TheWiseOldFart

Ted Turner is a billionaire. He cares about making money; period. In the late 1970’s he had an idea. Television News had become profitable. In the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, the half-hour evening news was costly for the networks. Their on-air journalists were paid about as much as a man who worked in middle management in a factory. However, in the 1970s, s news became far more interesting and advertisers began to buy space on the then one-hour nightly broadcasts. In the 21 st century, what is called “news” is the most profitable segment on television. The war in South Vietnam continued to rage, and with it social and economic changes began across America. [The 1970s witnessed significant changes in America, marked by economic shifts, social movements, and political scandals. Key changes included a shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based one, the rise of feminism and gay rights movements, and a growing awareness of environmental issues. Additionally, the Watergate scan...

In the 1950’s and 60’s my family watched the evening news. It was only a one-half hour broadcast, but men like Walter Cronkite managed to offer viewers nearly everything which happened during the day without offering personal opinions with words, facial expressions, or body language. When billionaire Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980, some people were excited. I was not. I was 34 years old and had no idea how the news could be offered over a 24-hour period which would be of interest to those of us who looked forward to the daily report from our local station. After the first week, it was clear that I was right. Real news took an hour or less. This was repeated about a dozen times over the 24-hour period. The rest of the time was devoted to “entertainment,” which was anything but entertaining. Today’s “news” is even worse. The network personalities either repeat the same stories over and over, and in between allow “experts” to offer their opinions, or they offer nothing but “entertainment...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart For 78 years Trump has demonstrated to the American people what he is and is not. Although President Biden has been heavily criticized for his less than sparkling performance Thursday evening, he was not protected by the rules of a debate. The role of the moderators is to present the candidates with questions that are important to American voters and to facilitate a debate, ensuring that both candidates respond within the framework of the rules agreed to by both contestants. CNN moderators should receive much of the criticism for their lack of preparation and failure to adhere to the agreed upon rules and spirit of a debate. CNN executives defended the failure of their team. "CNN offered robust fact-checking coverage in post-debate analysis on TV and across our digital platforms during and following the debate's conclusion." Too little, too late. I turned the debate off after 40 minutes. I will not deny that the President was not the le...