If u have ever wondered how the media has turned into the monster it is, look no farther than the OJ car chase.
Cable news was slowly dying. Ted Turner was figuring out the hard way there wasn’t enough news every day to fill up a 24hr news channel and keep viewers attention for more than an hour. 🧵
Cable news was slowly dying. Ted Turner was figuring out the hard way there wasn’t enough news every day to fill up a 24hr news channel and keep viewers attention for more than an hour. 🧵
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That’s when OJ and AC decided to go on a long, slow car chase that CNN and FoxNews and CSPAN all covered live.
They threw every personality they had on the news desk to talk about the chase.🧵
They found people to talk about OJ and defense attorneys and prosecutors.
They dedicated their shows to OJ for weeks 🧵
Local media and the networks did the same but they couldn’t compete, since they had regular schedules of sitcoms and talk shows and reruns of both they had to air.
This started the “breaking news,” formatting of cable news.🧵
The producers figured out conflict sells add space. 🧵
Careers were made by people just attacking or supporting someone or something.
And they become featured guests on “news” programs 🧵