It feels as though our business, what was once called the “press” but has now morphed into “media” by virtue of the fact that there is so much more out there than just the old printed word, may have peaked with Dan Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, or maybe with Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate period.
It feels to this 76 year old, like we have been sliding away from being the old watchdog press and into something more and more conservative. Like Victorian ladies and gentlemen, afraid of being overly offensive or possibly attracting a lawsuit.
I recall my mentor, Bill Vance, telling me, “Sooner or later you have to learn to take the gloves off.” Wonder how many newsroom bosses we have like Bill Vance, now? Any? And here we all are, after a long slide into fear and disrespect, driven in no small part by companies that cared only for the bottom line and avoiding lawsuits rather than tough, adversarial Journalism. Companies that merged into just a handful, all or most with a similar mindset.
There were of course, mitigating factors. Things like ENG coming along, with the concurrent demand to do everything on the broadcast side “live,” with little or no time for fact checking. And Ronald Reagan, killing the Fairness Doctrine, giving rise to “trash talk” radio, and wingnut 7/24 cable news channels, with little news and mostly opinion. With all of that, we were “slip sliding away,” weren’t we?
I felt that slide happening, did you? Don’t you think that to a degree this current news business atmosphere aided and abetted Donald Trump? I have to wonder if once we get through this current madness, if in fact we are able to get through it, lessons will be learned about getting back to the “telling it like it is” mindset of the 1960’s? A time when some of us were naive enough to think that the truth was an absolute defense. Could be that every so often people need a reminder.
Well, that’s over. I feel a need to write something about the dog catching the car, but there’s probably nothing I can add to what will be an endless stream of highly critical reviews. Perhaps most biting, is the fact that more than half the country voted their approval of immorality, bullying, and extreme dishonesty.
When the world’s stability is hanging in the balance, there’s no such thing as a “little white lie.” Words, carry weight.
An early thought, which I find most interesting, is how all the Trump voters will feel when they realize they were conned into voting against their own best interests. Again. That they bought into it, big lie after big lie. That they fell for it, hook, line and sinker, or whichever metaphor you prefer. A political cartoonist, might depict it as the dog that caught the car urinating on one of the car’s tires before walking away.
This is the same guy who said he’d build a border wall and get Mexico to pay for it. The same guy who lied to the American people about the threat posed by Covid-19. We didn’t get a wall and more than a million Americans died from Covid.
One of the toughest truths for me to try and get around, is that they bought into the lie that real news was fake and fake news was real. Feels like it came right out of some old KGB playbook in the 60’s, but they bought it, again and again and again, and now we’re all stuck with it. Like a bug on a rug. For at least four years or maybe longer. Who can say just how far the country will slide into monarchy?
Whatever our system might have morphed into, Trump will refuse to leave. By then he’ll be 82. Who knows when his already questionable synaptic relays will simply stop firing? When Mozart was that old, he’d been dead for 47 years.
One imagines Melania, rehearsing for the lead in Evita at the Met, the opera having been federalized for the sake of presidential convenience.
None of it will be our fault, those of us who saw the train wreck coming and tried to warn the country. And now, with the dog having caught the car, and all of us buried under a giant pile of all the best metaphors and analogies we could come up with to try and make things understandable, we can only sit back in shock and amazement that so many of our fellow Americans plunked down their hard earned money on an Edsel when they could have had a shiny new Buick. It’s gonna be a long four years and in the end, we’ll get what we voted for. Or paid for, in the case of Elon Musk, who, according to multiple sources, contributed $130 million to the Trump campaign.
Until then, there’s a monster question the Democrats need to sort out. What was it they did that was so wrong, so abhorrent, that it drove millions of Americans to prefer what was clearly an unacceptable choice? Was there any one thing or was it a national combo plate of sexism, racism and new media driven by a new high-tech that has outpaced our ability to control it? It’s so much easier to bury the truth once it becomes unidentifiable.
I’m no numbers-cruncher, but it irritates me that so many of the polls being reported out feature only the “battleground states,” and nothing about the bigger picture. If Harris annihilates Trump nationwide, won’t that offset the battleground states? Of course a “neck and neck” race in the battleground states is more interesting. And frightening.
