Huntley-Brinkley Report, and Walter Cronkite
I grew up in an isolated patch of desolation downstream (Columbia River) of the Wallula Gap at the Southern edge of the Scablands. We didn't own a television so I made a point of visiting our rich neighbors to watch Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, and Walter Cronkite as often as possible. Ignorant of social grace (I was in the third grade.), I would decline their offers to dine, absorb what I could understand, then steal away into the night.
In the olden days we didn't have much mass communication in my part of the world. Radio was limited and a bit sketchy. If you strung enough wire a television could pickup one clear (okay, sorta clear) signal from Richland, WA, a ghost signal from who knows where, and occasionally a third very etherial buzz and flash from · · · aliens (I suppose).
I did not learn about Journalistic Integrity in a civics class, I learned from listening to the Huntley - Brinkley Report, and listening to Cronkite deliver the news. Sure, they were human, I was not naive, I didn't expect perfection, but they delivered the news, they reported corrections, and when they expressed a personal point of view, they made it clear they were expressing a personal point of view. I know they reported the lies from Viet Nam, but I am sure they didn't create those lies. I know they didn't cover the truth of the Chicago Convention, but I am sure they were not the architects of the various deceptions. The reason I think all this: There were so many other opportunities for grandstanding, deception, obfuscation, and other malfeasance that now passes for journalism, and they didn't succumb to that siren's song and it's promise of ill-gotten ratings.
I do not wish for the "good ol' days" but, this most recent election cycle has made it clear that if Journalistic Integrity ever did exist, it is, at this time, definitely dead and buried. It is surreal to be convinced that I was better informed as a pre-teen in Hermiston, OR than I am as an aging adult traveling all over the Western USofA. Indeed, a sad comment on our times.
Comments
Whistle blowers used to go to the mainstream news
I'm pretty sure Daniel Ellsberg did as did Deep Throat, to the Washington Post, no less. Now, whistle blowers have no choice but to use Wikileaks and the few real journalists, like Glen Greenwald.
Beware the bullshit factories.
I often think back on Cronkite,
Brinkley and Ed Murrow. Decent journalism, investigative news pieces. And the network Murrow was on let him occasionally have a full hour to cover important knowledge about some most obscure part of American life in the Sixties: the life and hard times of migrant workers, for instance.
Now we have nothing but muck. Reality TV shows that make a person mental should you have to watch them. And news that has become propaganda and only that. Except for local news, which no longer investigates the scandals in the mayor's office, but instead reviews new restaurants. Or describes how the iPhone is superior to Android phones.
Believing in the improbable can make your life a miracle.
Of course,
This was when news was owned by news companies. Not media conglomerates which see the "news" as being "content providers"
I grew up on
Huntley-Brinkley and Cronkite, too. I love the movie Broadcast News because it shows when news moved to entertainment. It was under Reagan. So many gifts from that guy.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Thanks, Reagan.
The F.C.C. Fairness Doctrine. Born 1949. Died 1987.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Precisely. eom
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I was 10 when JFK was killed. Cronkite walked me through.
And he shed a tear. Many of us oldsters may have had that same experience.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I was 11 - in 6th grade.
I still remember them taking us to the auditorium and they turned on the TV (not for science this time) and there was Walter Cronkite - telling us what happened. The buses came and we all went home. I watched TV everyday after that - even saw Oswald killed in real time. Through it all - Cronkite, Huntley, and Brinkley were there to console the nation.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I was 15 - in 8th grade.
I remember walking about in a fog as some students were complaining about their Catholic friends leaving campus to see the priest a few blocks away. I know I walked the few blocks to go home early that day, but I do not actually remember walking home, if that makes sense.
Add in Kuralt and Terkle
for slightly editorialized views of life. Terkle showed us the Rust Belt worker, ones that had hope that conditions might improve and were willing to fight for them. Those were people who are now sneered at as maybe Trump voters. Now all we see are people living the good life, sometimes obviously way beyond their means.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
If those guys were around today
we would not have had the election results that have been foisted upon us. Studs Terkel would have had a field day.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
A Science Fiction Novel, to be sure.
An alternate histories story would be relatively easy to write. This is my take: I think there is more than correlation at work with the changes in the fourth estate tracking with the changes in our electoral experience. I am certain that sloppy journalism is at least partly to blame.
This brings to mind
an old episode of "Family Guy" where Death (angel of) makes an error resulting in Dick Cheney taking Karl Rove and Atonin Scalia hunting, killing them both -- Al Gore gets elected and we all have flying cars that run on French fry oil.
It all seems to coalesce. Networks abandoning thorough news journalism in favor if formats that jack up ratings along with the dumbing down of America... constant distractions and entertainments brought about by the digital age.
Jim Lehrer is about the only solid journalist still working. I think so anyway. I don't get broadcast television and I no longer trust PBS since they like that Koch Bros. money. Nothing against Lehrer but PBS must be sensitive to the wants of their patrons.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
So true
I can't explain to my children, in a way they can fully understand, how very different the manner in which the networks broadcast the news back then, compared to today's media infotainment industry. It wasn't a golden age, but the original newscasters came from a background of print journalism that doesn't exist anymore, and the resources the news divisions, print and TV could devote to a story, domestic or international, was immense compared to today where local stations often run promotional vids that are given to them by industry pr hacks to use run as "'news content."
I feel we get less truth in news coverage today, despite the many more media platforms that exist, then we did back in the dinosaur era of television. It's why or politics has devolved into a surreal mixture of propaganda/entertainment/free advertisements for their corporate sponsors with a bit of "Jerry Springer" style rock 'em/sock 'em, he said/she said debates that may entertain people who like to watch train wrecks but offer nothing of substance. People no longer watch the news they are consumers of it. That tells you all you need to know.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
I have met only one real journalist in my life.
During the first few years I lived in Nebraska I had the good fortune to get to know an old school journalist in real life. He worked for a local television station. One fine spring day he took a few days of personal time to attend his father's funeral. When he returned, he called the station to let them know he was ready to return to his job. The station manager arranged to meet him the next morning at a local restaurant. At that breakfast meeting he was told he no longer had a position. Damn these people can be cold.
While he was here he provided us with some real in-depth investigative pieces. Maybe that's why they had to let him go . . .
Eric Sevareid; don't forget Eric
I can only imagine how an ex-war correspondent that wasn't afraid to take on the House Un-American Activities Commitee, would report on a situation like the Water Protectors, under attack by mercenary thugs, on their own land, in Sevareid's home state.
Next to Eric, this entire crop of wannabe "journalists" in the MSM look like screaming lemurs. And yes, it's largely Reagan's fault.
"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
I imagine unrelenting resolve and genuine compassion.
I am unable to understand why our so-called journalists are such cowards. If they would just do their real jobs and stop pandering to those that control their salaries · · ·
Maintaining my integrity is more important to me than keeping my job. I survived the cut-throat world of academia, never backing down from a fight. As a result, I outlasted several administrators (primarily deans) that lacked integrity.