We once had the habit of recording good television programs on videotape. This was back in the days when there were good programs, and before videotape became obsolete. If you’ve done this yourself you've probably made the same mistake we did – recording programs you didn’t really want because the timer wasn’t set properly, or because you forgot to stop the tape. Unlike DVR recordings, which eventually have to be deleted, videotapes stick around on bookshelves or in boxes for years and years, becoming an accidental archive of recent history. In this careless way we have accumulated regular library of programs that we never intended to preserve. Many of them are segments of public television news. It comes almost as a shock to rediscover them. They are a reminder of how many enormously important stories we've completely forgotten. How quaint the recent past seems when viewed through the reverse lens of television: Charles and Di on the road to divorce, Bill Clinton on the road to ruin,