R wrote:
>how far back does your memory go? if you're old enough, haven't you
noticed
>some change from the days of edward r morrow to today, nationally?
I'm 50, so my memory of Murrow is very dim. These media histories are always very selective. Murrow had many virtues but he still was years too late in going after McCarthy. CBS kept blacklisting Commies even after McC's censure by the Senate. Going way back, when Alexander Woollcott delivered an anti-Nazi commentary on CBS radio in 1935, Paley freaked out, imposing a new "fairness policy": "broadcasting must forever be militantly nonpartisan." Paley consciously picked the narcotic Cronkite as Murrow's successor - someone safe and unthreatening.
Oh there was the Woodward & Bernstein moment but the establishment had already turned on Nixon, and after it was over, Katharine Graham said "never again."
So I'm still not clear on what the good is that's set against the concentrated bad.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk