How News Reporting Has Changed Since the 1980s

This is Michael McQuistion and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. podcast radio

yes that's right more than one episode in two

weeks time this is episode 59 I am one of your

hosts Steve Gio and Mike and joining me is Steve

Megatron hello hello and Larry Fine's long -lost

grandson Jeremy Fine hello mo mo are the cheese

mo are the cheese And today in episode 59, we'll

be talking about something that has been rattling

around in my brain for about two years now. This

idea, I originally was going to do it back on

the NerdNews Network, the original incarnation

of the NerdNews Network over on ThisWeekInGeek

.net, but it never took off, because no one really

took any interest in it at the time. Today's

episode is entitled, Entertaining Paparazzi.

Now, what... The basic gist of this is, is I've

noticed something since 1986. Over that time,

almost 30 years ago, it just, news and how we

get it and how it's reported to us and the content

that is reported to us has changed and evolved

drastically and sometimes not for the good. I

remember as a kid watching Dan Rather, Peter

Jennings, Tom Brokaw, the classic guys, the old

guard of national news broadcasting. And they

would report on politics, they would report on

missing kids, or carjackers, or murderers, or

rapists, or... Anything you could think of under

the Sun except for entertainment Okay, sure sports

is entertainment, but let's face it We aren't

a part of the World Wrestling Federation. Thank

you very much And it's just one of those things

where since 86 it really kind of took off in

the 90s with stuff like true requests live on

MTV where Entertainment has entertainment news

has become the majority of what's reported. We've

got several different bullet points here that

we're going to be talking about, and how news

has changed. It's like I was saying a second

ago, it's not just one thing or another. What

do you remember, Jeremy, from, you know, watching

the news as a kid versus now? I just remember

as I think we also had grown up in the 80s watching

Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, you know, everything

was straightforward right to the point. Then

one day I was at a friend's house and I think

it was Fox 5 that was starting to advertise current

affair. And I thought, you know, OK, so there's

going to be on at seven o 'clock now. And apparently

it's just like. these fluff stories that had

nothing to do with anything. Oh, yeah. You know,

they just had like, I don't know if you remember

the actor that was in a few movies in the 80s

and 90s, Randall Tex Cobb that, you know, Tax

Evasion or, you know, the Batmobile. Pretty much,

you know, at the end of NBC Nightly News, how

they'll have like a 30 -second piece to end off,

you know. Yeah, but this was like a whole half

hour and these news like nobody did the research

and it was like Anybody out there who just had

a camera and a story just like was Eddie Brocking

it Yeah, it's it's kind of like what Fox News

is now But yeah, no see like I remember a current

a current affair, but I remember it the Maureen

Boyle days like I remember when she was the anchor

of of current affair and hard hard current affair

and hard copy were the two shows back then that

were garnering for the to be the televised version

of paparazzi and it was just Seven o 'clock to

me as a kid seven to eight o 'clock at night

Monday through Friday It was Wheel of Fortune

and Jeopardy. End of story. The news was over

until 11. And that's the other thing. The only

channel I ever knew to have news before 11 o

'clock was Fox. Any brand of Fox channel, whatever

city, state, wherever you live, Fox always had

the 10 o 'clock news. Now... All the channels

are getting in on 10 o 'clock news instead of

waiting for 11, because to me, as a kid, the

11 o 'clock news was, okay, 11 o 'clock news,

and if you're lucky enough, your parents might

let you stay up to see a little bit of Johnny

Carson on The Tonight Show. But the news itself

was just, I don't know. What about you, Steve?

What do you remember? I remember they actually

had real deuce stories back in the day. Yeah.

um whereas nowadays it seems like it's all this

celebrity slept with my cousin and this one had

my baby and blah blah blah and it's like really

it's it's like there the news and and stuff like

that just has no substance anymore no it's it's

all played out garbage it's all a part of the

social media and and a part of the the reality

stream instead of actually being good journalism.

They can't seem to actually do it the way it

should be done, more or less. There used to be

a lot of good newscasters. You mentioned one

of them, Tom Brokaw. You had Peter Jennings.

You had all these big shots on these stations.

