by David Furritus

Created on: September 20, 2010   Last Updated: September 21, 2010

“Tonight's top story: the food that you're eating can kill you. More at 11”

There's no news like bad news. Anytime you open a paper, click a link on a website or turn on the news, you get flooded with nothing but news of every terrible thing that you can imagine. Why is this? Money!

Back in the “old days” news came from two sources: the daily paper and the local/national news that would air from 6pm-7pm (5-6 central and mountain) or 11pm with the evening wrap-up. It was a short period and there was only so much they could cram into that much time. There wasn't that much competition because the average market had only about four or five stations (and one was PBS!), so their audience was more-or-less held captive until re-runs of “M*A*S*H” or “Wheel of Fortune” came on.

Then came cable Tv. All of a sudden there were lots of alternatives every night during those critical hours. The local news had to make the news more interesting. Every random crime became the “robbery of the century”. Every fire became the biggest blaze since Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over her lantern. Every tropical depression became a category 5 storm that was “coming straight for you!” Anchors were suddenly getting professional stylists to help hammer home every fact that they could get their mitts on. For a short time it worked.

But, then came the Twenty-Four-Hour news networks. These were all pretty harmless at first. They would mostly just report the same thing that the half-hour programs would a few times a day and this was great for someone that would otherwise be busy at 6 or 11. It was enough.

But, all of this would change in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush would launch “Operation Desert Storm”. CNN would have reporters actually in a hotel reporting the initial attacks while they were happening. Every day, everyone would sit glued to the set to see the latest developments. Reporters like Arthur Kent and Wolf Blitzer would become household names. War was great for ratings. The war lasted just forty-two days. It was just the right length to hold the viewers attention without boring them to tears. The News suddenly had all of the ratings they ever wanted – and with it came HUGE advertising revenues.

Shortly after all of this died down, the media got another great injection when four Los Angeles policemen would attempt to arrest a multiple-time offender, Rodney King. This would have just been

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