how Trump is dismantling the government "as we know it," the president wears the magazine's characterization of his cabinet as a "wrecking crew" as a badge of honor.

"The federal government is a broken, lobbyist-infested cesspool of corruption that abuses its power, cooks deals for crooked politicians, and despises hardworking Americans," Trump says in the e-mail, sounding a note somewhere between a progressive chest-thumper and a Bolshevik bomb-thrower.

The president says the country voted for a "wrecking ball" that would "obliterate the status quo," but that the people's will is being impeded by the revolt of those government swamp dwellers (now downgraded to "cesspool" dwellers) abetted by the news media, enemies of the people he is sworn to defeat.

"The Fake News Media will do anything to try to rip apart the strong bonds of our movement," Trump says, "But they will never succeed -- because we are fighting to save our country, and that’s a fight we will NEVER surrender."

Related: Pew Finds Partisan Divide Widening on Role of Media

The attacks appear motivated by a desire to marginalize the president's critics, which are legion these days, and whip up his financial and political base as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of a Trump-Russia connection continues.

President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have turned their attacks on the media into a fundraising tool.

"The American people deserve better than an obsessed and bias [sic] media, they deserve the truth," reads the latest e-mail soliciting donations to Trump Make America Great Again Committee, in a statement attributed to the president. The statement is followed by a request to "contribute $1 immediately," per a copy of the email obtained by Multichannel News.

The group is a "joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President Inc., and the Republican National Committee."

Related: President Launches Leak Investigation

The President suggests the public will get that truth only by cutting through the noise of that media coverage and contributing directly to "draining the swamp."

"They’re out in full force against us, Friend," the president writes, "and they’re not going to stop."

Trump has incessantly criticized and marginalized media reports that reflect him in a less-than-flattering light or suggest failures or losses, and the e-mail cites stories, or at least headlines, about the degree to which he is getting negative coverage.

Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee were not happy with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's answers, or lack of them, about recent, and not so recent, White House attacks on the news media.

At a March 8 FCC oversight hearing, when asked by Senate Democrats whether he agreed or disagreed with the President Donald Trump's characterization of the media as the Enemies of the American people, Pai would not say yes or no, saying he did not want to get into that political debate, and deferred to the White House about what he might have discussed during meetings with the President.

In a letter dated Friday (March 10) and headlined by ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), those Democratic members said they wanted better answers by March 17 and said his lack of transparency at the hearing was unfortunate.

While Pai said he did not want to get into the issue, they suggested he should have.

"As FCC chairman, you have direct authority over the nation's broadcast and media marketplace...and ultimately, the decisions that you, your fellow commissioners, and the agency staff which you oversee make affect the viability and sustainability of news media."

They had several follow-up questions they wanted answers to--it is common for legislators to ask for written responses from witnesses following an oversight hearing--leading off with a reprise of the key query: "Do you believe the media is the 'enemy' of the American people."

In addition, they wanted his assurance that he would regulate the media in an impartial manner, though he appeared to have already answered that question in the hearing, as well as committing to not stifle or penalize free speech, to using his authority in a way that respects the agency's independence from the White House, and to inform the public of any attempt by the White House or any executive branch official to influence him to take action or not take action, including on license renewals for broadcasters) and to do so whether or not that notification is necessary under ex parte or other ethics rules.

Pai had said at the hearing that he would make public any such contacts as required by FCC and ethics, rules, but the Dems are looking for more. 

They also want to know if the chairman committed to take any specific action against a broadcast or cable entity or other outlet as a condition of getting the chairmanship.

When asked about the letter, an FCC spokesman said: "Chairman Pai is a strong supporter of the First Amendment rights of the media and all Americans," said an FCC spokesperson. "He has protected those rights at the FCC and will continue to do so as long as he is privileged to serve at the Commission."

The spokesman pointed to the following disent from then-commissioner Pai in the Commission’s 2016 media ownership order.

“Of course, newspaper reporters continue to do important work throughout our country each and every day. Many were recently reminded of the impact that their stories can have through the 2015 film Spotlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie focused on The Boston Globe’s investigation into widespread child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests in and around Boston—reporting that ended up having a worldwide impact on the Catholic Church. But given the newspaper industry’s profound financial troubles, it is becoming harder and harder for publications to do this type of investigatory journalism, hold our elected officials to account, and let Americans know what is going on in their communities.”  

"Chairman Pai continues to believe that," said the spokesman, adding that the chairman also will provide a response to the senators' letter.  

Related:Pew Plots Rise of Trump

Donald Trump's campaign website "mostly posts" stories from external news media, in contrast to Hillary Clinton's, which "almost entirely bypass[es] the news media," with campaign news sections that resemble digital news outlets, populated mostly by in-house-produced content, according to a just-released Pew Research study.

The same pattern held for social media posts from the candidates. Pew said that 78% of Trump's Facebook posts were links to outside news stories, while 80% of Clinton's posts were links to her campaign pages -- and their mostly self-generated stories and info. Twitter showed a similar pattern.

Trump's fondness for tweeting at the drop or a hat or rise of a poll number was borne out in the study. Trump’s tweets were retweeted almost 6,000 times on average, compared with some 1,500-plus for Clinton.

Trump has famously slammed the media, both in general and by insulting individual reporters along the campaign trail and following debates.

The study was of the campaign websites of presidential candidates -- looking at design features, static content and original news items (news articles, press releases and videos) posted between May 1 and June 15.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says that the media are "far removed from the reality of where the American people are."

Sanders said that in an interview on C-SPAN (it will air Sunday, June 26, at 6:35/9:35 p.m. ET) after being asked about early press reports that his campaign was a long shot and could have money problems, and what had changed--he wound up pushing Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail and to the left on some issues, and raised large amounts of case in many small individual donations.

Sanders suggested that rather than anything changing, the media had gotten it wrong.

He cited David Brooks of the New York Times talking about how the pundits all got it wrong--Donald Trump's campaign was also given little chance by those pundits, and he is now the presumptive GOP nominee.

He said that despite what the establishment thought when talking with each other, it turned out the people wanted real change.

"There is an inside-the Beltway" bubble in which Congress, the media, the establishment, look at reality in a certain way." He said what has saddened him about the corporate media, and he said he used that term "Very advisedly because people have to understand that when they look at network television and major media, these are owned by large corporations. They are not some folks coming down from the sky trying to give an independent or objective perspective. They work for large, multinational corporations."

He gave the journalists themselves credit for being smart and hard-working, saying he could not believe how much they produced. But, he said, there is a view inside the Beltway that what campaigns are about is about personalities, like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. "What about talking about the American people" But that is not part of what the media discourse is about."

He said he held four press conferences in California in the run-up to the primary talking about issues--climate change, fracking, healthcare, economics. "You know how much coverage that got? Very, very little, 'cause that is not what the media is interested in."

He says looking at politics as a baseball game or a soap opera is not where the American people are.