Old News

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What an interesting online resource this would be if only…it were really an online resource.
Vanderbilt University has a television news archive it maintains. It has links to a synopsis of every news story on the three major networks (NBC, CBS and ABC) nightly newscasts going back to 1968. At some point they started including stuff from CNN. They even list the commercials. However, they don’t have links to the actual video. From what I can tell, they have only a means by which you can request copies of the video be mailed loaned to you via mail (of the snail variety). Says their web site:

This information describes a segment of a news broadcast held by the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. The Archive has recorded news programs from the U.S. national television networks since August 1968. To view this item, you may request that a copy be sent to you through the Archive's videotape loan service.
We charge a service fee to help recover the costs.

Wow, how cool would this be if you could just click on the particular story and watch it right online? Maybe there is another such archive that does provide online access of the video? I couldn’t find one.