Friday, January 15, 2021

Ford to City


The frontpage headline of the of the print edition of the January 9th Times was “HOUSE PREPARES ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT.” “IMPEACHED” in double-sized characters was the headline on the morning of January 14th and below it, “TRUMP, AFTER INCITING RAMPAGE IN CAPITOL, IS FIRST PRESIDENT TO FACE 2ND SENATE TRIAL. In between on January 8th the headline in the print edition was CALLS GROW TO REMOVE TRUMP AS U.S. OFFICIALS HEAD FOR EXIT.” In the old days before 24-hour cable news, headlines carried the freight. On December 7, l941, The Times headline was “JAPAN ATTACKS PEARL HARBOR.” “THE WAR IN EUROPE IS ENDED! SURRENDER IS UNCONDITIONAL; V-E WILL BE PROCLAIMED TODAY; OUR TROOPS ON OKINAWA GAIN” was the headline of May 6, 1945. “MEN WALK ON MOON” was the headline July 21, 1969. Remember the newsreels in movie theaters, the newsboys on the streets with the iconic “Extra, Extra?” Now it’s "Breaking News." “CNN projects that Joe Biden has won the 2020 presidential election and will become the 46th president of the United States,” Wolf Blitzer announced on November 6, 2020. If you get your Times delivered, you intake these stories when you open the front door and look down at your doormat. That's the old-fashioned way of watching the world turn. Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message,” If you got The Daily News on October 29, l975, you read “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.”

 

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