Political opinion broadcasting

There has been a trend, especially in the United States but in its world media, for political news coverage to have become more a matter of opinion and sensationalizing. Accelerated by investigative reporting in the Vietnam War and Watergate, and by the advent of 24-hour news programs in tight ratings competition, it is a far cry from the gentlemens' agreements not to report the peccadilloes and health of politicians as recently as the 1960s. For a politician to fall afoul of such a pack of scavengers today should not be interpreted, as other than "nothing personal, only business." As Harry Truman once put it, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Classic non-reportage

Franklin D. Roosevelt, while a paraplegic, was never shown, by the media of the time, as having a movement disability, nor was his failing health, going into the 1944 campaign.

The physical health of John F. Kennedy was not mentioned in the 1960 presidential campaign.

Broadcast networks regarded their news operations not as a profit center, but as a service.

Vietnam

It has been characteristic, in political media coverage of the last few decades, for a media mob to descend on any irregularity, such as George Romney during the Vietnam War, when he tearfuly said he had been "brainwashed".

Another aspect of Vietnam, however, was a growing distrust in official sources, often considered to begin with the rosy coverage of the 1962 Battle of Ap Bac, with irregularities uncovered by Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam.

Later, Walter Cronkite went far out of his traditional neutral role, following the 1968 Tet Offensive, to declare "We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds."

24/7 News

This trend vastly accelerated with the advent of 24/7 cable news, such as CNN, and its search for ratings, the transfer of major network news departments from a public service to a profit center economic model, and the advent of blogging and other high-speed, not validated sources of information.

Emotion-laden commentary

A variant of the latter was the advent of radio and television commentators and talk shows that seem outlets for indignation rather than venues for rational discussion. This was a change from the public service view of shows such as Meet the Press, which began on radio in 1945 and on television in 1947.

One of the first appearances of deliberate conflict, in a news context, was the "Point Counterpoint" segment of 60 Minutes, with Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick, beginning in 1975. In 1984, the McLaughlin Group began a free-standing on-air argument.