09 Jun The (Good?) Old Days – Part IV – Cable News

While not as dramatic a change as the PDA, the Internet and computer technology, the advent of 24-hour cable TV news stations ushered in significant changes in so much in our society.

CNN launched in 1980 and was only available on cable. Why does that matter? Because in 1980 many people did not have cable TV, which developed initially as a way for rural areas to receive TV when they were out of the coverage areas of the stations’ broadcast signals. Later of course cable-only networks began. I was amazed by the 30 channels on my first cable box in 1982.

But back to the point. When CNN had round-the-clock on the ground coverage of the start of the Gulf War in 1991, it planted its flag and that for the cable news cycle. Fox News launched in 1996, in addition to MSNBC and CNBC. Before all this, you pretty much waited for the morning paper or the evening TV news to know what was going on unless they broke in with a “special report.” There was radio news, but most people didn’t tune in.

This means: much like expectations with emails, we now demand instantaneous coverage of everything. If the President takes a breath, we hear about it and then it is analyzed by pundits left and right. It also means in the desire for ratings sometimes things are rushed to the air that shouldn’t be. And if something becomes “big,” there is no holding it back. And all is then amplified by Twitter and other social media outlets where things go viral.

It is good and exciting to know things as they are happening. It is not good when, at times, they get it wrong or get duped (read: the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing and days of covering an innocent suspect essentially tried in the media before being exonerated, and who can forget balloon boy?). For a news junkie like me, though, it’s great. To a point.