WFAA Ch 8 Dallas does the Brady Campaign's bidding

[jimlongley]

An excellent letter, Jim. . . .particularly the part about threatening to use their own "fairness doctrine" against them.

Sorry, but as a former (with almost 30 years in the biz, both radio and TV) broadcaster, and someone who entered the biz during the fairness doctrine days, WFAA would be exempt from the fairness doctrine, which pretty much gave "bona fide news stories" free reign. Which is why the networks would love to see it come back, they can slant their news any way they want, while opinion and commentary would require the station owner to offer equal time to opposing opinions. Owners would find it not worth the hassel and expense, and we would go back to gardening, home improvment and auto repair shows as the staple of AM radio. Snooze city, and a big money loser for station owners.

And as a former employee of another station in the Belo family, I'm not surprised.

Maybe they don't know that?

Actually I remember those days quite well, and I also recall that the media was more responsible and responsive back then.

More responsible and responsive?, Maybe, but those also were the days of Walter Cronkite declaring on national TV the Vietnam War was lost after Tet (a total military defeat for for VietCong and the North Vietnamese Army), and NBC News "helping" Chevy trucks explode with a little assistance from a few strategically drilled holes and model rocket engines.

I guess I'm older than you think, I count Kronkite and his cronies as prime movers in the change.

[phoneguy]

An excellent letter, Jim. . . .particularly the part about threatening to use their own "fairness doctrine" against them.

Sorry, but as a former (with almost 30 years in the biz, both radio and TV) broadcaster, and someone who entered the biz during the fairness doctrine days, WFAA would be exempt from the fairness doctrine, which pretty much gave "bona fide news stories" free reign. Which is why the networks would love to see it come back, they can slant their news any way they want, while opinion and commentary would require the station owner to offer equal time to opposing opinions. Owners would find it not worth the hassel and expense, and we would go back to gardening, home improvment and auto repair shows as the staple of AM radio. Snooze city, and a big money loser for station owners.

And as a former employee of another station in the Belo family, I'm not surprised.

Maybe they don't know that?

Actually I remember those days quite well, and I also recall that the media was more responsible and responsive back then.

More responsible and responsive?, Maybe, but those also were the days of Walter Cronkite declaring on national TV the Vietnam War was lost after Tet (a total military defeat for for VietCong and the North Vietnamese Army), and NBC News "helping" Chevy trucks explode with a little assistance from a few strategically drilled holes and model rocket engines.

I guess I'm older than you think, I count Kronkite and his cronies as prime movers in the change.

You got that right, the last honest journalist at NBC News was J. Fred Muggs.

[jimlongley]

You got that right, the last honest journalist at NBC News was J. Fred Muggs.

Ah, yes, I remember him well, he greeted me personally the day I made national TV - my fleeting fifteen minutes of fame.

My mother had dragged me to NY City to see to my cultural well being, by seeing "Annie Get Your Gun" with Ethel Merman as Annie (since my grandmother actually knew the real Annie, and grew up in the Buffalo Bill days, she supplied the counterpoints that Ethel didn't resemble Annie at all, and that frontier life was not the way it was portrayed.)

I had had a mishap a week or so before involving some broken glass and my right arm, resulting in a swath of bandages from knuckles to elbow, and it looked pretty nasty, and it actually was, I had completely avulsed the tissue over my wrist down to and exposing the (pisiform) bone, and the injuries ran all the way up to there it nicked the artery at my elbow resulting in the most interesting squirts of blood when I bent my arm.

Since we were on this pilgrimage to NY, we, of course, had to stand on the sidewalk and watch Dave Garroway and J. Fred do the Today Show. The window glass was tough to see though since it was brighter outside than inside, so I leaned up against the glass and shaded my eyes to get a better look.

As I stood with my dramatically bandaged arm shading my eyes so I could see the goings on inside, J. Fred actually pointed to me, or at least in my general direction, and Garroway picked me out of the crowd and commented on the bandages and how brave I must be or some such. Since my injuries were caused by a rather prosaic slip in a junk yard, it was kind of my first experience with reporters making something out of nothing.

Of course, considering the hour of the day, and that I was supposed to be recuperating from my injuries at home, not traveling to NY City, it was probably a good thing that my school classmates didn't see my fleeting brush with fame.

[MojoTexas]

I just sent them a pretty scathing email.

I don't know about y'all, but I haven't see these FN 57 pistols for sale any where around here. Also, according to Wikipedia, the armor-piercing capabilities are only when using military ammo. As we all know, ammo is scarce to find as it is...it's not like the Mexican drug lords can waltz into the Del Rio Wal-Mart and pick up a case of armor-piercing bullets.

Here's the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fn_57" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MojoTexas