Watching the 30-minute “world news” on network television at 7pm on weekdays was obligatory. We watched NBC News until I started working at ABC and then that became the default channel. At 7:30pm they turned to The MacNeil/ Lehrer Report on PBS.
Sunday mornings it was the three political talk shows, Face the Nation on CBS, Meet the Press on NBC, and whatever ABC had on. When David Brinkley joined ABC after retiring from NBC, they watched his Sunday morning show This Week with David Brinkley. These programmes usually ran at different times in the morning. During football season, often two would clash during the morning as the network tried to squeeze in prestigious talk shows without compromising the big money from ads directed at the huge sports audience.
Growing up, I read and watched as my parents did. At The City College of New York, I began my career as a student journalist, joining The Campus newspaper, founded in 1907 and boasting a roster of former editors who worked or had worked at the top newspapers in New York and the country.
When I joined ABC News in New York, I began reading more major papers in the morning, adding The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, and watching two or three network news programmes in the evening.
At work, I watched them simultaneously on multiple screens in the newsroom and control rooms before and while the ABC program was on the air. The three networks sent newscasts across the country at 6 pm on an internal feed. Stations aired the program live or recorded. At home, I watched CBS or NBC at the usual 7 pm. I could catch ABC on an affiliated station in Connecticut at 6:30 pm and see two of three programs.
As a journalist, I relied on contacts, fellow journalists, and print and broadcast news to keep up with general news and learn the latest about the stories I was following. Increasingly, I watched TV news only for really big live news events like 9/11 and huge sports events like Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, Formula One, and Tennis Opens.
I still read whatever daily newspapers were available by breakfast time wherever I was. When I came to the UAE in 2005, I began daily breakfast reading of Gulf News and added The National as soon as it was available in 2008. That’s what I did this morning before writing this column, and that’s what I’ll do tomorrow.
But I don’t read these papers for news. I read them for columns and pieces that provide background and analysis. I also follow local business, social events, and entertainment. For analysis and US news in a world context I read NYT and WSJ online every day except Sunday when WSJ doesn’t publish.
For news and all the breaking news, I got to Twitter. I follow more than 350 people and organizations from whom I learn the latest, long before it will be printed or broadcast. Smart print media organizations like Gulf News and The National know they cannot save news for print editions.
Online is first, Twitter is next. The shortcut for news junkies is monitoring Twitter. Follow me @almakad to see the news sources I rely on.
By Alma Kadragic
