Classic Hearst "Screen News Digest" Films Available on Internet Archive

Opening Title Card (circa 1965) for
Hearst's Screen News Digest.

Years ago, I remember that The History Channel* (before it became another tasteless "reality show" channel) showed classic Hearst Metrotone Screen News Digest short subjects during their early morning History Channel Classroom programming block.  In recent years, the vintage Screen News Digest shorts have been replaced with repackaged versions of the old History Channel program, History's Lost and Found (to fill out the commercial-free "classroom" block, just like what the network did with Screen News Digest).

The Internet Archive- along with the Bishop Dwenger High School Library has uploaded select issues of the vintage Hearst classroom newsreel series.  So far, six classic issues of Screen News Digest are available for viewing on the Internet Archive, and more editions (ranging from the 1960's through the 1970's) will appear on the site in the near future.

The series premiered in 1958, and my guess is that it was created as a response to Warner Bros.' News Magazine of the Screen-  which was a series of then-recent newsreel series that were reformatted for classroom presentation (from Warners' Pathé News unit, which was acquired by the studio in 1948- and was discontinued due to competition from television in 1956).  According to Geoff Alexander's 2010 book, Academic Films for the Classroom: A History- Hearst's classroom newsreel series was created by Jerome Foreman (who left Hearst's newsreel division in 1960 to form Allegro Productions, a company that is known for producing the Science Screen Report).

Many topics were presented throughout the series' run, consisting of current events or historical subjects. After Hearst discontinued their newsreel unit in 1967 (the same year that rival Universal Studios discontinued their long-running newsreel service), the producers of Screen News Digest relied on past stock footage from the Hearst Metrotone/News of the Day/Telenews library, in addition to new footage filmed by Hearst's television news bureaus.  The series migrated to color footage in the late 1960's, and ran until Hearst discontinued the series in the early 1980's- as videocassette recorders would replace 16mm film projectors in schools across the country.

I am very excited that the Internet Archive (in conjunction with Bishop Dwenger High School's library) is adding classic editions of the Screen News Digest series.  I just hope that they add the 1977 short, The Talking Machine: Tinfoil to LP- which commemorated the centennial of recorded sound (it was shown on The History Channel's "classroom" block many years ago).

*The History Channel (along with its sister network, A&E- which also showed the Screen News Digest shorts in the past) is a joint venture of Hearst and ABC.  Yet sadly, that channel (which has shortened its name to "History") has morphed into another boring "reality show" cable channel. Same goes for A&E (in my honest opinion).

Rant: Washington's WJLA-TV preempts Me-TV's Saturday Lineup

I was looking forward to watching the Saturday evening Me-TV lineup (after a long week). But on the evening of Saturday, August 30th- I was quite disappointed to see what was in place of Me-TV’s Saturday lineup. Instead, Washington area viewers were treated to "bottom-of-the-barrel" sports programming from this new start-up service- the American College Sports Network.

This has been going on every Saturday since then- and this blog writer is very disappointed in Channel 7’s preemption of Me-TV’s Saturday evening programming.  I learned that the local affiliate that carries Me-TV in the area, WJLA (ABC) decided to preempt a good chunk of the Saturday schedule- consisting of classic westerns in the afternoon and science fiction programs in the evening.

Viewers in the Washington are also missing out on Me-TV’s telecast of The Adventures of Superman, thanks to Channel 7’s new owners.  The main highlight of Me-TV’s Saturday lineup is iconic Chicago horror host Svengoolie (portrayed by Rich Koz), and his showcase of vintage Universal Studios horror feature films. Svengoolie is also preempted by Channel 7’s stale sports programming.

This is because of WJLA’s new owners, forcing the station to carry programming from their American College Sports Network instead of the great shows on Me-TV. Recently, WJLA (and its cable outlet, NewsChannel 8) was acquired by the controversial Sinclair Broadcast Group (which is based in Baltimore, and operates the American College Sports Network). This was part of Sinclair’s acquisition of Allbritton Communications’ TV stations (after Allbritton’s heirs decided to focus on their Capitol Hill rag, Politico). Sinclair has been on a massive buying spree over the years, acquiring TV stations left and right (all thanks to rampant corruption in the Federal Communications Commission, along with greedy Capitol Hill lobbyists- in this blog writer’s view).

It has been reported that similar situations have been happening on Sinclair-owned (or managed) TV stations across the nation. Not just on their stations that carry Me-TV, but on stations that carry other digital networks (through their stations' sub-channels). Many (including this blog writer) have written on WJLA’s Facebook page, suggesting that they restore the Saturday lineup on Me-TV. The only other way to get Me-TV (around ATM’s home base) is through the sub-channel of Baltimore’s WBAL-TV 11 (owned by Hearst). But unfortunately, ATM’s home base is situated in a “DTV dead zone”- and Comcast only carries the Washington stations’ sub-channels in the Frederick area.

It would be nice if another Washington area station would be interested in carrying Me-TV (full-time). In this case, it may be pretty unlikely- as the only non-network owned stations (in addition to Sinclair’s WJLA) are Gannett’s W*USA-TV 9 (CBS, with Bounce TV and WeatherNation on their sub-channels) and Tribune’s WDCW-TV 50 (CW- which carries Antenna TV and This TV on their sub-channels).

To paraphrase an old slogan that WJLA used - it looks like that TV 7 will no longer be “a part of my life", nor will that station be “on my side”- until they stop preempting Me-TV’s Saturday schedule.

In this writer’s opinion, the executives at Sinclair deserve to have rubber chickens thrown at them for dumping Svengoolie.

TELL SINCLAIR/WJLA-TV: “DON’T MESS WITH ME-TV!” At The Matinee’s proprietor has voiced his opinion to WJLA (through their “contact” section on the station’s website). Now it’s your turn to tell WJLA (or any Sinclair-owned station that carries Me-TV) not to preempt Me-TV’s Saturday programming:

WJLA-TV 7
1100 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22209
wjla.com/ Phone: (703)-236-9555

SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030
sbgi.net/Phone: (410)-568-1500

September 10th: Battle for Net Neutrality

It's been awhile since something new has been posted on At The Matinee (due to overwhelming classwork/homework since ATM's author has gone back to college to expand his educational prospects).

This is in honor of today, which is called "Net Neutrality Day".  In the view of this blog writer, the internet should belong to everyone- not to a select few.  The internet shouldn't be in the hands of giant, corrupt corporations such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T.

Show your support by going to the website for Battle For The Net.  Again (in this blog writer's view), the internet should belong to everyone.

More from At The Matinee on Save the Internet day, which was held this past May...