Here is a nice piece on Walter Cronkite, the “Google” of our middle-aged generation.
Today, if something big happened in the world, most people would jump online and go to Google to find out what was up. Back in the day, it wasn’t Google – it was Walter Cronkite on CBS. That is where everyone turned to get must have info. Walter Cronkite was the man and the most trusted person in America.
He also made lots of documentary films. See this article and click the widget within to watch one of his films on SnagFilms.com.
The news media is now all about infotainment and achieving ratings, which means that like everyone else I have to be subjected to the “news” that appeals to the lowest common denominator instead of what’s really important.
That explains why most people are completely ignorant on the important issues, yet know every stupid detail about things that aren’t important at all. It takes a lot of effort these days to stay informed on the important stuff because less and less of it is being reported by mainstream media in favor of idiotic fluff.
This will only continue to get worse because for the new generations fluff has become the important news and this is the generation that is feeding the journalism profession itself. It’s a self perpetuating cycle of dumbing down.
All of this kind of reminds me of Mike Judge’s comedy Idiocracy which I accidentally caught one day and which was quickly shooshed out of the theaters for it touched on the unpopular subject of the society as a whole become dumber and more ignorant, not the other way around.