We once had the habit of recording good television programs on videotape. This was back in the days when there were good programs, and before videotape became obsolete. If you’ve done this yourself you've probably made the same mistake we did – recording programs you didn’t really want because the timer wasn’t set properly, or because you forgot to stop the tape. Unlike DVR recordings, which eventually have to be deleted, videotapes stick around on bookshelves or in boxes for years and years, becoming an accidental archive of recent history.
In this careless way we have accumulated regular library of programs that we never intended to preserve. Many of them are segments of public television news. It comes almost as a shock to rediscover them. They are a reminder of how many enormously important stories we've completely forgotten. How quaint the recent past seems when viewed through the reverse lens of television: Charles and Di on the road to divorce, Bill Clinton on the road to ruin, Newt Gingrich riding high, John Glenn coming down to earth. Then there are the eternal themes that have appeared in every news medium since news was invented: earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, and wars, always with the same pathetic images of the victims.
The news media present every predictable disaster with an air of surprise, as if nothing like it has ever happened before. But it has, and it makes you wonder about what we count as “news,” and how much it matters. I admit to being a news addict. But when my wife asks me: “Anything on the news?” I usually have a hard time remembering the main stories of the day. There are always reports of trouble in the Middle East, epidemics in Africa, political corruption at home, bad weather somewhere, nasty crimes, medical horror stories, celebrity weddings and divorces, but the particular details of today’s stories blur in the mind because they were essentially the same yesterday, and the day before. This may be the reason why some elderly people keep heaps of newspapers going back for decades. They are the tangible proof that nothing has changed.
In some ways the sameness of the news is reassuring, like an old familiar song. On the rare occasions when real news happens – like the rise of populism or the fall of Communism – the effect is absolutely shocking. Imagine how nerve wracking it would be if every day's news was so totally unexpected. Imagine waking up to stories of corporate generosity, government honesty, celebrity modesty, and peace and goodwill among men. We couldn't stand the excitement.
“Yesterday’s news” is a synonym for dead, dull, useless information. But yesterday’s news was today’s news yesterday, and we consumed it as avidly as we always do. It’s easy to imagine that, in ten or twenty years’ time, we may find an old digital recording of today’s exciting news, and look at it with the same bemused curiosity. Why did we think that was important? Yet some of it was important. In the relentless daily flow of news there are some things we really need to know, stories that have the potential to change our lives. We just don’t know which ones, until it’s far too late.
Copyright: David Bouchier
