I miss the old days, the days of thoughtful discussions, when each was allowed to speak in peace

[peacebird]

instead of the other person screaming over them to try to drown them out. I miss the days when people could agree to disagree, but still respected the other persons right to their views. Back when we strove to find common ground instead of demonizing the other side....

I bet that we have more in common, more that unites us, than we have that separates us. If only people could tone down the rhetoric and stop the hate.

But I guess hate sells.

[Joe the Revelator]

1. When was that?

Things have gotten bad, but they were never that good.

[peacebird]

6. as I recall back in the 70's there was civil discussion, I do not recall any screamfests

on the talk shows. I know the evening news was much less shrill than cable news now. Talk shows? They were not anything like limpballs or beck. We had Phil Donahue for crying out loud.

[kentauros]

10. Donahue was daytime, right?

The only ones that come to mind for real discourse like that were Tom Snyder, Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers. So, two from PBS, and one broadcast, all at a time when most people were in bed. I don't recall now if NBC Overnight did interviews...

on edit: well, Moyers was on Friday evenings, when most people were/are out on the town ;)

[peacebird]

12. yes, and none of them were as uncivil as Rush or Beck

[kentauros]

13. I will say that I was downright shocked by Charlie Rose recently

and even shut the interview off because he started acting just like the shouting-heads. I don't remember the name of his guest now, but he was some high-ranking Iranian government person, and Charlie simply would not let him finish his replies. I'd never seen him like that and had to wonder who got to him to make him react that way...

Tom Snyder, though, was a hoot! I miss him on the airwaves...

[panader0]

2. Wait 'til the primaries!!

[WinkyDink]

3. And then Eve ate that apple.

[peacebird]

11. cute, franky i think if we really had separation of church and state it would help

[LostInAnomie]

4. That mythical time never existed.

[Kaleva]

5. I have no idea what time period you are refering to or which country for that matter.

[peacebird]

7. Walter Cronkite for news, back before newscasters thought they had to interpret the news for you.

Back when they just presented it.

I assure you that I never heard rants like Rush L, or Beck on the radio in the 70's or 80's. Stern maybe, but he was a shockjock for amusement.

The Sunday morning talk always allowed people to finish their thoughts before the other spoke up, now they scream over each other.

[Kaleva]

14. I don't recall the race and anti-war riots as being examples of peaceful discussions

You may be arguing, without thinking about it, that regardless of how the news is presented, we are still going to have riots, lynchings, beatings, political assassinations and so on.

[emilyg]

23. I miss those days.

[sofa king]

8. I guess the election of 1828 really took it out of you, eh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1828

[peacebird]

9. there are always anomalies, I was referring to times I have lived through, but thanks for caring.

[sofa king]

19. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, peacebird.

I doubt I'm very far behind you in the times you've seen, but I saw something very different. Sure, there was fairly civil discourse in the 1 hour of solid national and world news programming that ran across only three networks--at the same time--on a given day.

But all that news was, according to President Ford, controlled. All that civility was directed toward keeping all of us docile, to limiting our possible choices to the conservative choice, and the far right-wing conservative choice. Notice also that all that civility disappeared the day that Jimmy Carter took office, and within months the civil press was running character assassinations and Republican-backed hit-jobs on the President and his agenda.

And think about what we paid for that civility. In 1976, we didn't know that the Iranians hated us because we overthrew Iran's democratically elected government to protect the profits of BP; we didn't know that we'd overthrown a dozen other governments around the globe; we didn't know that the father of the head of the CIA had once plotted to overthrow the U.S. government; we didn't know that someone called the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, impersonating Lee Harvey Oswald and asking to be put in touch with an assassin, six weeks before the murder of President Kennedy. And so on. Americans were the proverbial mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap.

What gave us a fighting chance at all was the fact that in the Information Age, its' simply impossible to completely control the flow of news. But you can shout over the news you don't want the peons to hear.

[rug]

15. Is this another thread about the rec/unrec button?

[kentauros]

16. No, it's about the reck/reckless button.

:P

[madinmaryland]

18. Where the hell is that? Skinner never posted about that.

:grr:

[kentauros]

21. I reckon it was hidden.

We'll have to take it to ATA for more info

[madinmaryland]

24. How do i reply to a post??

:P

[kentauros]

26. Find a talkative wooden fence?

:P

[WillyT]

17. You Mean Like This ???

I loved these things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQXAOaKOFUI&playnext=1&list=PLE016BD3CC56420E2&index=17

:hi:

[ClassWarrior]

20. Those were great!

NGU.

[kentauros]

22. It looks vaguely familiar

but I don't think I'd seen that!

Thanks for posting! :hi:

[TheKentuckian]

25. Whenever you are fondly looking back on was an anomaly

Or passed for such but really wasn't because of limited media and/or your perspective and focus.

FDR had to deal with fierce hate talk radio. Some of the old school campaign posters would make a TeaPubliKlan blush (or at least make them wonder why they didn't think of going there like that), the 60's were nuts, the 70's were rough, the 80's had Klan outbreaks and crazy criminality from the administration but I guess the rolling over started in earnest then too so things may have seemed muted, the 90's were a fiasco that essentially continues to today.

I honestly believe you're having a bout of nostalgia through rose colored glasses.