The News<\/p>\n
Many Americans are shocked by the attack on \u201cthe news.\u201d\u00a0 They grew up in a different era, one where we accepted that the \u201ctruth\u201d was told to us, in thirty-minute segments, by the three nightly news shows.\u00a0 Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Walter Cronkite on CBS, and Peter Jennings on ABC (the mid-1960\u2019s) delivered the facts, and as our nation went through the twin crises of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, they brought us the world.\u00a0 It went from black and white to color.<\/p>\n
They all were in the tradition of the \u201coriginal\u201d television journalist, Edward R. Murrow.\u00a0 Murrow made his reputation on the radio during World War II, \u201c\u2026this is London calling;\u201d reporting to the world as bombs fell and the city burned.\u00a0 He came home to CBS, and led investigative reporting with his program \u201cSee It Now.\u201d\u00a0In the heart of America\u2019s last great catharsis of internal hate, the McCarthy Era, Murrow took on McCarthy, his broadcast contributed to the downfall of the Senator and the end of the era.\u00a0Citizens trusted him.<\/p>\n
During the 1960\u2019s a different kind of\u00a0 \u201cnews\u201d programming began.\u00a0 In the town of Dayton, Ohio, the local variety show (songs and soft interviews by Johnny Gilbert of \u201ctell us what they won, Johnny\u201d fame) was replaced by an interview show with a local host, Phil Donahue.\u00a0 Phil\u2019s show went from ten to eleven in the morning, aimed at the \u201chouse wife\u201d still at home in that era.\u00a0 The trademark of the show was the telephone on the desk.\u00a0 Phil invited the community to call in with questions, \u201c\u2026is the caller there,\u201d and the women of Dayton had the most interesting questions and comments. \u00a0Phil world say they made the show.<\/p>\n
Phil dealt with controversial issues, and wasn\u2019t afraid to project his own liberal beliefs.\u00a0From Madeline Murray (the avowed atheist who\u2019s case to end school prayer went to the Supreme Court) to Jerry Rubin (the profane anti-war activist who was part of the Chicago Seven) Phil brought the leading controversies into homes.\u00a0 His show expanded from Dayton, to a Midwest network (Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Dayton) and ultimately to over 220 markets in the United States.<\/p>\n
Full Disclosure:\u00a0 I had the remarkable opportunity of growing up with the Donahue Show.\u00a0 My father ran the television station, Dayton\u2019s WLW-D, and was ultimately responsible for the show.\u00a0 Dad later took the show into syndication, selling it across the nation, and became President of the syndication division of Multimedia Television.<\/em><\/p>\n It was an interesting contrast, the \u201cbusiness Republican\u201d management of the station, and the mid-1960\u2019s protest culture view of the show.\u00a0 And while there were many internal controversies (including the show about the anatomically correct doll, \u201cLittle Baby Brother,\u201d that caused so many calls that the Dayton phone exchange crashed) the biggest pressure was from upper management, who didn\u2019t agree with the politics of the show.\u00a0 But while they disagreed with the politics, they certainly agreed with the profits.<\/p>\n So a new version of \u201cnews programming\u201d was born.\u00a0 It no longer took the view that it only presented the \u201cfacts,\u201d the moderator (Phil) was willing to take a side as well.\u00a0 This kind of programming is very familiar to today\u2019s audience:\u00a0 from MSNBC to Fox, the evening lineup are all \u201cnews with an angle.\u201d\u00a0 The other huge difference is the era of three stations, brought into your television from \u201cthe air\u201d ended.\u00a0 Cable television brought the capability of hundreds of stations. Programming all of those stations required a \u201cniche.\u201d\u00a0 Broadcast was splintered, it took a smaller percentage of viewers to make a show popular because there was so much to watch.<\/p>\n This led to \u201ctailored news;\u201d news designed to match the audience.\u00a0 Today there are still the \u201cbig three\u201d news broadcasts out there, with Lester Holt (NBC), Jeff Glor (CBS), and David Muir (ABC) holding down the jobs.\u00a0 But they no longer have the audience, influence, or reverence that their predecessors through the 1990\u2019s had.\u00a0Folks now trend to the news that fits their views, from Fox to CNN.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way of hearing what they \u201cwant\u201d to hear.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that\u2019s not what the small group meeting in our family room in Dayton Ohio in 1967 wanted.\u00a0 At the time it was a different kind of show (still would be) and they were breaking ground.\u00a0 While Phil was more liberal, one of the group ended up working for Rush Limbaugh, and my father was what was called a \u201cRockefeller Republican,\u201d more liberal on social issues but conservative on fiscal concerns.<\/p>\n They were excited about a new format, and a new way to get folks involved.\u00a0 And so was the eleven year old serving the drinks!<\/p>\n