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...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Groucho Marx: “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” This was an observation from the early days of television. It was accurate. Over the next 70-80 years of television broadcasts, there have been a combination of great, good, interesting, bad, and recently with the obsession of “reality TV” an embarrassment to anyone who possesses average intelligence. I was raised on television. By that I mean that my mother was a single parent, my brother and I were latching key kids, and our only source of entertainment was initially a nine-inch television. This was the early 1950’s and there wasn’t much to see. However, as time passed and our nation became obsessed with the “boob tube,” the early age of television began and I was very happy. I remain obsessed today, but also extremely disappointed. As television expanded into numerous areas of entertainment, including sports, politics, cookin...