Eric Sevareid

In this writer's last post regarding the passing of the news man Walter Cronkite, reference was made to the news man Eric Sevareid (who's name was mis-spelled due to this writer's ignorance of the spelling of Norwegian names).
Mr. Sevareid was not so much, in his later years, a news reader or news man as he was a televised essayist. He was one of Murrow's Boys and spent much of World War II as a correspondent in the Asian Theatre, and as a European correspondent in Europe after the War.
Mr. Sevareid was a literate man of the type not seen on television today.
Below are two links showing Mr. Sevareid. As you watch them ask yourself if any news man or woman would take for granted the literacy of the viewing public that Mr. Sevareid did.
YouTube - Eldridge Cleaver returns to the U.S.
YouTube - Eric Sevareid Farewell Nov 30, 1977
While watching and listening to the videos of Mr. Sevareid your faithful correspondent was reminded that at the time the broadcasts were first made there was talk of professional boxing in the United States dying out because of the lack of a fan base. Boxing was considered brutal and barbaric.
Nowadays boxing looks tame compared to Ultimate Fighting.
We did not know it then, but, apparently we were experiencing a breather before the barbarians crashed through the gates. Guy Grand (refer to the novel The Magic Christian) has proven his point and we continue to suffer for the media's appeal to the lowest common denominator. If the promise of the late 1970s had held truth there would be no such thing as the Jerry Springer or Maury Povitch shows except as local programs produced by local stations looking for the leftovers from the networks.
How far we have fallen. And we continue to fall.
When will we hit bottom?