Were You A CNN Newshound?

“Everything old is new again,” an e-mailer says. CNN’s latest venture into viewer video submissions, I-Reports, is really just a new spin on an old concept. It was called CNN Newshound. It’s unclear when it started — a tipster says 1980, this story says 1988 — but it clearly foreshadowed today’s version of public newsgathering.

CNN Newshound was an “800 phone number that allowed viewers and freelance videographers to call in and submit video for airing,” B&C says. This photographer remembers that viewers “could have the glory of being labeled a CNN Newshound on TV.”

The 800 number is no longer in service…