Media in 2016, much like the political scene it covers, is a story of stalwarts and upstarts. This year, the call for change was felt in TV (Lester Holt, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah), online (Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner's Lenny Letter, John Oliver's viral investigative comedy) and in politics (Hillary Clinton, are you listening?).
And while the collective narrative long ago predicted that TV news would be swamped by the glut of digital offerings, record-breaking ratings for the presidential debates and campaign coverage prove that TV still matters — a lot — and on the small screen, big personalities dominate (see the ongoing saga of Donald Trump's tussle with Megyn Kelly).
Amid the reds and blues, THR's sixth annual list of the press' most potent voices salutes the anchors, executives and iconoclasts who interpret the popular angst and anger, and reveals their unique perspective on what matters in media, what defines a New Yorker and what really makes America great.
Reported by Seth Abramovitch, Eriq Gardner, Merle Ginsberg, Marisa Guthrie, Natalie Jarvey, Andy Lewis, Michael O'Connell, Ryan Parker, Lacey Rose, Bryn Elise Sandberg and Tatiana Siegel
