20. Television news continued to evolve
By the early twenty-first century nearly all television news organizations maintained web sites and presence on social media, both to tout their news coverage and to enhance it, along with interacting with their audience. Many reporters and news anchors maintained separate online sites of their own. Television news, which was once limited to just a few minutes a day, came to dominate the coverage, with even traditional network broadcasts receiving brief news updates on the hour several times a day. News magazine programs maintained sites of their own, providing viewers with expanded coverage of aired stories, along with updates when warranted.
Television newscasts, including sports and weather, came to be streamed on devices of all sorts, and the availability of access to news became instant at all times, day or night. At the same time the differing viewpoints of news organizations, and more importantly their owners, brought an air of suspicion which wasn’t present in the early days of television, when Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Howard K. Smith, Eric Sevareid, and the other pioneers of the industry were all ranked highly in the public trust. It became difficult to separate facts from opinions, unbiased reporting from politically driven viewpoints. Even those networks dedicated to sports reporting became subject to suspicion of political bias by viewers, and the messenger frequently surpassed the message.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“So Long Until Tomorrow”. Lowell Thomas. 1977
“Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism”. Edward Bliss. 1991
“The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s”. Mike Conway. 2009
“The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor”. Barbara Matusow. 1983
“The World On His Back”. Charles Wertenbaker, The New Yorker. December 26, 1953
“David Brinkley: A Memoir”. David Brinkley. 1996
“Celebrating Douglas Edwards, a CBS Legend”. CBS News. July 13, 2017. Online
“The Legend of Walter Cronkite”. Louis Menand, The New Yorker. July 9, 2012
“The Four Days That Made TV News”. Steven D. Stark, American Heritage Magazine. May/June 1997
“The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam”. Daniel C. Hallin. 1989.
“A New Dawn for Today”. Glen Dickson, Broadcasting & Cable Magazine. August 21, 2006
“PBS News Hour History”. Public Broadcasting System. Online
“The Lost Tycoon”. Ken Auletta, The New Yorker. April 23, 2001
“Ted Turner: It Ain’t as Easy as it Looks: The Amazing Story of CNN”. Porter Bibb. 1996
“How CNN Won A Battle For A Phone Line”. Dennis McDougal, The Los Angeles Times. January 25, 1991
“Power Producing: A Practical Guide to TV News Producing”. Dow Smith. 2002
“Eyewitness News”. Micheal D. Murray, entry in the Encyclopedia of Television News. 1999
“60 Minutes: The Power and the Politics of America’s Most Popular TV News Show”. Axel Madsen. 1984
“Why Do Americans Distrust the Media?” Derek Thompson, The Atlantic. September 16, 2016