Shame! Shame! Shame! Thoughts About TV Network News
- Garry S Sklar
- Oct 9
- 2 min read
A draft of this article was originally written on April 16, 2022 but was inadvertently never published. A review of my archives tonight found it, and on reflection, I believe it to still be timely as little to nothing has changed on the network news. The three great televsion networks, CBS, NBC and ABC news divisions are mere shadows of what they were . The original article follows. Please read on.
This evening, to its ignominy, CBS, the network of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, spent more time on two news items that must, in their opinion, be more important than the slaughter of innocent civilians in Ukraine. War and its "collateral damage" can now be seen by all in almost real time on television news. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said that he couldn't define pornography but he knew it when he saw it. If the continuous atrocities committed by Imperial Russian forces are not obscene then tell me what is. The world watches but doesn't react. Indifference is killing people, but the networks have other ideas.
Apparently more important to the news departments at the major American networks is something other than news. It's feel good time. More time was spent tonight on the 50th anniversary of the arrival of two pandas at the Washington National Zoo. Discussion of the anniversary cake presented to the pandas was a high point of this segment. This was followed by the important "news" of the National Recording Industry's submission of Ricky Martin's hit song "Livin La Vida Loca" to the Library of Congress audio archives.
I can only conclude that the Roman street sweeper was correct. I overheard him say in June 1967 during the Six Day War "what do I care if there is a war? It's enough that the Rome soccer club wins on Sunday." Unfortunately, he was right. Or was he? It's up to the TV viewing public to let the networks know whether they are doing their job or wasting their and the viewer's time. Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the presidency of John F. Kennedy called TV "a vast wasteland". So it is.
Garry S. Sklar
Las Vegas, NV
April 16, 2022
Updated and Revised
October 9, 2025
Oh, don’t even get me started on the priorities of the media. They are now no better than Cosmo, People, InTouch- the garbage gossip magazines I used to read as a teen. The difference is that we knew that is was a load of crap. Now it’s thinly disguised as “truth”. Our media as it stands is truly such a joke. It is also so very dangerous, biased and flooded with intentional misinformation. So many in this country have become ostriches- their heads so deep in the sand they wouldn’t know their face from their ass if their lives depended on it. This is who the media is catering to!
And thanks for the laugh about the panda news-…