The Woman Who Saved Reality With a VCR Marion Stokes understood something most people missed: whoever controls the narrative controls reality. So she did something about it. This former librarian and civil rights activist started recording TV intermittently in the mid-1970s. But when the Iranian Hostage Crisis erupted on November 4, 1979, she hit record and never stopped—capturing over 33 years of 24/7 coverage across 71,000 VHS tapes. Every single day for three and a half decades, Marion ran up to eight VCRs simultaneously. News programs, sitcoms, commercials, breaking news coverage—everything that flickered across American television screens. Her family thought she was obsessed. Neighbors called it hoarding. But Marion saw what was coming. She watched TV networks erase old shows to save money and space. She witnessed how stories changed when they were retold years later. Without permanent records, truth becomes whatever the loudest voice claims it to be. As someone who'd fought for civil rights and worked as a librarian, Marion believed information should belong to everyone—not just those with power and money. So she turned her Philadelphia home into a fortress of truth. Tapes stacked floor to ceiling. Multiple properties filled with archives. Her son Michael rushing home from dinner to swap out cassettes because "Mom's recorders couldn't miss a minute." When Marion died in 2012, she left behind the most complete record of American television from that era. Not because she was paranoid. Because she saw what was coming. Now the Internet Archive is digitizing every tape. Making 33 years of TV history searchable and free. She wasn't hoarding. She was protecting. Because Marion Stokes understood a fundamental truth.. In a world where information is power, someone has to guard the gates of truth.