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News correspondent inside Berlin Wall tunnel.

The Battle Between NBC and CBS to Be the First to Film a Berlin Wall Tunnel Escape

Declassified government documents show how both sides of the Iron Curtain worked to have the projects canned.
by Mike Conway via The Conversation on November 8, 2019
Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.
by Chloe Lizotte via Mubi on August 1, 2024
Frank Shakespeare in 1968.

Frank Shakespeare, Nixon TV Guru Who Redefined Political Ads, Dies At 97

Mr. Shakespeare's team oversaw ads and on-air events that reflected the rising power of television as a political tool.
by Brian Murphy via Washington Post on December 17, 2022
The cover of the book Her Stories by Elana Levine

Guiding Lights: On “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History”

Annie Berke reviews Elana Levine's book on a pivotal genre and its diverse fandom.
by Annie Berke via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 19, 2021
Roger Mudd on the History Channel in August 2001
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The Media Will Be Key to Overcoming a Senate Filibuster on Voting Rights

Roger Mudd proved in 1964 that media attention can help overcome Senate obstruction.
by Donald A. Ritchie via Made by History on April 12, 2021
Close-up of Spiro T. Agnew as he points his finger from podium.

He Was Trump Before Trump: VP Spiro Agnew Attacked the News Media 50 Years Ago

When Vice President Spiro Agnew gave a speech in 1969 bashing the press, he fired some of the first shots in a culture war that persists to this day.
by Thomas Alan Schwartz via The Conversation on November 8, 2019

A Conservative Activist’s Quest to Preserve all Network News Broadcasts

Convinced of rampant bias on the evening news, Paul Simpson founded the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
by Thomas Alan Schwartz via The Conversation on July 26, 2018

When the Revolution Was Televised

MLK was a master television producer, but the networks had a narrow view of what the black struggle for equality could look like.
by Alexis C. Madrigal via The Atlantic on April 1, 2018
President Richard Nixon prepares to go on television May 23, 1970 in the Oval Office.
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When It Comes to Harassing the Media, Trump is No Nixon

Trump challenges the press. Nixon changed it.
by Oscar Winberg via Made by History on October 16, 2017
A collage of a still from "All in the Family" on a stylized television with another television in the background.

Fandom's Great Divide

The schism isn't between TV viewers who love a show and those who hate it—it’s between those who love it in very different ways.
by Emily Nussbaum via The New Yorker on March 31, 2014
Edward R. Murrow on the telephone.

Edward R. Murrow Wasn’t the First Journalist to Question Joseph McCarthy’s Communist Witch Hunts

As the fear of communist subversion spread throughout America, McCarthy launched hearings that were based on scant evidence and overblown charges.
by W. Joseph Campbell via The Conversation on March 1, 2024
The son of Robert "Whitey" Fuller, director of publicity for Dartmouth athletics, and other children playing football, Dartmouth, 1946.

'Hit the Line Hard'

During the cold war, football’s violence became precisely its point.
by Jake Nevins via New York Review of Books on February 12, 2023
Harold "Red" Grange, one of the biggest stars of the early NFL.

NFL Television Broadcasting and the Federal Courts

The NFL's control over entertainment.
by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on January 24, 2023

TV's Rural Craze & The Civil Rights Movement

At the same time that MLK was using TV to brand Southern sheriffs as obstacles to progress, a Southern sheriff was one of the medium's most beloved characters.
by Bijan Bayne via RogerEbert.com on June 21, 2022
Frame from the film Being the Ricardos, features Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz at a screen reading for the "I Love Lucy" show.

The True History Behind 'Being the Ricardos'

Aaron Sorkin's new film dramatizes three pivotal moments in the lives of comedy legends Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on December 13, 2021
Leonard Bernstein in the 1960s, at his desk piled with music scores, reading one, pen in hand.

Conservatives Say Liberals Want West Side Story to Be “Woke Side Story”

The beloved musical’s creator struggled to find a place between left and center.
by Daniel Wortel-London via Slate on December 13, 2021
Cast of "All in the Family"

Justice for All: The Religious Legacy of “All in the Family”

The show never took a singular position on social issues. The point was to wrestle with the story itself in hopes of sparking self-awareness and contemplation.
by L. Benjamin Rolsky via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on December 7, 2021
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
by Tanya Melendez via Vox on October 14, 2021
Collage of a man's photograph within a cutout of another man

Searching for Mr. X

For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?
by Laura Todd Carns via The Atavist on September 20, 2021
Sly Stone performing in front of crowd

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary "Summer of Soul," revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.
by David Hajdu via The Nation on July 29, 2021
Joseph McCarthy appearing on CBS television
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The Cold War on TV: Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

In the heat of the Cold War, Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade became a media sensation.
via Retro Report on April 12, 2021
A women in a newsroom covering the election
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Good TV Demands Results on Election Night, but That’s Bad for Democracy

The history of tuning in to televised election returns.
by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via Made by History on November 3, 2020
Person holding suitcase at gas station with other person in background

Night Terrors

The creator of ‘The Twilight Zone’ dramatized isolation and fear but still believed in the best of humanity.
by Andrew Delbanco via New York Review of Books on October 29, 2020
Host Jack Barry and two contestants on the game show "21."

Think Presidential Debates Are Dull? Thank 1950s TV Game Shows

The only debate arrangement that everyone could agree to 60 years ago remains in place today – the game show format.
by Michael J. Socolow via The Conversation on December 17, 2019
Rod Serling at the typewriter, at his Westport, Connecticut, home in 1956.

An Early Run-In With Censors Led Rod Serling to 'The Twilight Zone'

His failed attempts to bring the Emmett Till tragedy to television forced him to get creative.
by Jackie Mansky via Smithsonian on April 1, 2019
Black-and-white television still of man in front of a row of masks of himself, lighting a cigarette for one of them.

Did the Creator of 'The Twilight Zone' Plagiarize Ray Bradbury?

Either way, Rod Serling definitely pissed him off.
by Emily Temple via Literary Hub on October 2, 2018

It Didn’t Start with Facebook: Surveillance and the Commercial Media

The era of audience exploitation began in earnest thanks in large part to the experiments of Dr. Frank Stanton in the 1930s.
by Michael J. Socolow via We're History on May 1, 2018

In 1968, When Nixon Said "Sock It To Me" on 'Laugh-In,' TV Was Never Quite the Same Again

The show's rollicking one-liners and bawdy routines paved the way for cutting-edge television satire.
by Ryan Lintelman via Smithsonian on January 19, 2018
Funeral flower arrangement with a ribbon reading "R.I.P. Internet."
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Why Ajit Pai is Wrong About Net Neutrality

FCC regulations have long promoted innovation that benefits consumers, not stifled it.
by Michael J. Socolow via Made by History on December 14, 2017
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Before Net Neutrality, There Was Radio Regulation

How today's media landscape was shaped by a 1920s decision to privilege corporate broadcasters over noncommercial ones.
by Livia Gershon, Robert W. McChesney via JSTOR Daily on December 11, 2017
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