Yeah, I don't think news has been really that

Serious of a thing since they kind of either

retired or you know in some cases passed away

I mean, it's yeah news has been kind of a joke

Yeah, it really has it's either politics and

what the hell the president's doing and what

the hell the cabinet's doing and what's going

on in Washington and what's happening underneath

the cabinet or uh... well okay well you know

or it's you know which kardashian is underneath

the cabinet that that this week the presidential

one or otherwise both actually uh... yeah well

we'll get to that uh... but yeah i mean like

peter's like okay for me growing up in massachusetts

living in kinks we we live in kinkston massachusetts

it was on the south it's on the south shore on

a good day If you don't have a hell of a lot

of traffic, you can get to Boston within an hour.

And it's just one of those things where back

then, as a kid, late 80s, early 90s, I always

would watch News Center 5 with Natalie Jacobson

and Jett Curtis. May he rest in peace. Dickey

Albert on weather. And I forget what the sports

guy was. I can't remember off the top of my head.

And then after that, I would watch... You know

Peter Jennings on ABC nightly news Now I know

people are gonna listen to this episode and say

Seven eight nine year old kids watching news

no Really, but yeah, we had to because it was

what it was what our parents were watching our

parents weren't watching reruns of shows that

hadn't even happened yet. Like nowadays, you

turn the TV on at seven o 'clock, you're going

to see a rerun of Seinfeld or a rerun of The

Simpsons or a rerun of King of Queens or some

sort of television show, even on the regular

network sometimes. Okay, sure, CBS is, as I said,

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, but it's just

crazy how far and fast the landscape has changed.

Now as far as entertainment Entertainment news

has taken over the the industry of reporting

on entertainment news has basically taken over

again I reference a current affair hard copy

and then inside edition and You know later on

when MTV was starting to get out of the music

game They had total requests live from 3 to 4

p .m. in the afternoon, and it's like, hey, let's

find out who's Tom Cruise sleeping with this

week, or who's Nicole Kidman having the next

baby with, or all this stuff. And lately, I would

say over the last three years, more recently

is, oh, the royal wedding. Prince What's -his

-name is getting married to... This is big boobs

and this that the other thing and everything

else and it's like why do I care if the Prince

of England gets married? What do you like? I

don't get the fascination of people tuning in

to entertainment news to hear all this stuff

about other people's lives I can I can see some

of it to some extent with you know the you know

the king King of England or Prince of England

or whatever, you know because the royalty thing

Yeah, I can even though they're figureheads nowadays.

I kind of get that But digging into all these

celebrities lives more or less It's not news

Nobody cares. I mean most people don't Know like,

you know, they always talk about you know these

these photographers that are out to invade other

people's privacy that are called paparazzi and

they're they're trying to get this million dollar

shot of this or that or whatever else and it's

just it's just snooping or being a peeping tom

or being a i mean really paparazzi's to me are

nothing but stalkers um isn't stalking illegal

in this country i think so You know, well everything

in this country is being flipped upside down.

I don't think anything means what it used to

mean Yeah, we can thank the administration for

that. Yes, we bow under their heel and get stepped

on between their toe jam. Yeah Alright, so let's

see here. What's the next one? Okay, so we kind

of already touched on this one, but my next topic

was who really cares about who's having who's

baby who is dating marrying who and what religion

celebrities are okay here's the thing the reason

why i brought that last point up is i don't give

a rat's ass what tom cruise does in his off time

when he's not doing a job when he's not filming

a movie that i might enjoy when he's not filming

mission impossible 99 Don't care if he's a Scientologist.

I don't care. You know I mean sure You know I

might care if he ends up being a rapist or a

murderer because that's just wrong, but people

are free people should be free and are free to

Explore their own religion if they want to it's

like what when he came out and said oh, I'm a

Scientologist now. It was like the world begins

like If the entire Earth was a giant smiley face

from Have a Nice Day Cafe, it's like the smiley

face's jaw just dropped. It's like, seriously?

