What you say is true about newspapers not being factual has been true for a long time. One of the things that changed newspapers was radio. Until World War II, most news could wait. Edward R. Murrow was probably the first correspondent who went overseas to tell Americans what was happening in the comfort of their living rooms. He told about life in London right after the U.K. declared war on Germany, from the streets of London. Often airraid sirens could be heard. It made news become real.
With what CBS, NBC, and Mutual (ABC wouldn't be around until 1942, then it wouldn't be called that until 1945) were doing with the news completely changed what newspapers were to do. They were to provide a written record of things that happened. They were also to provide reminders for events that would be happening. Unfortunately, since the end of World War II newspapers have been too busy making news to report it.
Even the electronic media has become sensational. Maybe even that goes back to its roots, at least here in California. In 1947, Paramount Pictures in Hollywood was given a provisional license to operate a commercial TV station. It had been running W6XYZ, channel 4, which became KTLA, channel 5, in January of that year. Two years after they went on the air, there came word that a little girl, named Kathy Fiscus, fell down a well in San Marino, about 10 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The station stopped everything it was doing to show the rescue of the little girl. The rescue never happened. Little Kathy died.
Here is a story written six years ago by the San Marino Rotary Club:
San Marino is one of California’s prettier residential towns, noted for its stately homes, shady yards, the magnificent Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanic Gardens – and of course home to an active group of Rotarians. In April 1949, San Marino was the center of an intense effort to rescue a sweet little three year old girl who had fallen down a forgotten well. Two young reporters from Los Angeles’ new and enterprising ‘television Los Angeles,’ KTLA, brought experimental mobile equipment to San Marino and covered the breaking story. This was the first live telecast of a news event outside a studio.
All that weekend, Southern California watched something ‘live’ – and the nation came together through primitive relays. Clustered around the scant television sets, a growing community of viewers watched on-the-scene reporting. A united people heard from reporters Stan Chambers and Bill Welsh, prayed with the rescue workers, and grieved with San Marino and the Fiscus family when the rescue failed and Kathy’s body was brought from the well about six p.m. on Sunday, April 11, 1949.
Decades later, mention of ‘San Marino’ to strangers in other states and nations still brings occasional recall of the rescue attempts from memories of those astounded viewers. The ‘global village’ concept of today’s instant news began with KTLA’s home-built remote broadcast unit set up that weekend in San Marino.
The well’s location is now the upper sports field of San Marino High School, entered from Robles Avenue 1½ blocks east of Sierra Madre Blvd., north of Huntington Drive and two miles south of the 210 Freeway.
Maybe we, as human beings, have never changed. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and the enemy is us!"
Incidentally, Stan Chambers, mentioned in the above story, is still an employee of KTLA. He has been with the station for 58 years now!
http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/newsstaf ... ewsstaff-1
Bill Welsh would change stations in 1951 and he died in 2000.
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