Rusty Burke wrote: > > Jeez, Scotty, you make it sound like poor ol' Bob, stuck there in Cross Plains, was >probably ignorant of happenin's more than a few miles down the road. Actually, when >you read his letters you find him mentioning all kinds of stuff from national and >international news.
Well, I really wasn't trying to make such a point, just point out that while we know Bob was interested in news, particularly political news, we don't know exactly what he saw or heard other than what is specifically reported by him. I was also thinking of today's TV news. Being on the Canada/US border, I get the American stations from Seattle as well as local BC and CBC National news. What a difference between them, and I don't think news reporting has changed that much since Bob's time in terms of what was reported locally. Tonight I listened to King County Seattle news. Whole bunch of local stuff, no mention of what's happening up by the border. They did highlight a vehicle fire on a bridge in Alabama. Similarly the BCTV news covers events in Vancouver and area and will touch on some national events, and important international events, but primarily it is local in content. Newspapers work the same way. So the CP news is very local, Brownwood would have a bigger view but lots of local stuff of that area, and the Dallas papers even more widespread in national and international coverage. In Bob's time the newspapers and radio WERE the media, and there was plenty of it No, it is pretty clear from his letters that he was tuned in, but what I was trying to point out is that he may not even have been aware of the racist struggles in the Houston-Brownsville area unless it was reported either on the radio, or in one of the papers he might have read. We don't know that for sure, and I'm sure you will be the first to appreciate that we can't go around assuming this and that about Bob. We've had enough of that shit. Scotty
