On the recent death of US Political Reporter Dan Schorr , National Public Radio in America, who employed him as a News Analyst for 25 years after his Watergate days and reporting career with CBS used the opportunity to replay an archive interview about several aspects of his life.
While it made for an interesting programme, one small element did resonate with me; his justification of a radio 'news analyst'. He spoke of how it is natural to have an assimilation of the news as 'in the CNN age' live news is all that is available and people need a sense of understanding and, I suppose to put words in his mouth, a 'context'. All valid reasons for a news analyst - and I am not personally opposed to the concept of an analyst. However, wasnt this the same reason for the direction of the press when radio and, later, TV News bulletins arrived; the press could never give as contemporary news as broadcast could, but it could give it understanding?
For everything - turn, turn turn....
Now that Television have a 24-hour news cycle, radio news analysts are, apparently, the only source of understanding - the newspapers are for opinions on the news....not analysis.
There is a season - turn turn turn....
One can already hear the echo of Television news exectutives who will be able to provide a context for the news that is virally available on sundry website
