In undergraduate school, I minored in journalism and particularly excelled in press history.
I remember the discussions about the effects 1938 CBS Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast of H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" had on the nation and how the medium of radio could unintentionally spread panic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g
I also remember the discussion about the Hutchinson Commission, which stressed the need for accurate and socially responsible reporting.
(
https://matthewgiobbimusic.com/the-s...ns-commission/)
In the last last *four years, we have seen the promulgation of "Fake News," and a Main Stream Media entirely uncritical about Leftist allegations concerning Russia, Ukraine, and Impeachment.
More alarming, I have lived through some truly scary days. The week of the Cuban Missile Crisis, November 22-25, 1963, March 30, 1981 and September 11, 2001 come to my mind. However, I have never the hysteria that is attached to the news coverage of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Let me be clear, I am not minimizing the dangers of the pandemic, and I do advocate everything possible to confront the dangers, stem the spread, heal the sick, and produce a vaccine.
With that said, I must ask what is served by what is in my opinion, 24-hour non-stop news coverage, weighted with political spin seemingly aimed more at destabilizing the international financial markets and ending the Trump Presidency, than addressing and satisfactorily working the problem?
In that connection, just what happened to the very sensible template established by the Hutchinson Commission?
I just wonder what the impact on world peace, human survival, the national psyche, and world economy would have been had such news coverage had existed in 1962?
Just some food for thought.