I just, I don't know. Is there any, okay, there's

a difference in reporting news that's fun. Like,

take, for example, and I know people might chastise

me for this. Sometimes when there's nothing on

Friday night at 10 o 'clock I will watch ease

fashion police with Joan Rivers because Joan

Rivers is a funny lady and That's fun. That's

kind of them, you know commenting and doing a

commentary on the fashion of Hollywood That's

fun kind of news, but like all this other stuff

is just like why? Why would you even report that

now? I'm not talking about like casting news

or this person is gonna be in this TV show or

Michael Bay hired Megan Fox to play this person

or that person or You know that but it's just

I don't know. It just seems like it's I Just

wish there was more to what the news actually

is nowadays and social media doesn't help you

can't do anything, celebrities can't do anything

nowadays without somebody putting it on social

media immediately. I think the biggest thing

was with Reese Witherspoon because there's a

few months ago, you know, the media was making

Reese out to be like this golden girl when she's

doing all these wonderful things for charity

and then of course back in April I think her

and her husband had gotten drunk and then all

of a sudden like TMZ had to put that story out

and they had to put, apparently they had footage

of her getting arrested. And I don't even know

how, that's the other thing too I'm kind of curious

about because, and it came from TMZ itself, and

I don't know how they were able to cooperate

with the police to get this footage, show how

she got arrested and embarrass her. I mean, and

not only that, But my search engine is Yahoo,

and of course I have it set up, and it has to

be like, this is what's trending right now. I

don't care about that. And I don't know why they're

so quick to put footage of her getting arrested.

Like, what does that have to do with anything

else, or even make the front page of the Daily

News, no less? Yeah. Yeah. You know, the thing

is, you know, you talk about the stuff that's

trending. Facebook now has a a trending on the

right hand side below where people's birthdays

show up and Right now on my Facebook Ashton Kutcher

basically Michael Kelso married Jackie from that

or is going to marry Jackie from that 70s show

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are engaged Okay,

great for them. But why is that a trending new?

I don't understand the fascination with people

in general for some of these news stories. I

just don't get it. Alright, so and then a bit

of contention this week because when I actually

searched for something through Google, it brought

up a true link and it brought up several false

links. What is the deal with the celebrity death

hoax? That is just insensitive and wrong altogether.

I searched, because sadly this past week, Harold

Ramis, Dr. Egon Spengler passed away. May he

rest in peace. But I went to Google's homepage.

Harold Ramis dies. Searched for it. First thing

that pops up is the Chicago Tribune story about

it. I'm like, okay. Oh Chicago Tribune That's

where he's from Chicago Tribune is a you know

a trusted news source It's a newspaper and then

like five links below it are all oh Harold Ramis

is a celebrity death hoax. He's still alive and

this that the other thing and everything I'm

like really serious like what world are we now

living in where celebrity death hoax is the biggest

thing on the friggin internet? I think it has

to do with the fact that a few years ago there

were a couple of journalists that didn't do their

research right away. They were quick to hear

about a story. And, you know, once again, they're

ambulance chasers. They'll go to the hospital,

they'll hear it, and then they'll go, oh, we

might as well put it on so we get our, you know,

$500 bonus or whatever. And that's what it all

comes down to. So there was actually something

on Yahoo a couple of years ago, and I don't know

who did this, but they actually created an engine

for a while. where you could type in a celebrity's

name and make a mock fake celebrity death. I

was like, what is the point of that? That's just

wrong. I mean, you know, these celebrities, these

actors, these actresses, these musicians, these

people that are public figures, take actors,

for example, they do a lot for the world. They

most of them have, you know, uh... charities

most of them do really great work in film and

television and and all that stuff and you know

it's it's for our sheer enjoyment my whole point

with this part of the podcast is i don't care

about their personal lives i care about the performances

that they put on screen that's what i care about

so steve anything any other thoughts on this

part side Honestly, I just I think that the the

whole hoax thing. I mean, yeah, that's insensitive

and just wrong It's also kind of sad to see that

Immediately after a celebrity passes away They're

jumping down everybody's throats with it It's

like give the family time to breathe with it

I mean I know that it's a big deal because everybody

sees them in the public eye and they you know

they they feel like they could relate to them

or they know them and They actually have no flipping

clue who the hell they actually are Because it

just goes to show you that some of them, you

know whether it be from drug overdose or role

making them mad or I mean crazy not mad but Or

just other things going on I mean it's They're

jumping to worse conclusions or they're trying

to dig into it or creating false evidence. Having

those pop up all the time, it makes you question

when something actually does happen. Yeah, it's

like Hollywood, and I know I'm making a generalization

here, but it's like Hollywood is crying wolf.

