Old-timey newscasts vs. modern news

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Do you think that it's weird that I am more into the old-timey newscasts from many stations that actually had a good bit of in-depth reporting and longer stories (in essence, the 5 Ws and 1 H), compared to today's so-called "news" that is more political judgmentalism and argument (i.e. talk radio-like) than actual reporting? The reason I ask is because I came up in a time when there was actual news on local stations, and on the national newscasts of the networks that those stations were affiliated with; personally, quite a few who are more used to how it is now seem to look with disdain on those actual newscasts, preferring the opinion-style as it is now.

Here's a good example, IMO, of the former style (this late edition from July '84 from WNBC News 4 New York).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWy6-im4BF4

Not at all! Old newscasts are neat and newscasts were much more objective years ago than now in my opinion. The current media landscape has played a big part of divisiveness and political divide I personally feel. A song by Don Henley called "Dirty Laundry" I think fits best when it comes to the current media landscape. That song was ahead of it's time. News media was definitely more objective long ago. I'd love to take this song and make a video out of it using current media segments. I used to like listening to Paul Harvey broadcasts when I was younger.

Last edited by Brian0787 on 07 Sep 2024, 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Old timey newscasts weren't subject to the level of scrutiny modern news is subject to in terms of ethical and moral frameworks. there was a few weird quirks that aren't present. For example the Australian broadcasting commission (ABC) required news readers to have an educated British accent right up to the early 1970s. they were much more formal and followed older traditional etiquette.

And another reason why I like/favor how it was then is because of the commercials-- it wasn't all the same commercials all the time (that WNBC 1984 one that I posted to start has a commercial w/the late, great Tom Bosley showing how d-CON fogger worked to kill bugs in the walls; that's the kind of commercial that actually showed how a product worked, instead of today's breed that just has annoying jingles, and nothing about what their products would do for the consumer who bought them).

Commercials in the 1970s were rather fun, even cigarette commercials. I still remember all the jingles.

Back then American news media covered foreign affairs to a much greater degree. The American public was less myopic.

Then the newscasts were an hour or so for local news and 1/2 hour for national and international news. Now they have to fill 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and there is much more competition. The time gets filled with attention grabbers.

I haven't watched news since 9/11, when CNN got big.

I'm an old-timey fan.
I prefer hearing impartial facts and thinking for myself.

That depends on what time and where we're talking about. There was a golden age of sorts in the mid-century where there was some degree of integrity, but those days are well behind us now here in the US and there's been little to no effort to properly cover topics that are inconvenient to the owners.

Two other things that have me favoring the way it was are the better quality of graphics (some of the best graphics, IMO, being the Serif Gothic font variations that were on WNBC in the Big Apple starting in 1980 w/the debut of News 4 New York [derived from the NBC Serif Gothic font usage then] up to around 1987), and the equally as good news music (WNBC again shines in that, with the 80s techno from Scott Schreer on News 4 New York).

I kind of agree with AS, the news cycle no longer exists, it's 24-7. whether digital, cable or network. It's just like watching hand puppets on repeat with fillers.

There are still news broadcasts that are in the same style of older ones. They are not on CNN or MSNBC or Fox News. There's the BBC World News, which is broadcast on PBS stations in the US, which is a half hour news broadcast that for the most part actually sticks to the news. There's also the PBS Newshour, though a lot of that is opinion discussions. Then there's also France 24 and DW (German news) which are broadcast in English. You have to find them on whatever channel they might be, but I think they are also on YouTube. None of these are perfect, but they are straightforward news.

the only one that still operates like old timey newscasts are PBS newshour

The 24/7ness of cable news is a large part of the problem. There just isn't that much news that's relevant to the average viewer so they fill in the gaps with utter nonsense. It's gotten very hard to get good coverage of local news because most of the stations have been bought up by major corporations that don't want to pay for local coverage.

That leads to a legitimate question as to whether things that aren't being covered aren't covered because they're not particularly relevant. Years ago I saw police with a serious raid on a house and I have no idea what was going on there as it didn't make the news. I don't know if that's because there wasn't anything particularly newsworthy or if it was because we are down to one paper and only a few stations that get like a couple hours a day for all the stories they want to do and they cover all their areas in each broadcast.

And it took an ungodly amount of time for people to decide to cover Biden's obvious cognitive decline. There's only really a couple excuses for that when even when he was running the previous time, it was already obvious that he wasn't in mint condition with the dog-faced-pony boy and cornpop instances as cogent examples.

I thought I might say also that I've been listening to old-time radio newscasts as well, mainly from the former WCBS 880 of NYC (now WHSQ ESPN radio), and 1010 WINS ("You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world); also, national newscasts from all three networks, and Mutual as well.

Here's a great example, from 1988 from WCBS NYC, which was the final broadcast of the late, great Douglas Edwards on The World Tonight (has one minute of WCBS headlines at the top)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJalZPOsj8

Has there ever been national or international news that impacts the viewer? I noticed uncommondemominator bought this up about my raygun post. But the truth is, unless it's local news (like local council) things aren't really relevant. Sure there are government news releases about budgets, taxes, duties, the price of oil, gold, stockmarket etc.

For example, the 24-7 news cycle in Australia has been dominated last two days by pro-Palestinian anti-war protests in Melbourne. these are costing the taxpayer millions of dollars and pulling police from fighting crime. As taxpayers we naturally want to know the damage. But for most of us living in other states the protests don't impact them but they watch. Other examples are like natural disasters or civil wars or big events. People are also nosy, they want to know what's going on.

There usually is something that impacts the audience, just not enough to fill whatever hours aren't dedicated to ads. Even if the service uses some of the time for local, that's likely still the case, that's part of why NPR has blocks of programming for education or entertainment as the alternative would be more commentary on the same stories.