Paul Harvey gave daily news needed perspective

Instantaneous communication has been with us since the days of the telegraph, but there's more to news than just the hard facts.

Yes, Walter Cronkite may have delivered the news, but most of us really didn't know what to think about it until we heard Johnny Carson's spin on it that night.

The next morning, it was Paul Harvey's news "and comment" that cemented our opinion of the previous day's events, whether or not we agreed with his mid-American conservative slant.

Like poet Carl Sandburg, whose interpretation of life on the Great Plains was celebrated Friday night at the Fox Theatre, Paul Harvey's take on the news of the day provided context and color that could never be delivered by dry, objective facts.

Like Sandburg's work, Paul Harvey's daily news broadcasts, as well as his "The Rest of the Story" features, gave the listeners perspective from which to draw conclusions and sort out our emotional reactions to sometimes horrifying news.

No one will ever replace that resonant voice, delivered by everything from staticky AM radios to Internet podcasts for the last 58 years, but thanks to bloggers, commentators, television talk shows and cable "fake" news show, Paul Harvey's "and comment" tradition is alive and well.