Why I play ONN Anchor Dwight Richmond

The Onion News Network lets us laugh our heads off & demand better journalism

Me at the offices of The Onion in Chicago.

I rarely get this nervous. Hopefully, that’s a good sign.

This Monday was the revival of something I’ve loved for years. I’m honored to be the new anchor of ONN: The Onion News Network. I was a huge fan of this parody news project in its first run, back when actors played the anchors and correspondents. This time, I get to bring my real-world news experience to a role that brings me a lot of joy.

There’s nothing like The Onion. Some will find ONN too explicit, and that’s okay: it’s not for everyone. But if you’ve enjoyed The Onion over the years — and if you’re excited that the print edition is back — then I think you’ll love this. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver are very funny, but you can tell sometimes they’re making you laugh to keep themselves from screaming. That has merit, but we also need comedy for its own sake. When that’s done well it can be like a roller coaster: intense, unpredictable, and leaves you breathlessly eager for another ride.

This summer The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins reached out and asked if I’d be interested in doing some occasional anchor work. Collins and I had been colleagues at NBC News, where he was a senior reporter covering the dystopian corners of the internet. Fortunately he could see, even in my serious anchorman role, that I had a sense of humor about the world and myself. Being an ONN anchor is an exciting blend of my news chops and my as-yet-untapped Theatre Arts degree. 22 years after graduating college, this is the very first professional acting job of my life.

I’m presenting these ONN stories in character as Dwight Richmond. I named him after two Black anchormen I revere, both retired: Dwight Lauderdale of Miami’s WPLG, and Dennis Richmond of Oakland’s KTVU. Hopefully they’ll appreciate the homage… and the jokes. Some of the ONN stories are definitely not for the faint of heart. There’s plenty of political humor, inescapable during this election year, but also a lot of flat-out screwball comedy. I love it, even the stuff that made me cringe.

Frankly, nothing makes me cringe nearly as much as watching the news.

The production studio at The Onion's Chicago headquarters, on Day One of shooting the new ONN.

The Fox News-MSNBC dichotomy almost feels like a relic now. Cable news has grown far beyond that, with state-sponsored national broadcasters like TRT World (Turkey), Al Jazeera (Qatar), NHK World (Japan), CGTN (China) and RT America (Russia). Many of them are stuck on a standard playbook resembling the early days of CNN. Streaming supercharged this with ABC News Live, the recently rebranded CBS News 24/7, my old stomping ground NBC News NOW, LiveNOW from Fox, OAN, Newsmax, the regional channels of Spectrum News, and the New York Tri-State Area’s News 12.

This glut has had some casualties. Scripps News (formerly known as Newsy) will shut down on November 15th, laying off about 200 people. Scripps operated from an Atlanta hub, a Washington bureau and more than 60 local TV stations. Over the years it won an Emmy Award for covering the ongoing water crisis in Flint, MI and several awards for its Ukraine war coverage.

Scripps CEO Adam Symson says ad agencies feel putting commercials “around national news is just too risky for them given the polarized nature of this country. “I vehemently disagree,” he wrote in a statement, “but it is hurting Scripps News, along with every other national linear and digital news outlet.”

I love that ONN is back, but I hate that the cable news shtick has stuck. If broadcast journalism was really innovating as much as it should, then this parody wouldn’t make sense, and networks like Scripps News might have stood more of a chance. In the coming months, when you see Dwight Richmond you’ll know exactly what you’re looking at. We see it all over cable news and the delusional doldrums of social media.

ONN’s first job, of course, is to be funny. Unfortunately, it also kind of predicted the future. My former colleagues are running out of time to un-suck the news before trust in high-quality journalism fades away forever. I’m rooting for them to succeed, and I hope in a roundabout way I’m helping. Perhaps lampooning the worst parts of broadcast news will help stop them from outshining the best parts.

I discussed this in Tuesday’s live stream of the vice presidential debate (with wine):

I hope that someday ONN will puzzle future generations, just as much as today’s youth would scratch their heads at a switchboard operator. It would be great for them to look back and say, “Wait: the news used to actually be like that? And you watched it???”

For those who cannot accept me doing comedy and still take me seriously as a journalist, I understand. Perhaps ONN is a bridge too far for you. Thank you for letting me serve you in the past, and I hope you have plenty of other credible sources for information and analysis. Maybe the first story is a bit too naughty for you… give it another chance. The political humor might be more your speed. Just remember, comedy isn’t the problem. The real problem is that there’s so much journalism to make fun of. We deserve better than what we’re getting. We’ve had generations to get it right, and we’re almost out of time.

In the meantime, let’s share a good laugh. Enjoy the ride.