- a new era of technology and competition is forcing network news operations to reexamine the way they do business. - new owners spent billions buying the networks recently, ge buying nbc; capital cities, abc; and loews/tisch brothers buying cbs. and all of them want their money's worth. - we'll now have the strongest network, we'll have a stronger defense piece. this is gonna be one dynamite company. - there's a danger that news will be mixed up with the rest of television and considered just another profit center. - late 1920s/early 1930s to the early 1980s, the sense was, we'll give some of the broadcasting time to public service. but in the 1990s, journalism in the country changed a great deal. you couldn't talk about public service. it was, "what are the ratings going to be? "what are the demographics going to be? what is the profit going to be?" well, sensationalism sells. - in a plea bargain, 18-year-old amy fisher