I am not sure exactly when the death of television news took place. The descent was gradual—a slide into the tawdry, the trivial and the inane, into the charade on cable news channels such as Fox and MSNBC in which hosts hold up corporate political puppets to laud or ridicule, and treat celebrity foibles as legitimate news.
But if I had to pick a date when commercial television decided amassing corporate money and providing entertainment were its central mission, when it consciously chose to become a carnival act, it would probably be Feb. 25, 2003, when MSNBC took Phil Donahue off the air because of his opposition to the calls for war in Iraq.




Melting sea ice, exposing huge parts of the ocean to the atmosphere, explains extreme weather both hot and cold.
There was no doubt in the young Marine’s mind when he clambered to the top of the enormous statue of Saddam Hussein, tied a noose around its neck — and tore down the graven image.
BAE Systems has been awarded a new contract from the US military worth up to $780m (£512m), in a rare spending boost from its largest single customer.
The neighborhood looks exceedingly normal: single-family homes and apartment buildings packed together, dogs barking from postage-stamp-size lawns, parents hustling down narrow sidewalks to fetch their children from school. But something with very dangerous potential lies below the surface, officials say.
Have a heart problem? If it's fixable, there's a good chance it can be done without surgery, using tiny tools and devices that are pushed through tubes into blood vessels.





























