NEWS

On this date in 1963, the CBS Evening News (Walter Cronkite anchor) was lengthened from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. All national network news broadcasts until that time were only 15 minutes long. The total of evening news in most markets was 15 minutes national and 15 minutes local. How in the world did we get from that amount of news to todays supersaturation?

15 minutes of local news? Today, we have longer weather reports than that. We have one local station with 2-1/2 hours of evening local news.

15 minutes of national news? Did we change our definition of news? Today, we have entire networks dedicated to nothing but "news". We even have specialized news channels; one for weather, several for finance, many for sports and an untold amount specializing in celebrity news.

Do we know so much more about what is going on today than people did in 1963? And just what are we doing with all this knowledge? In 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson became President of the United States. In 2009, Barack Hussein Obama became President of the United States. Knowledge is only valuable if it is used wisely.
:D