NewsReal

In today’s thousand channel news environment, it’s tough to envision a time when everyone was, more or less, on the same page; to recall a less contentious and fractured framework for disseminating information.

Such a time did truly exist. Sometime between Marconi and Musk, viewers enjoyed a reliable and secure sense that their news was true. It was the heyday of global network news coverage. Like today, viewers opinions differed wildly and like today, the narratives told often featured protagonists and antagonists. It was the delivery mechanism then that so contrasts the way we get our news today.

This was a time when the news landscape was owned by the “Big 3” networks. Yet, it was far from a monopoly. Each “Net” fervently represented their own historic brand and whose founders and stewards viewed news gathering and reporting as a sort of civic responsibility bestowed upon them by the FCC. The news divisions, with their vast assemblage of domestic and international bureaus, were everywhere and anywhere news happened. Their fact-based reporting and broadcasting were void of the talk show opinions and interpretations so omnipresent today. Budgets were enormous because viewership was enormous. Everyone’s ‘set’ was ‘tuned-in’ to the national news to get the straight scoop on what was happening in the world. Anchormen were more trusted than Presidents. The reporting was riveting, the stories were real. There was nothing ‘Fake’ about it…just like today.