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May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Oct. 30, 2006 / 8 Mar-Cheshvan, 5767

Journalism's Camelot

By Cal Thomas


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Responding to a suggestion that the 50th anniversary of the launch of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" would make a good story, the producer at another network declined, saying, "It doesn't fit our demographic."


That one sentence separates today's "journalism" from that represented by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley when they began a program on NBC, Oct. 29, 1956, that would launch broadcast journalism's Golden Age. The show was the brainchild of the late Reuven Frank, whose memory will also be honored Friday, Nov. 3 in New York at a special ceremony in NBC's Studio 8-H.


Why should anyone care if they didn't live through that time? Because it was a time when ideas mattered. Is this memorial event simply a trip into the land of nostalgia for the dwindling numbers who worked with, or at least observed the work of these men and their accomplished colleagues? Or does it remind us what real journalism looked like before advertisers and bean counters began ruining it?


NBC White House correspondent Sander Vanocur, who covered the Kennedy administration, recalls there was far more substance on the news in those days: "Sound bites sometimes lasted 50 seconds or more; now they are often reduced to nine seconds, or less." And the focus wasn't on stories that advertisers wanted in order to reach viewers 18 to 34. "We had two epic stories then," Vanocur recalls. "They were the Cold War and civil rights." Now we are preoccupied by Madonna and missing blonde women.


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When Huntley-Brinkley premiered, the program was a mere 15 minutes long (12 and a half minutes of news and two and a half minutes of commercials) When the program was later expanded to 30 minutes, management and reporters debated whether there would be enough news to fill the time.


Correspondent Herbert Kaplow recalls a half-hour special he was part of during the 1960 West Virginia primary election that saw John Kennedy defeat Sen. Hubert Humphrey and all but solidify his nomination for president. It is unlikely any broadcast network would do such a show today, or if it did, that it would attract any sponsors.


NBC recently announced it is reducing its number of employees, including newsroom staff, by 700 people. Kaplow recalls then-NBC News president Robert Kintner's commitment to news because of Kintner's journalism background. Today's network presidents have no journalism experience. Their main concern is that their news divisions make money and story selection is made, in part, to please sponsors, something that never would have happened in the days of Huntley and Brinkley. Kintner told the news division to do solid news and the entertainment division would make money. Now, news too often resembles entertainment, and the public suffers.


Jack Perkins was a "writer" for Brinkley, which was something like being a painter for Michelangelo, because Brinkley wrote his own copy. He says of the Huntley and Brinkley types and what they represented, "We don't have them anymore, the erudition and lapidary writing of David, the intoned authority of Chet. What we have is different and in some ways better (the technology), some ways worse (the pandering to celebrity and the mundane)."


Perkins blames Don Hewitt of CBS News for beginning the decline: "He started the trend by showing that prime time, or in his case, near-prime time news ("60 Minutes") could make a lot of money. So before we knew it, network news divisions, which had always scorned the prostituting 'journalists' of the supermarket tabloids, began emulating them. If it could work in prime time, it could work in news time."


When a great and accomplished person passes from the scene through retirement or death, some like to say, "There will never be anyone like him again." That is true of Huntley and Brinkley, not because there are none to equal them, but because management no longer wants their type. You can see why by reading some of Brinkley's books or watching tapes of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" when you visit New York's Museum of Broadcast Communications or Vanderbilt University's Television News Archive in Nashville. These guys had class and conveyed credibility and authority.


Huntley and Brinkley flourished during broadcast journalism's Camelot. For younger journalists, like me, who knew them and were inspired by them, we not only miss these men; we miss what they represented. In our self-centered, consumer age, their kind are unlikely to pass our way again.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Cal Thomas is the author of, among others, The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas Comment by clicking here.


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