Many Newsmax readers are baby boomers, whose age range is anywhere from 51 to 69 years; or those born between 1948 and 1966. It is a pleasure to bring this column, "The Boomer Generation," to our readership regularly.
Addtionally, we are also pleased that boomers are increasingly attracted to Newsmax TV.
Television itself is the subject of this column. Baby boomers were raised on television and most of them can well-recall when their family got their first color television set. Baby boomers will tell all who will listen that they grew up with just three stations — affiliated with only one network each — and that sitting in the living room watching TV was a shared family experience.
In the early 1960’s television was homogenized, maybe even reflective of society.
Today, by contrast, the 100-plus channel selection from your cable-provider seems to reinforce the fragmented nature of life in the 21st century. TV news was once a staple of the boomer childhood home. Dad would come home from work, mom would be preparing dinner, and for most of us the broadcast evening news was a significant part of the family lexicon. Walter Cronkite anchor of "The CBS Evening News" was regarded as the most trusted man in America. Does that sound surprising in this era of fake news and other media bias.
Recently I've even heard President Trump say that his father would typically come home from work and watch television. I bet that he too was watching the news, thinking that it has a valuable role to play.
Politics is now a contact sport. It runs on sheer political energy. Cable news networks are fuled by on-air pundits, helping to build and maintain hysteria. Today we tend to believe that you can't completely trust the media. Most think that the media has its own agenda.
Once upon a time, news was based on real journalism; a story just needed to tell you the who, what, where, when — and maybe, sometimes, the how and why.
What happened? We need trusted journalism; we need a source that gives us facts, not just someone just making up facts as we go along.
We sometimes think that things were always better back then, no matter what subject we are discussing. Of course, that's not true. Progress, technology, and advancement have in fact aided society in many ways.
Yet, there is something to be said for the shared experience when a 9 year old little boy or girl could lay down on the floor and watch the same program as their 50 year old father and their 73 year old grandfather. Sometimes when boomers are sitting with their elderly parents, they recall a TV program, or a ballgame from their youth that they shared with their parents. Those happy memories bring a spark to everyone in the conversation.
The baby boomer male will ask, "Dad, do you remember the 1963 World Series Game that we watched, the one where Sandy Koufax, the great Dodger Pitcher, struck out 15 New York Yankee batters, including the great Micky Mantle?" Dad will respond, "Yes, son, I do. We watched it on that old Philco TV." Television and baby boomers, it's a shared history.
Rick Bava founded and was CEO of the Bava Group, which became the premier communications consulting firm serving the Fortune 500 community. Bava became known for his popular blog columns “Rick Bava on the Baby Boomer Generation.” He is the author of "In Search of the Baby Boomer Generation." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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