#139 They’ve Got You Covered

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The twentieth century had more than it’s share of dubious “innovations”; atomic weapons, the wonder bra and (of course) new Coke. The worst of the bunch, though, has to be twenty-four-seven wall-to-wall news coverage.

In the early days of television — when most of the sets were still pedal-powered — there were only three networks and respectable men like Walter Cronkite stared into the camera with sincere expressions and read the day’s news to us like a patient teacher reading to a class of dim-witted students. Walt stuck to the facts and gave us the stories in one quick dose; sort of the way you give nasty-tasting cough syrup to a child.

Somewhere along the line the TV networks decided that we were too dense or busy or distractable to absorb … um … what was I talking about?

Oh. Right. As a result of years of exposure to fast-paced TV shows, we no longer had the attention span necessary to … hey, is that a butterfly?

Sorry. I meant to say that we could no longer focus on the news the way Walt delivered it. We still needed quick doses, but we needed them over and over and over. The motto of the modern television news industry is “It’s not done until it’s overdone!”…….

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NOTES:

• I mentioned a lot of great podcasts and websites in the show today. You can find them at the following addresses:
• James B:
  http://www.jamesb.com
• The Eclectic Review:
  http://eclectic.libysn.com
• You Are The Guest:
  http://www.youaretheguest.com
• My Fort Dodge:
  http://www.myfortdodge.com
• Grammar Girl:
  http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com
• Buffy Between the Lines:
  http://betweenthelinesstudios.com
  
• I Should Be Writing
  http://www.ishouldbewriting.com
  
• Farpoint Media (My new on-line home!):
  http://www.farpointmedia.net