A Brief History On August 4, 1987, the Federal Communications Commission officially removed any obligation of television and radio media to present controversial issues in an even and “fair” manner when they rescinded the Fairness Doctrine. Digging Deeper Much has been made of the blatant cheerleading by mass media for one side or the other in recent years, making so called news programs more partisan than just information. Calling the media “biased” and “fake news” has become an allegation by all sides of every issue anytime the media does not agree with a point of view. The Fairness Doctrine originated…
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A Brief History On July 31, 2012, Ukrainian gymnast, Larisa Latynina, was passed as the most prolific Olympic Medal winner, when American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Larisa dominated Olympic gymnastics from 1956 to 1964, winning 9 Olympic Gold medals and a total of 18 Olympic medals. No gymnast, male or female, has surpassed her total of Gold medals, and her total medal record lasted for nearly 5 decades before broken by Phelps. A remarkable athlete, Phelps won a total of 28 Olympic medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics, in which the 15 year old…
A Brief History On July 24, 1980, a quartet of Australian swimmers took the Olympic Gold Medal in the Men’s Swimming 4 by 100-meter medley relay race, the only time an American team failed to win this particular event. Digging Deeper While the US has dominated this particular event, the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, was plagued by politics and the US along with 65 other countries boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Australians, certainly among the greatest swimming nations, produced the “Quietly Confident Quartet,” a self-named crew consisting of Mark Kerry, Peter Evans, Mark…
A Brief History On July 18, 1967, little Mark Sinclair was born in Alameda County, California, a baby that would become one of the highest grossing film actors, Vin Diesel. Digging Deeper Of “ambiguous” ethnicity, Diesel has a mother of English, Scots, and German heritage, while he never met his biological father. He himself claims not to know his exact ethnicity, although his mother described him as “multi-cultural.” At the time of Diesel’s birth, several states had “anti-miscegenation” laws against mixed race marriages, and Diesel has speculated that this fact may have contributed to his hidden background. Diesel took to…
A Brief History On July 16, 1956, the last “Big Top” circus produced by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus ended its run in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and all subsequent circus productions would be held in arenas instead of the giant tents. Digging Deeper PT Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth” had merged with The Cooper and Bailey Circus in 1881, then was bought by the Ringling Brothers in 1907. The two circuses operated separately until 1919. In 1944, the circus suffered a tragedy when the Big Top caught on fire in Hartford, Connecticut, resulting in 167 deaths, though this fire…