Re:Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company
by taude on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @12:54PM
(#37052023)
Even in the early 90s news started shifting towards our modern incarnation. CNN was considered hard news in the 80s, but that changed around the time of the Persian Gulf war and Wolf Blitzer becoming the Scud-Stud, and all the other shows like Cross-Fire becoming news-er-tainment (or whatever the proper industry term is), etc...
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Re:Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company
by JohnFen on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @03:39PM
(#37054409)
> CNN was considered hard news in the 80s
I blame CNN for much of the state of news today. TV news has always been poor, but before CNN proved otherwise, news was not something that was considered a profit-maker. Once CNN showed it can make money, then the profit maximalization began in earnest, and with that came the descent into news-as-entertainment.
That started well before the gulf war.
Re:Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company
by cbsmith on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @03:49PM
(#37054554)
Oh, that goes way back before CNN and cable, or even TV.
As an aside, 99% invisible had a pretty good podcast on how radio (which delivers news to more Americans -and is trusted more- than TV) content has changed over the years. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-divided-dial/
The change has been systemic, and that change shaped CNN more than the other way around.
Re:Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company
by xattt on Tuesday August 08, 2023 @07:22PM
(#37056794)
An oft-forgotten movie is the Network (1976) that predicts the rise of activist news hosts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(1976_film)