Friday, July 17, 2009
Cronkite
I almost felt sorry for Anderson Cooper a couple of weeks ago, as he reported on some aspect of the aftermath of Michael Jackson's demise. You could read the fake interest in his face. But so serious, like he was reporting a plane crash. I flipped around some other channels, came back to CNN, still the Jackson story.
I've complained enough about cable news not just reporting the freakin' news. Always panels of experts, & always the same experts.
Three news anchors took me through adolescence & beyond: Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley. I forget who was on ABC. One-half hour, interesting news, boring news, major news, minor news, not much filler or "human interest." The news. Yeah, the vocal right wing, smaller then, said they were all Democrats. The shock of Cronkite saying (in a special report, not the evening news) that Vietnam was "unwinnable" was in part because of his political inscrutability. But also because Cronkite did not traffic in trivial news, unless that's all he had left on his desk.
I get little of my daily news from TV, except disaster news, tornadoes, fires. I listen to WCBS-AM radio for local headlines, & read news online, including generally colorless, short, Associated Press stories. Someday, when the price comes down, I'll get an electronic reader & even subscribe to an online newspaper. I never stopped missing Walter Cronkite & the old Evening News, which was like the front page of a good newspaper.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I've complained enough about cable news not just reporting the freakin' news. Always panels of experts, & always the same experts.
Three news anchors took me through adolescence & beyond: Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley. I forget who was on ABC. One-half hour, interesting news, boring news, major news, minor news, not much filler or "human interest." The news. Yeah, the vocal right wing, smaller then, said they were all Democrats. The shock of Cronkite saying (in a special report, not the evening news) that Vietnam was "unwinnable" was in part because of his political inscrutability. But also because Cronkite did not traffic in trivial news, unless that's all he had left on his desk.
I get little of my daily news from TV, except disaster news, tornadoes, fires. I listen to WCBS-AM radio for local headlines, & read news online, including generally colorless, short, Associated Press stories. Someday, when the price comes down, I'll get an electronic reader & even subscribe to an online newspaper. I never stopped missing Walter Cronkite & the old Evening News, which was like the front page of a good newspaper.
