The Day That TV News Died

[joelz]

yesterday i was walking through the tv section of future shop on my way to the computers and a sales man stooped me to inform me of the supper deal on a big screen i told him i would rather poke my eyes out with a stick and now this

I am not sure exactly when the death of television news took place. The descent was gradual—a slide into the tawdry, the trivial and the inane, into the charade on cable news channels such as Fox and MSNBC in which hosts hold up corporate political puppets to laud or ridicule, and treat celebrity foibles as legitimate news. But if I had to pick a date when commercial television decided amassing corporate money and providing entertainment were its central mission, when it consciously chose to become a carnival act, it would probably be Feb. 25, 2003, when MSNBC took Phil Donahue off the air because of his opposition to the calls for war in Iraq.

good read at

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_day_that_tv_news_died_20130324/

[ewagner]

1. Predicted in 1975

In the movie "Network"

[graham4anything]

2. 1988 when Bernie Shaw broke Mike Dukakis last chance at the first debate, it was over.

When they slew Dan Rather, it was over. When Brokaw/Russet sold millions of books, it was over
Remember when Tim Russet humiliated Dennis Kucinich with conspiracy theory talk and he wasn't allowed back

But the key moment was Brokaw selling out, Jennings dying, and Rather being character asssasssinated with true info and a never proven false piece, and even 60 minutes selling him out

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. Mid 70s. When the networks folded the news programs into the entertainment divisions and

forced them to compete with entertainment ratings. Previously, news programming competed with other news programs as a separate entity. All the news greats like Cronkite warned what would happen and they were proven right.

[RevStPatrick]

4. The Day That TV News Died???

June 1, 1980.

That was the the day CNN went live.
That was the day the 24-hour news cycle was born.
And it's been downhill ever since...

[lunatica]

5. The trial of Lorenna Bobbit was the turning point

It may not have been the day it died, but it decidedly took a downward spiral with the never-ending coverage of her trial for cutting off her husband's penis. That kind of TV is commonplace now, but back then she was the first.

Michael Jackson's sex life and OJ's murder of his wife soon followed. And the wall to wall coverage of the first Gulf War. Talk about glamorizing war! All of it in the 1990s.

[fredamae]

6. Richard Nixon & Ailes Circa 1970's

was a notable "beginning of the end" of Our 4th Estate, imo. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/richard-nixon-and-roger-ailes-1970s-plan-to-put-the-gop-on-tv/2011/07/01/AG1W7XtH_blog.html

[WilliamPitt]

7. The White Bronco

[baldguy]

8. 1977

Roone Arledge takes over ABC News & turns it into "entertainment".

1980, after illegally negotiating with Iran to keep the Hostages, Ronald Reagan wins the Presidency.

1985, The GOP guts the Fairness Doctrine, opening up the way for openly partisan political content to be presented as "news".

1988, Lee Atwater is able to use the new, popular format for RW propaganda purposes.

1996, Fox News is launched

[marmar]

9. k/r

[Orrex]

10. Charles Bukowski noted something along these lines in 1973 or earlier

Friday. As good a day as any. That meant something. Then I read the headline:

MILTON BERLE'S COUSIN HIT ON HEAD BY FALLING ROCK

I didn't quite get it. I leaned closer and read it again. It was the same:

MILTON BERLE'S COUSIN HIT ON HEAD BY FALLING ROCK

This was in black type, large type, the banner headline. Of all the
important things that had happened in the world, this was their headline.

MILTON BERLE'S COUSIN HIT ON HEAD BY FALLING ROCK

From The Way the Dead Love, (emphasis mine)