There was a time and I can remember it way back when – since I’m a lot older than most of you out there. And it was on the radio. TV? At that time TV was still in the experimental stage and if you ever saw anything on TV other than a fledgling news cast, it had to be the horse races. Eventually TV programming was expanded to include championship boxing matches and later on wrestling and other sports events. With the addition of entertainment, TV became a force to contend with. The movie industry originally pooh-poohed TV but they soon came to the realization that they were both in the same boat and that they would either float or sink together.
The closest thing to getting your news on the TV back then was when you were watching the newsreels whenever you went to the movies. These newsreels were short in duration with little depth and invariably slanted to promote one thing or another. With the ever expanding news delivery via TV, the newsreels faded into oblivion.
That’s when the news, at least on TV, was aired twice a day, at 6:00 PM and again at 11:00 PM – and originally for fifteen minutes. Later on it was extended to a full one half hour. And this was on the three major networks.
During WWII we would get our war time news only after it was made ready for public consumption by first being censored and sanitized. In time we would get our wars live, as it was happening, on color TV. With the advent of CNN, Cable News Network, complements of Ted Turner in 1980, news reporting graduated to 24/7, which was further enhanced by other networks following in the footsteps of CNN.
For all intents and purposes the news came basically in two varieties, the news version or to quote an old time TV personality, “just the facts”, and the other variety being in the form of commentary. Today, almost all newscasters are commentators or wannabe commentators. No longer does anyone broadcast the news for what it is, the news, ie; who, what, when, where and why. They have to put their own spin on it or commentate, otherwise it is not newsworthy.
Gradually, the introduction of the internet permitted the delivery of the news to expand exponentially. In fact, it could be said that this article or blog, is a form of internet journalism.
News reporting today is a business wherein neutrality, objectivity and impartiality no longer mean what they used to. In high school we were exposed to the evils of, “yellow journalism”, wherein a newspaper would propagate its own version of, “the facts”, taking into account if it was newsworthy, a blunt reference as to whether or not it will sell.
At one time reporters avoided controversial subjects according to the rules of the National Association of Broadcasters. Yes. But that was a long time ago. How and when did that policy change? It changed gradually, mostly in the sixties, with the war in Viet Nam and all of the social changes taking place in the US.
In the previous century the news in the west was basically controlled by four news organizations, Reuters, Associated Press, Agency France Press and United Press International whereas Tass covered the USSR as did Xinhua for China. And all of these organizations have at one time or another been accused of reporting the news according to what has been referred to as developmental journalism, sensationalism or gossip, defending the status quo or even imperialism, favoring multi-national corporations or exhibiting just plain old fashioned bias of one kind or another. You think?
Today we have what in some circles is referred to as, “fake news”. What is fake news other than news which you just don’t like? It is most likely a combination of the following: news items that are repeated over and over by different commentators ala, “the telephone game”, the absence of any fact checking prior to publication or broadcasting, or the gravitation of the reporter to only one facet of the news item to the exclusion to all other facets of the same news item.
Now we have something called Wikileaks. Is that news? You tell me. As I understand, it is a protected source for all whistleblowers to go to where they can in total anonymity deposit whatever documents that have come into their possession, secret or otherwise, whether they are borrowed, stolen or otherwise and have them published for the world to see without any fear of recrimination. Is this a good thing for us, the world and emerging societies? I happen to think it is a good thing.
A lot of the news we hear about these days deals with the so-called Liberals, who are in my opinion probably more fascist than the original fascists. Remember, I prefaced this piece with the statement that I am older than most of you out there which means that I remember. The sad part of it is that today’s so-called Liberals have no idea how close their ideals mirror those of the original fascists.
Where is all of this heading? Like most things in this world, there are cycles that they go through that swing as do pendulums. We’ll see.