Condensed network news: a trend?

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Lehrer Newshout"?  Clever slip of the keys (I assume), but wrong--it's the
only sanely quiet news show going!  And I like the roundtables.

At 03:18 PM 6/26/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Tell the Lehrer Newshout people to interview George Stephanopoulos.  In his
>book _All Too Human: A Political Education_ he gives a candid description of
>the mechanics of White House press conferences and how they have become
>sound-byte generators.
>
>For a comparison with modern practice, read _Thank You Mr. President_ by
>Merriman Smith, published in 1946, which contains descriptions of press
>conferences in the period 1941-45.  Smith, incidentally, had a horrid fate
>for a journalist---he committed suicide, and all the news reports claimed it
>was an accident.
>
>Howard Kurtz wrote "Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine" in
>1998.  It's been a while since I read it, but it may have something to say on
>this topic.
>
>I don't know if the magazine _Brill's Content" ever had anything worthwhile
>to say, but they might check it.
>
>An odd source on this topics is news reports and books that mention General
>Schwartzkopf's press conferences during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  A
>lot of journalists got all bent out of shape when they discovered that
>Schwartzkopf was a master at running press conferences.  US military
>officers, of course, are required to say all sorts of dumb things in press
>briefings so that journalists can commentate all over them with hob-nailed
>boots.
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>For precise information on how long news reports are and were, the Lehrer
>people should get transcripts of current news shows and ones 5, 10, 20 etc.
>years ago.  If the networks won't supply transcripts, then tapes of actual
>news shows, perhaps back to the 1950's, can be found at the Museum of
>Television and Radio, 25 West 52nd Street, New York squared 10019.,
>
>          - Jim Landau


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm