I absolutely agree with that. It takes real time to dig for information, and the constant cycle killed the profession because there was too much time to fill – and then opinion got confused with fact, making more than just a mess of what we consider fact, reality, and truth – but it began to divide people, even when they were agreeing with each other. You can’t even remember what you hear, and then blur it with other things, forgetting details…and it is too easy to exploit the visuals of a newscast.
I remember one anecdote from the 1980s where Lesley Stahl did a story about who Ronald Reagan’s campaign were manipulating people with patriotic visuals, and they called her after the story aired, thanking her for giving them free press because people saw the visuals as they tuned her out, and she realized her error. That was before the 24-hour news cycle. There are consequences to presentation, and when you are just throwing things out there, your message gets distorted and destroyed.
