Did television do a better job of covering government and politics in the 60s and 70s than today?
I think it’s almost an apples and oranges thing. There’s more information available and more outlets about the government now than there ever has been. Back then there were three commercial networks, daily newspapers, a couple of newsmagazines and news on the hour on the radio. And that was essentially it. Compare that with what we have now. There is more information available now to the average American about his or her government than there ever has been. In some places the journalism is superb, and in others it is not. Generally speaking, I think the public is very well served. PBS devoted more prime time than any other broadcast network to this summer’s Democratic and Republican conventions. Are commercial broadcast networks failing in their public interest duties in the way they cover politics? Or has the public told the networks its just not interested? The public has not said it’s not interested. Look at the number of people who did watch, read about it in the print media, or di
