I was reading Roger Ebert’s excellent piece about the sad template that Bill O’Reilly is currently etching, and it occurred to me that the problem on the 24-hour news network isn’t the creeping partisan politics masquerading as news, it’s the networks themselves.

Consider: prior to the 1980s, the national news was a half-hour long and took place once a day. Paltry? Probably. But also well researched, fact-checked, and thought-out.

Before the advent of continued news coverage, the people charged with reporting the evening news took the time to consider what was important, how to frame it so that the relevant parts were underlined, and, finally, how to present it so that everyone in America could understand it. This wasn’t because they were geniuses, it was a function of having 23 and 1/2 hours a day to work on the problem: there was time to try to get the news right.

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The 2008 presidential election, which began sometime at the turn of the 20th century, is now over. If your candidate won, a hearty congratulations. If not, then please stop crying and throwing things, pick yourself up, and declare your intentions to run for President in 2012 sometime this afternoon. It was really and truly a — dare I say it — historic election that, for the time being, is ushering in a new era for America. Not only because we elected our first African-American President, but because television covered the race in a way that it had not done in the 50 or so years since it started covering elections.

Much of that is thanks to technology. The rest is courtesy of the 24-hour news stations that used all forms of communications technology to get the word out about the candidates, their platforms, and what color ties they were wearing. As this moment in our lives is written down in the history books, experts will not only say that this time changed the face of America but the face of political coverage as well.

So, what did we learn from all of the maps, analysts, poll results, and angry rantings of the FOX News personalities? Well, a few things. To see what those were, go ahead and jump ahead. Don’t worry, we’ll wait.

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CNN

From our “When television fantasy meets reality” department … Reach back in your minds to the year 2006. I know it’s hard, so I’ll wait. Ladedadedumdumda. Ready? Okay. Back then, NBC offered up a program called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - a dramedy (actually, more drama) that focused on the backstage trials and tribulations of a hit late-night, sketch comedy program. One of the stars of the program was comedian D.L. Hughley, who played Studio 60 veteran Simon Stiles. Simon, along with Harriet Hayes, performed a weekly sketch similar to Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” entitled “News 60,” which skewered the week’s news and newsmakers.

Now for the fantasy meets reality part. D.L. Hughley will be debuting a weekend show on CNN that will feature his comic take on the week’s newsworthy events. See, there was a connection through all that commentary!

The show will be called D.L. Hughley Breaks the News (working title) and premieres on October 25th at 10 p.m. Taped before a live studio audience Breaks the News will feature Hughley’s take on news events as well as one-on-one interviews with a range of newsmakers. According to Jon Klein, president of CNN’s U.S. bureau, D.L.’s commentary will be funny, thoughtful and unpredictable. He also says that the show will allow the CNN audience to stop and laugh after a week’s worth of depressing, disheartening news. Okay, I added the “depressing, disheartening” part.

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