Personality in the news
Back in the sixties or seventies, Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchor, was voted or found to be "The most trusted man in America." I forget who made the claim...it wasn't Cronkite, i'm sure. However, ever since then news anchors and ambitious persons on TV have coveted just such fame, and have sought the mantle of most trusted person in america. The desire to be so regarded fuels much of the posturing by news personalities - the "Greatest Generation" pitched by Tom Brokaw elevated Brokaw to a similar status, but he was unable to claim the big prize. (Slightly off the subject, a buddy of mine calls it "The Whitest Generation," and asks if his book on the sixties shouldn't be retitled "The Second-Greatest Generation," instead of "BOOM."
Brit Hume's interest in personality reflects, I believe, an obsession with gaining the Cronkite crown that is limited to within the journalism community. You have to be a dreamer to think the American public is looking for a most trusted person in America... like Diogenes the Cynic looking for an honest man... that is so old school.
As for your characterization of the Chris Mathews style as "modern," I would only suggest that "post-modern" is closer to accurate. By that I mean the field is flooded with points of light like Mathews who are self-consciously anchorish, pundits who are self-consciously puditty, and hard-edged balding guys with an attitude.
Television news people are too often driven to ecstasy by what Walker Percy called "the voluptuousness of bad news," as my buddy mentioned above reminds me whenever a pundit dies or retires and the airwaves are filled for days with weeping and gnashing of teeth and cries of "who will tell us what to think now?"
