Interesting CNN story from 1991:

[PCIntern]

Being a parent at home alone with my newborn in that year, I took some time to videotape her with my Handicam while (whilst?!)she was in her little swing and on the sofa playing with whatever. It was time the other day to digitize some of these analog videotapes and lo and behold! I had CNN on in the background which was picked up by the mic on the camera.

What a different network it was! All germane news reported, not purely 'objectively' - CNN has never been objective, always at least a little RW, sometimes more than others - but cogently and with a real vocabulary and flair and dignity. In the 2 hours of news I was listening to while this was being dubbed, there was no ridiculousness of the type we hear now on a continuous basis. There was Bernard Shaw, Mary Tillotson, and a host of others doing a job, not pandering to the lowest of the low. It was not a particularly exciting news day but people were competent, literate, and not breathless in their deliveries. Rmember, Bush I was still President so this was a long time ago 'jounalistically' - now we have all assholes all the time.

Particularly on weekends...

Just a retrospective thought or two.

[Hugin]

1. They probably also had a professional reporting staff then, too.

Didn't have the feed from Rove to rely on... Had to go out and find news and report on it.

I heard this was a real problem during the Tsunami for instance.

[NNN0LHI]

2. I bet no talk of game show winners, sharks, or big blond dead drug addicts

You actually had to go to Court TV to see the OJ trial. Now when there is some court date even for big blond dead womans dead son it gets wall to wall coverage.

Don

[PCIntern]

3. Correction to your post:

Dead big blond womanwithhugebreasts' dead son