Good ideas anyone else?1. I think the PoD should come mid-20th century as television is being born and as the television culture is born
1. "I Like Joe!" -- Joseph McCarthy is not only believed, he becomes an influencial kingmaker in the GOP.
(The opening story: The real power behind Election '56. How the McCarthy wing of the Republicans could cause an upheaval...but at the same time the Democrats can't capitalize due to division within)
2. ABC, CBS, NBC, DuMont, PBU...5 networks as we enter into the 1970s
DuMont lives and the Public Broadcast Union, which was developed during Henry Wallace's presidency (elected 1960) It was built along the lines of the BBC, is a highly respected...and denigated by the McCarthyite-Goldwater-Nixon Conservatives
3. Edward R. Murrow, Hollywood's Biggest Draw. The legendary news reporter never goes into journalism.
4. NBC Presents the Nightly Daily News with Pat Paulsen. What if Stewart and Colbert were 40 years too late? (Comes on immediately following "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". The show began as a reaction to a wider more divisive Vietnam War, and a four-way 1968 campaign with three candidates in Nixon, Johnson and Wallace who will continue you and a wildcard Eugene McCarthy-Edward Brooke campaign trying to stop the war.
5. The Nicaraguan Conflict (a.k.a. Vietnam II, Latin Bugaloo)
1985 President Alexander Haig calls for an influx of American military power in Nicaragua in protest of a Soviet-Cuban naval base there. The American people, fearing Soviet insurrection in our hemisphere first support the "surge" but it grows to be unpopular...at least to a healthy majority of Americans. The "silent majority" a scared enough to back it, an really don't like Haig, but they voted for him.
6. "I like Hank!" Election '76 and a beleaguered nation reeling from Vietnam, an emboldened Soviet Union who is fighting with a belingerent China has a seriously hawkish choice. Democrat Henry Jackson vs. Republican Henry Kissinger...Thanks to the ratification of the 28th Amendment which struck the "native born" requirement for the Presidency...Kissinger wins by a hefty margin...and begins one of the most secretive regimes in American History...And it would effect news coverage greatly.
7. The Movie Studios Start the Networks
What if the Hollywood Dream Machine started the television networks...and immediately made news a flagship destination of chisel leading men and starlet women? How would journalism change? How would we cover a story...how would the politics work?
Well the original concept was you al creating the events and I making the reportsIs there any room for journalists who report on international news?
But if we could create a collaborative backstory and then have you take over as cast and crew of the show.....that could also work. It's up to you guys!