Read All About It !

    People seem to think the proliferation of voices via the internet is a kind of , Extra, Extra! Something new.  Nah, it's not.  I'm always reminded of Truman's warning that the only thing new under the sun was the history you hadn't read yet.  There is an interesting aside about Harry Truman. He is the last man to be President who didn't graduate from some institution of higher learning. I digress.
    In the year 1900, Pittsburgh, one of the 10 largest cities in the country, at that time, had 7 daily newspapers and a myriad of various weeklies. That was true across the country. These dailies non-local content was provided by telegraph services that gathered and quoted major stories from other sources. Some of it independently some of it from major dailies. They, in turn, contributed to these telegraph services.  Aside from that many of these dailies published pretty much whatever came into their heads for whatever reason; politics, morality, plain sensationalism.  Sound familiar?
    My point is; we had all these voices and it was up to the individual what should be believed and what should be ignored.  There was an obvious need to inspect the veracity of just about any statement found in print.
    What changed?  The advent of radio and the formation of broadcast networks tended to concentrate, if not the voices, the audience.  the audience turned from the chorus of voices to just a few on the radio dial. The advent of television and television networks further consolidated the concentration of the audience in a few voices.  Oddly enough, the sinking of the Andria Doria hastened the growth of television network news.  It occurred close enough to New York City that film of the incident could be quickly made available for broadcast.  It was not a tragedy on a scale with the Titanic but the manufactured immediacy made it seem that way.  Evening, network news went from 15 minutes to a half hour. That concentration of just a few voices continued with the 1960 Presidential campaigns and then the space program.  It was somewhat abated by the advent of cable but it's the internet that has really changed things back to pretty much the way they were so long ago.
    The truth is: Unless it's currently on fire (or sinking) or being shot into space television news is totally worthless as a source of detailed information.  I think it's actually a pox on our body politic.
    We live in an age where Johnny can read.  You have to be able to read to follow nonsense on social media.  It's a good thing.  Now, if we can just teach Johnny to read in a systematic fashion we should move away from a time when we have a reality TV host as president.  This proliferation of voices should be a good thing.  It will be interesting to see how it develops.
    This cigar is finished and this glass is half-full.