How satire shaped American history

Fine institution of esteemed character, and I won't have it impugned.

However,

it has happened.

And this is the PBS NewsHour.

We're what your grandma is talking about when she says, I saw this on the news.

Saturday Night Live has done skits over the years about the NewsHour when it was McNeil-Lehrer, when it was Jim Lehrer.

They did one skit about me interviewing Carrie Lake, who was running for governor.

Now, Ms.

Lake, you have proposed some big changes to local voting laws.

If you become governor, do you promise to make sure everyone's

vote counts? Judy, I'll make it easy.

If the people of Arizona elect me, I'll make sure they never have to vote ever again.

And

you both have referred to this, but what we find is that increasingly is that Americans are trusting, and the polls are showing this, in many cases, they're trusting what the satirists, what the people telling the jokes are saying about what's going on more than they are what we in the media are telling them.

Why do you think that is, Sophia?

So the story of how we got to where we are with this is somewhat complex.

And part of it has to do with the history of not just news media, but the media in general.

Again, I'm old enough to remember when there was no cable, you know, and so we've seen these shifts.

When it used to be, I remember growing up, it was the time to watch the news.

We sat down, we watched it for a half an hour.

And that was an American tradition.

it starts to change when you get cable and suddenly you could be watching the news or you could be watching Baywatch.

And then the news had to suddenly get a little more entertaining to pull those eyeballs back.

And so that's one big shift.

And the next big shift is the creation of CNN.