No, I do not think Hollywood is the one putting

out the celebrity death hoaxes. It's stupid places

that have no business reporting it. Pretty much,

yes. There have been plenty of places now, and

again, kind of angling towards the social media

aspect. Social media is everything Facebook Pinterest

Instagram Twitter twatter Zapter whatever whatever

the hell you use It's a news outlet and it's

like what is the what is the advantage to actually

watching a news program now? There really is

no event Somebody else take this I can't talk.

Oh crap Son of a bitch. It's all Megatron's fault.

Damn it. Yes, I Killed TFG one Mike and it was

awesome But no, I mean I feel like the media

has kind of They they over inflate things and

in doing so I think they've helped create the

fact that There's all this hype like for instance

Batfleck When he was cast I mean I'm not gonna

say I'm not guilty of some of it to some extent

because I was our first episode of altered geek

Was of the Batman Superman casting of Ben Affleck

as Batman so Yeah, I reacted and I spread it,

too, but I wasn't sitting there going, Oh, he

doesn't care about the rule. He smokes blah,

blah, blah. Or, you know, because they were trying

to say, Oh, he doesn't take Batman seriously

because he's smoking. It's like, OK, if he wants

to smoke, sue him. You know, whatever he that's

what he wants to do in his free time. Then that's

what he wants to do. You know, I don't really

give a rat's ass what he does. It's just. They

blow things out of proportion, trying to get

people fired up on it when it's not warranted.

Well, there was that whole thing about, oh, Ben

Affleck is no longer Batman. Even I fell for

that one. I know. Ben Affleck is no longer Batman.

Ben Affleck, you know, all this and all that

and everything else is just like... And that's

the other thing that kind of pisses me off, because

sometimes I have fallen for this in the past.

I understand the onion is a... Comedy news source

the fact that they report fake stories But there

are sometimes when you will be glancing on Facebook

and you just see something that oh my god What

is this and the next thing you know? Yeah, that's

a that's another hoax. That's I Don't know it's

just it's so weird to me now with all these hoax

things out there as I was saying earlier I you

know, care about the body of work that a celebrity

puts in, not necessarily what they do in their

own personal life. You know, that that's what

they do. I'm sure a lot of the listeners don't

want to know what I do in my personal life outside

of, you know, recording, editing and, you know,

podcasts and writing up reviews and everything

else. You know. So, um, all right. Where else

can we go with this, Jeremy? You know what I

also blame? I think the problem is that people

have become so dependent on technology and they

want it now. Like now, now. I mean, I'm going

to trail off with, you know, Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles because the biggest thing now is that

now they're going to push the new trailer that's

coming out. and people were going ape shit because

Michael Bay who, well you ruined our childhood

with the other Transformers, now you're gonna

ruin our tangerine and turtles, and everybody

seems to be creating these blogs and these websites

like Bannon, I'm kind of like, you know what,

it's a movie. Yeah, I'm a huge fan, I'm always

gonna be a Turtle fan, I'm always gonna be a

Transformers fan, but at the end of the day,

I can't sit at my computer anymore typing blogs.

Bashing somebody else with another screen name.

It's probably not even here in the United States

probably is overseas somewhere Especially when

you can see how they're not putting together

complete sentences. So you have to figure that

they're you know, probably God knows where or

if you see Jay and Silent Bob strike back. They're

probably ten -year -olds I mean everybody seems

to be hiding behind These screen names. I like

Facebook because of the communication factor

at a time. If I see a blog, I'll share it, I'll

say a few things, that's pretty much it. But

I just feel that what bothers me the most is

I'm a New Yorker through and through. I grew

up in Staten Island, well Brooklyn, moved to

Staten Island, then moved to Albany, now I'm

in Pennsylvania. But I remember when the Daily

News meant something. And nowadays, when I'm

able to download the daily news onto my iPad,

it's like the front cover is to Kardashians or

Michael Bay or entertainment, and I'm kind of

like, I just don't care. And I feel that more

and more people are just, I mean, even Extra

and Access Hollywood, once upon a time, they

were actually trying to be like prime time after

the news news, and then they became more fluff.

And then in the 90s they actually tried to go

back to being serious and then they fluffed again.

