This week in The TentacleWednesday, October 3, 2007
It all began with President Harry Truman
Sixty years ago, on October 5, 1947, an American president delivered a speech live on television.
History reflects that the speech delivered by President Harry S Truman was hardly memorable. According to an article on the event in "American Heritage," by Christine Gibson, "the October 5 broadcast did have a large effect on the free world, just not in a way Truman, or anyone at the time, could have predicted."
Today, most people take for granted a world dominated by cell phones, instant messaging, computers, and cable TV. News and entertainment travels around the world in minutes, if not seconds; but in 1947 much of the news was disseminated by way of the radio or newspapers.
Ever since, television has played an integral role in politics, especially presidential politics. By around 1960, more people got their news from television broadcasts than newspapers - or the radio.
It has only been as recent as the 2000 presidential election that television's stranglehold on maintaining the dominant narrative which shapes much of public opinion on national politics has been slowly but surely replaced by the Internet.
In a parallel dynamic, television and the Internet - and newspapers - are slowly but surely merging. However it was President Truman's 1947 speech which set the political landscape on its head.
Read the rest: It all began with President Harry Truman
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Farrell Keough
A funny thing happened on the way to the Editorial Store. I got replies to my inquiries and did not have to make a purchase. No really, there is an Editorial Store! But they are expensive and have terrible business hours.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Tom McLaughlin
The place is like walking into a hospital. It is soooooooo clean. There is a hefty fine for depositing a piece of paper or cigarette remains. One cannot buy chewing gum. Drug runners receive the mandatory death sentence.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Norman M. Covert
One of the perquisites of being hors de combat for many months is preoccupation with what ails you. Henry David Thoreau would have penned his musings in solitude - not an option here. Somehow the recovery room's Zenith found the Frederick County Board of Commissioners on COMCAST.
George Wenschhof
The end of September brings a lot of excitement to major league baseball fans for the long (162 game) schedule is coming to an end. Wishful hopes abound that their team will win the division or capture the wild card slot. Their team would then make the play-offs with a chance to win the Fall Classic in Sports, the World Series.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Chris Cavey
This evening is the "All-American Presidential Forum" at
Derek Shackelford
Here we go again with the issue of race surfacing over the last couple of weeks. It is not enough that much attention was given to shock jock Don Imus and his comments about the
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Priceless Right to Free Speech
It has certainly been an interesting week for the exercise of our sacred right to freedom of speech in the
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Our blue-eyed, blonde-hair culture becomes more antagonistic as our numbers decrease as a proportion of the population. There are those among us who hate all those darker-hair, brown-eyes who are popping up everywhere.
Farrell Keough
Global Warming, Global Cooling, Climate Change, et al are the headlines of the crisis de jour. Most people do not involve themselves in this debate as it seems too complicated and all the scientists agree, so it must be true.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
I really wanted to write about the Great Frederick Fair, but Patricia Kelly did such a great job on last Thursday's Tentacle, I wouldn't pretend to try.
####
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.