Newsies

Many of today's news networks started in the mid- to late-1800s as telegraph news agencies, and news was sent over telegraph lines which sprung up all across the country.

Pictured above left:  The first office for CNN, the first 24-hour/day telegraph news network in the country, was established behind Dooley "Doo Daw" Dawson's barn in Washerst, PA (the birthplace of America's greatest poet, Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). 

Linemen traveled in open wagons across the country to plant poles and string telegraph wires for CNN and other news agencies.  Pictured above right: Lineman celebrate the first pole raised in downtown Standing Peachtree (which later became Atlanta). 

Emmett Lee Dickinson was a great fan of the 24-hour news cycle, and he wrote poems about the major news networks, including "Could I but watch indefinite," "Newscasts are there to circulate," and  "Facts -- are not the Realm of Fox" (all below on the left).  Dickinson's poems inspired this third cousin Emily to pen her poems "Could I but ride indefinite,"  "Nature affects to be sedate," and "Distance -- is no the rRalm of Fox" (all below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Could I but watch indefinite
As Rachel Maddow airs
And get caught up with daily life
And All the world’s affairs
 
She spends all Night by Summing Up
She narrates all she can
She dwells a little everywhere
Or better, takes a stand
 
With O’Donnell to follow
I watch Him when He does
For He reports the latest News
That gets away from me –
 
I watch “On MSNBC”
When I am unaware
And I go Nowhere all Night long
When anchors “on the Air”

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Could I but ride indefinite
As doth the Meadow Bee
And visit only where I liked
And No one visit me

And flirt all Day with Buttercups
And marry whom I may
And dwell a little everywhere
Or better, run away

With no Police to follow
Or chase Him if He do
Till He should jump Peninsulas
To get away from me --

I said "But just to be a Bee"
Upon a Raft of Air
And row in Nowhere all Day long
And anchor "off the Bar"

Pictured left and right:  Two of the telegraph news anchors whom Dickinson referred to in his poem "Could I but watch indefinite" are distant relatives of current-day MSNBC anchors. 

Rachel Rhody Maddow (left) is kin to Rachl Maddow, and Lawrnence Houlihan O'Donnell (right) is related to Lawrence O'Donnell."

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Newscasts are there to circulate
Upon occasions, grand
To update observations shared
Their practices extend
 
From News Bulletins and Breaking News
Remote to understand
Behold our ancient CNN
Unto the Channel turned –

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Nature affects to be sedate
Upon occasion, grand
But let our observation shut
Her practices extend

To Necromancy and the Trades
Remote to understand
Behold our spacious Citizen
Unto a Juggler turned –

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Facts – are not the Realm of Fox
Nor Certainty of Source –
Clamorous reports
Until their Anchors all go hoarse.

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Distance – is not the Realm of Fox
Nor by Relay of Bird
Abated – Distance is
Until thyself, Beloved.