# What were wars like before CNN? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578 "2006-08-06T17:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578/21 "2015-09-28T15:07:09Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I recall the day that broadcast news “changed forever”: January 16, 1991. … > > So I wound up spending all night long staring at a static image on the TV: A map of Iraq with three staff photos of reporters along one side of the screen. There was no video, not even still pictures, just audio from the three reporters, but it was enough to change TV news forever. But it didn’t change _broadcast news_. That already had been done. Edward R Murrow’s live radio broadcasts from London during the Blitz gave the world first hand information from the war. And spawned two famous catchphrases. There are several recordings out there of actual WWII radio news programs. I don’t know if they are on-line, but if you can find them they are fascinating. In the ones I have, the announcer reads the commercials as well as the news. It’s interesting that as the war progressed the commercials anticipated the “return to normalcy” expected, and ads were for new appliances, “which will become available as soon as the war ends” and factories could go back to making what they did before the war. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578/22 "2015-09-28T15:13:15Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > WWI is even more of a mystery. Not anymore! [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578/23 "2015-09-28T15:23:33Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Uncle Walter would tell us what was going on in Vietnam every night on the news; there were brief newsbreaks between shows; and more people relied on the coverage of newspapers and newsweeklies. I’m 43, and I remember that even up through high school and college, CNN wasn’t the _primary_ news source for most people. It was something you tuned in to if you wanted immediate constant coverage of something breaking, or if you had 15 minutes and wanted to watch the news. Most people still read the newspapers and watched the 6 o’clock and/or 10 o’clock news. Think about how old timers still do it- they read the paper, and they watch the evening news. That’s how everyone did it back then- there wasn’t really any other option. The 1st Gulf War was the first one where CNN really came into its own, as they had their 24 hour schtick rolling the entire time, and showed all the news conferences live, while the other networks were showing “General Hospital” or whatever else during their normal time slots. This had already been seen during the “Baby Jessica” event, and the Challenger disaster, but the Gulf War was a longer and more widely interesting event. In essence, news became entertainment when the viewing public had the choice of watching a regularly scheduled program OR whatever breaking story was on at that time. ---
**Author:** ![danderson400](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc79bd/32.png) [@danderson400](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danderson400)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578/24 "2015-09-28T16:11:12Z")
during the gulf war, I got really annoyed that NBC(or CBS) would interrupt _Santa Barbara_ the soap opera or some of the game shows it got really annoying! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-wars-like-before-cnn/367578.md?page=1)