What's with that ZeroHedge icon? Trying to out gay Drudge?
Lastest FACT CHECK = TREBEK
Is Alex Trebek the ‘last Cronkite’?
Published: Mar 7, 2019 2:27 p.m. ET By Andrew Keshner
In an era of fake news, Jeopardy! ‘is still this last stand of facts,’ observers say
American media is a fractured landscape these days, carved up by “fake news” claims, “alternative facts,” and a multitude of outlets and shows geared to audiences of all affiliations and interests.
Inside that maelstrom, there’s “Jeopardy!,” a nightly oasis of calm where concise answers are given in the form of a question and the judge of truth is a mellow man with a sonorous voice and an occasional dry joke.
Terribly bad news invaded that spot Wednesday, as Alex Trebek, the show’s host since 1984, announced he has stage IV pancreatic cancer.
Outpourings of love and best wishes were swift and strong for the 78-year-old, including a tweet from Ken Jennings — who racked up more than $1 million as the show’s longest consecutive winner with 74 straight victories — calling Trebek “in a way the last Cronkite: authoritative, reassuring TV voice you hear every night, almost to the point of ritual.”
Trebek and Walter Cronkite, who anchored CBS CBS, -2.12% Evening News for 19 years, did two different things. Trebek quizzes contestants on facts and trivia, while Cronkite delivered the news, often in tumultuous times, signing off with “that’s the way it is.”
Still, Jennings was hitting on something in this cacophonous cultural moment, observers told MarketWatch.
Syracuse University Professor Robert Thompson agreed with Jennings, but only up to a point.
Trebek’s persona is “middle of the road,” hosting with a “reassuring voice,” akin to how Cronkite presented himself. But Thompson noted Cronkite’s show reported on controversial issues like the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Trebek doesn’t delve into hot button issues like that, Thompson said.
“What Cronkite was doing was reporting the huge narrative of history at this moment,” said Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the university’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. “Nothing against ‘Jeopardy!’ — that’s a considerably less ambitious project.”
Thompson was quick to emphasize he’s a longtime “Jeopardy!” fan back to the Art Fleming days and has nothing but admiration for Trebek.
In fact, Thompson said the show certainly has its merits, now more than ever.
“If nothing else, this a show that still acknowledges there are facts, and if you get them right, you get points for them. In 2019, that’s reassuring,” he said. “Maybe ‘Jeopardy!’ is more appealing now than ever because it is still this last stand of facts.”
Indeed, Americans are awash in “fake news,” and in some ways, we’re powerless to resist the pull of hoaxes and conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, social media amplifies false stories at an alarming rate: they’re 70% more likely to be spread on Twitter TWTR, -2.05% than true ones.
Andy Saunders, who runs The Jeopardy! Fan, a website offering nightly recaps, game statistics and occasional contestant interviews to 130,000 unique monthly viewers, called Trebek a public figure for everyone.
“There’s so much in today’s political climate,” Saunders said. “You see so many people disagreeing on who their source of news is for better or for worse. One thing everybody seems to agree on is Alex Trebek is this voice in the middle that doesn’t seem to garner too much anger in regard in where you sit on political spectrum.”
Saunders said he’s been talking to other fans since the news broke.
“The common theme is the grandfather they never had,” he said. “Alex kind of became this grandfather from afar, watching him on television. There’s just that comfort level of him always being there on their television.”
Saunders, 35, has been watching the show in some form or fashion his entire life. He even learned basic addition and subtraction watching winnings go up and down, a family story went.
“Honestly, I’m still really trying to get my head around everything that’s happened.”
Saunders said “the draw of ‘Jeopardy!’ for a lot of people is the fact that it’s not afraid to be smart and it’s nor afraid to make smart look cool.”
Trebek, a philosophy major before his broadcasting career, recently said people shouldn’t apologize about their search for knowledge, no matter the topic. “Having knowledge makes you better able to understand the world in which we live,” he told Vulture.com.
When the interviewer asked how President Donald J. Trump would fare on the show, Trebek replied, “He might not agree that any of the correct responses are correct.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-alex-trebek-the-last-cronkite-2019-03-07
Cronkite is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease at 92 yrs old though.
>Terribly bad news invaded that spot Wednesday, as Alex Trebek, the show’s host since 1984, announced he has stage IV pancreatic cancer.
Just be ready to protect him when that time comes.