Airbud, what has "happened" to news, is 24-hr. news outlets. We used to have the local, national as well as world news AND the weather delivered to us in 15-minutes. I remember it being a big deal in the 60's when newscasts were expanded to 30-minutes! Once cable became a household item, CNN decided to go with a 24-hour news network and many thought they were crazy. BUT ... the network became super popular with their Gulf War coverage (everybody wanted to stay tuned to the non-stop coverage). That's when all the copycats decided CNN wasn't so crazy after all, so the deluge of 24-hour news networks hit cable during the 90's.

IMHO, unless there's some major story going on (Gulf War, 9/11, etc), there really isn't THAT much news out there unless you go onto an endless 30-minute loop. That's when commentary became the order of the day. And that commentary would have to follow the political bent of the network bigwigs. Political commentary, following network expectations, means nothing more than political bias. If you want the news and weather, grab 30-minutes of local coverage. If you want biased, political commentary, tune into whatever cable "news" (and I use that term VERY loosely) network that leans toward the political persuasion of your choice. It ain't news ... it's nothing more than what may have started out as news, but it gets twisted into the correct format to toe the party line within the network.