Mr. Ginley was scrolling through YouTube the other night when he came across an old TV news broadcast from 1970.
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| not the actual newscaster. photo attribution below. |
What struck us immediately was the no-nonsense approach the newscasters had. There was no happy talk about how Bob's weekend went or what Carolyn's kids were up to or what Jack thought about last night's Dean Martin Variety Show. It was all news and only news.
"Hey, check this out," Mr. Ginley said, pointing to the screen. The sports reporter was holding up a handwritten sign showing his predictions of the next day's football game scores. Later on, the weatherman proudly displayed a primitive weather map and a Doppler-esque "Radar Weather Watch." Pretty groovy.
The newscast ran for an hour, but there were considerably fewer commercials, which we enjoyed watching. Included were ads for VO5 Hairspray, Dristan and Kate Smith shilling for Chase & Sanborn coffee.
As to the similarities between the news content of yesteryear vs. present day, Mr. and I both took note of how people are asshats and nothing really changes. The news topics included the usual mayhem surrounding drug use, disappointing diplomatic relations with Russia, civil protests, gun violence and infighting among politicians. Swap out the names, and the stories were pretty much the same as they are today.
I imagine my Dad disseminating the news, grumbling about the world going to hell in a handbasket and wondering how his kids would fare in the years to come.
Some things never change.
P.S. Max Robinson, who was one of the reporters in this broadcast, became the first African-American broadcast network news anchor in the U.S.
Photo attribution: Scott Vincent (copyright holder), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
See the full newscast on YouTube.
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