NP - The Voice of Experience

[David Morris]

It used to be that, when there were no further developments, news
operations waited until there were. That was when the country looked to the
three major networks, and their anchors, for the news, and these were
anchors who were trained as reporters, not as television stars. But then
there was cable, and CNN, and then the flood of cable news outlets, and
news became entertainment, and a big story became an instant miniseries,
with special-effects and theme music, and the point became keeping the
story on the air, somehow, even if it meant speculating about
airliner-gulping black holes, or Ted Cruz's yammering about epidemiology.
And, of course, there is another great difference.

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 9:25 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Voice_Of_Experience
>
>
> *A lot has been made* of the contrast between how the Canadian
> Broadcasting Corporation handled the events yesterday in Ottawa, and how
> our own cable news networks handle practically everything. In brief, the
> difference was roughly the difference between the morning edition of *The
> Times Of London *and a tornado siren. However, one of the more startling
> things about CBC's coverage has gone largely unnoticed.
>
> When there stopped being news, the CBC News stopped covering the story and
> cut away to its regular daily programming. It happened so quickly that it
> caught me by surprise. One minute, there was anchordude Peter Mansbridge, who's
> now the guy
> <http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/about/correspondents/petermansbridge/>I
> want at the desk when the Last Trumpet blows, telling us what we knew and
> (most important) what we didn't know. And the next, we were back to its
> being a Wednesday afternoon and "Today, in Alberta..."
>
> Imagine that. There was no Political Powerhouse panel to explain how this
> might have an impact on the Harper government. There was no aging M.P.
> representing Yellowknife hollering that this never would have happened if
> they'd only have built the dang pipeline, and no young opposition M.P.
> speculating about how this never would have happened if they'd secured the
> border with Quebec the way he and his ghostwriter had suggested in his
> recent book. There were no former generals on the dodge, speculating sadly
> that the shootings may indicate "a new stage" in the war on terror. There
> was a deplorable lack of political opportunism, and a dreadful dearth of
> doomsaying. There was no fancy logo. No heroic music adapted from a movie
> trailer especially for the occasion.
>
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