Those were the good old days. ABC, NBC and CBS only reported facts. No one dared step out of line for fear of appearing biased. Journalists took great pride in being unbiased. Any whiff of opinion on the nightly news was a career ender.
Hell, a major broadcast metric back then was, “Which news anchor do you trust the most?” And that’s with all of them basically saying the same thing.
The networks were powerful, as journalism is meant to be. Now our “facts” are splattered across hundreds of platforms and none give a shit about being seen as biased. Today it’s pick your own truth.
They were definitely still biased. The difference is that the opinion was built into what they covered vs what they didn’t cover. ABC has always been a left-leaning network, CBS a right-leaning network, and NBC somewhere between. So while they might cover most big things very much the same, sometimes what they chose to cover or how much to cover it would reveal their leanings.
That being said, they were much more in-step than our news networks are now.
Those were the good old days. ABC, NBC and CBS only reported facts. No one dared step out of line for fear of appearing biased. Journalists took great pride in being unbiased. Any whiff of opinion on the nightly news was a career ender.
Hell, a major broadcast metric back then was, “Which news anchor do you trust the most?” And that’s with all of them basically saying the same thing.
The networks were powerful, as journalism is meant to be. Now our “facts” are splattered across hundreds of platforms and none give a shit about being seen as biased. Today it’s pick your own truth.
They were definitely still biased. The difference is that the opinion was built into what they covered vs what they didn’t cover. ABC has always been a left-leaning network, CBS a right-leaning network, and NBC somewhere between. So while they might cover most big things very much the same, sometimes what they chose to cover or how much to cover it would reveal their leanings.
That being said, they were much more in-step than our news networks are now.
I suspect it made the manufacture of consent rather more easy.