The quintessential breaking news story, as we were remindedthis summer with every televised tribute to Walter Cronkite, was the jarringannouncement made on November 22, 1963 by the now deceased newsman: "FromDallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00p.m. Central Standard Time." Although I was too young to remember that historic newsbulletin, there would be many more interruptions of regularly scheduledprogramming that are seared in my memory including: the assassinations ofRobert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the explosion of the Space ShuttleChallenger, and the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.Each of these events had a profound impact on this country and nothing airing ontelevision at the time was more important than these breaking stories. My, howthings have changed. A late-summer vacation found me at home, with the TV turnedon mid-day, as news broke that Brett Favre had joined the Vikings. I found it odd thatlocal network affiliates were following the black Cadillac Escalade carryingFavre to Winter Park with the samekind of frenzy that accompanied a certain low-speed chase by a former footballstar in a white Ford Bronco in southern California15 years ago. But, August is a slow month for news and since this is a very biglocal story, I watched the spectacle for a few minutes before returning totasks around the house. Later in the day, I turned on the TV again to catch theevening news. Halfway through the broadcast an alert appeared and the network Iwas watching switched from national to local news. For a split second Iwondered what momentous event had occurred in Minnesotathat warranted local affiliates switching their national feed to localnewsrooms. Had another bridge collapsed? Did the governor have a majorannouncement to make? No. Brett Favre was about to begin his press conference. Thebreaking news story was that the newest quarterback to don a purple jersey wasabout to speak. I turned off my TV. Cronkite wept.