Vast Wasteland Redux

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Insulation

“Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. . . . [D]uring the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live.”

—Edward R. Murrow (1900-1965), broadcaster, 1958

News About TV News: Diane Sawyer replaces Charlie Gibson as ABC World News anchor. NBC’s Brian Williams offers community service.

Diane Sawyer wins 1963 Junior Miss America. (AP Photo)

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