I'm kind of like, you know, everybody's telling

me the same thing and they're trying, it's almost

like the telephone game where they're stretching

out the story more and more and more. And I'm

kind of like, instead of worrying about getting

out there that quickly, A, do the research, B,

give me a story that's interesting, and C, I

don't care. If Ben Affleck is gonna be Batman,

if he's not gonna be Batman, whatever he did

before, whatever he did now, I don't care anymore.

You know, go home, make a peanut butter and jelly

sandwich, read a book from a few years ago, whatever,

and just move on. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's

just one of those things where, you know, if

I really want to see what the Kardashians are

doing, they have a television show. I can just

watch that crap. you know it just well don't

because then it boosts their ratings yeah i don't

think that family is never not going to be on

tv you know chris will be a hundred and something

uh you know kim will be you know 60 something

uh it's just i don't know man and that's the

i that's why it's ironic because here's the thing

too We don't like it, and we bash it, but even

though we're bashing it, ironically, our negative

energy is still kicking shit up. That's why Paris

Hilton is not going away. Oh, really? She hasn't

gone away yet. I hadn't even noticed. Yeah, well,

that's the problem. She pops up every now and

then. You know, I'll use... David Hasselhoff

as an example. I met the guy when I was six years

old. I have an autographed picture with him.

Well, I have an autographed picture and I have

a picture with him. You know, he was Michael

Knight. He was Knight Rider. He was that show.

That's when I met him at six years old. That's

all I cared about was talking to Michael Knight.

I didn't care what the man was doing in his personal

life and then all this stuff comes out about

his drinking and he's had an alcohol habit for

X number of years. And hey, I feel bad for the

guy. I really do. But it's just like... I don't

know, it just... The news nowadays seems oversaturated

with celebrity stuff. Or politics. that's really

what it's seen and yes on a lot of the local

news you'll have you know stuff like missing

children which is horrible or someone killed

someone else which is horrible or someone get

into a fight with somebody which is horrible

it just I gotta tell you the only time that I

really watch the news right now because we've

had such a horrible winter in this country is

the weather that's really all I watch the news

for right now frozenomics Yeah, exactly I wish

we didn't live in a society where all the you

know the media outlets and everybody else You

know cared so much about people's personal lives

You know sure I Mean this might be a double standard

for us since we've done so many interviews in

the past five years sure we do interviews with

people and we'll ask them where they grew up

and And you know, you know, do they always want

to be an actor or voice actor or producer or

writer or whatever? And how, you know, how did

they get into the business? But that's it with

their personal life. We don't ask them if they're

married or have kids or, you know, if they're

having Tom Cruise's alien baby or whatever else,

you know, we, we move on to their, their body

of work. And that's what's more interesting because,

you know, you, you know, you take someone like

Steve Bloom who believe his answer to our question

of was there ever a ever a project you ever said

no to because you just couldn't bring yourself

to To to read the lines and he said yeah, it

had to do with tentacles Go listen to the interview

people. You'll hear the full answer Yeah, I I

miss the the old news broadcasts Miss Peter Jennings.

I'm missing all those guys and it's just it's

a time gone by Anything else we want to bring

up about this topic guys I Don't know I Don't

think so. I think we've kind of nipped it in

the bud here but I guess the whole point of this

episode and maybe people can comment in the comments

on the website for this is What is the news industry?

What is the media? How have they perverted the

news or You know, how how is the news industry

changed in your opinion? For me, I think it's

changed for the worst you know a news story to

me is it a Fictional news story on the HBO show.

The newsroom is better news than what we get

sometimes today And I'm not talking about like

like geek news like oh this this week in transformers

this happened or oh this week in comics this

happened I'm talking about like the celebrity

stuff, and it's just it's just oh god. It's just

creating on my nerves so much So I think before

this might be the first time in almost five years

of us podcasting That I would have lost my voice

in an actual podcast. So I think we're going

to close this out. Coming up next on GeekCast

Radio is episode 60, where we will be revealing

the first annual GCRN awards. For now, I am TFG1

Mike with Steve Megatron Phillips, Hanek Outkast,

Jeremy Fine. We will catch you next time on Leash

the Geek in You. Are you looking for a weekly

dose of gaming news and retro? Then check out

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