Monday, May 11, 2009

The nature of news

I've been thinking about the news lately. Most of what I see as "news" today is not something that Cronkite or Huntley-Brinkley would have given time to. In other words, the news programs are filled with items that a prior age considered unworthy of the attention of "a news program," which reserved its time for more consequential things than the fashion and love lives of stars or the rantings of talk show hosts.

How different "the news" was in times even more past. Imagine living in the Oregon Territory during the 19th century and learning, weeks or months after the fact, that Pres. Lincoln had been assassinated. Today someone sneezes in South America and you immediately feel the spray in California.

I watch more "news" than I should. It's an addiction I should break.

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