From the Ronald Reagan era, a classic Meeting Of The Mouths: in one corner, California TV talk show host Wally George; in the other, California then-radio talk show host Morton Downey, Jr. Both have since departed.
But do you notice two things:
1) This foreshadowed the Jerry Springer Show.
2) This foreshadowed the TV political talk shows where confrontation and yelling is considered a sign of intelligence.
So we were warned (but they are great showmen).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.