I recall a time when Uncle Walter, tried to calm everybody down, rather than creating a state of high anxiety to drive the daily numbers. Last I heard from Nate Silver, Harris was beating Trump nationally in the projected popular vote, if the vote were taken at that very moment in time. Doesn’t that matter? Won’t that swing the electoral college for Harris? I suppose not, since the polls are just a “snapshot” of what’s happening at any given moment. As they keep reminding us, ad nauseam. Sorry, I’m old and grumpy. What was it we used to say? About never letting the facts get in the way of a…….something or another.
What do I know? I’m just a country kid from Frostbite Falls, MN, who once got into an argument about the future of Journalism with Lou Grant. I argued that it was circular, that we’d eventually circle back to the standards of “old school” Journalism. He argued that it would not. That there would be no circling back to what we once were. I hope he was wrong but think maybe he was right. Somebody should do a poll on it.
A former colleague, a man who was a college professor before working decades in the news business, advocated for the licensure of journalists. Real journalists, that is, not those who continually tell falsehoods and then, with their feet held to the fire in court, admit that what they’re doing isn’t real journalism, it’s entertainment. By then, of course, the damage has been largely done, and those who most needed to get the message that fake news isn’t real and real news isn’t fake, are so far gone that they can’t hear anything but the siren call of fear and hatred – which they love, as it appeals to their gut instincts and requires no mental acuity whatsoever.
Wouldn’t requiring anyone wishing to be considered a legitimate journalist to be licensed take care of that? Or much of it? Media outlets, might also be required to obtain a license, if they wanted to be taken seriously by the general public. Let the Society of Professional Journalists act as overseer. They could set up a board, or regional boards, if necessary, using their existing code of ethics as a guide. Anybody losing their license, would no longer be considered a credible source for news. Not long ago, I thought this to be a radical idea. Now, it sounds absolutely reasonable, if we’re to promote the survival of American Democracy.
Another thought that seems more and more reasonable, what with the continuing growth of fascism and what appears to be much of the general public’s growing inability to identify it, is a federal law forbidding anyone other than a native born American, from owning a major media outlet. Not long ago, this idea would have seemed overly restrictive to me, smacking of too much government control. Then an Australian, and his children, none of whom are native born Americans, seized control of FOX. It was also before a man from South Africa who inherited an emerald mine, bought Twitter, and all the mind game political power that goes with it. It was before technology was moving so fast that we couldn’t imagine what the next hi-tech communications monster might be, or who might control it. The Russians? North Korea? Some wealthy trust-fund baby exhibiting signs of psychological co-morbidity who descends from a golden elevator in New York City, with the intention of becoming the first American dictator?
If only native born Americans can become President or Vice President of the United States, then isn’t it only reasonable that native born Americans should be in control of the publicity process that puts them there?
Isn’t the game becoming far too risky to keep playing it without adequate guardrails for the protection of American Democracy? Would licensing journalists and journalism outlets and requiring mass-media owners to be native born, is that asking too much? Once upon a time, I would have thought so. Now, they sound like reasonable ideas if we want to hang onto those freedoms we have left. One of them being, and maybe most importantly, government by the people, administered through elected representatives chosen by free and open elections.
A couple of recommendations for a diversion from our political woes.
Now into its second season, so you can binge, is “The Old Man,” starring Jeff Bridges and Alia Shawkat. Streaming on Hulu, it’s about a CIA retiree who is “hunted both by the agency he once worked for and his own nightmares.” Great acting, wonderful writing, terrific entertainment. It slows down in spots, but not enough to make a difference. Jeff Bridges, shines.
I also recommend “The Penguin” on Max, formerly HBO. Only one episode in this latest Batman villain Penguin prequel saga has dropped. It blew me away. The acting, production standards and story are all top notch. Colin Farrell, is a tour de force in the lead role. If they can keep it up, this should sweep the Emmys. If there is still a movie god left in Hollywood. In a world where “The Bear” is considered to be a comedy and James Darren gets snubbed on the “In Memorial” look back, nothing makes much sense anymore. That said, this is gritty, gamey, dangerous, violent and great. You have been warned.
I’ll also mention “Slow Horses” on Apple TV. A bunch of leftover, misfit, MI-5 agents who thought their careers were over are thrown back into the limelight and are forced to show their stuff in a world of intrigue and government bureaucracy. Gary Oldman, is both disgusting and wonderful as the lead. Again, this one is pretty gritty, but the acting and the writing are wonderful.
If the occult and spooky are to your liking, check out “A Discovery Of Witches” on Netflix. It has vampires, demons and of course, witches. Outstanding production values and incredible acting. For what it is, it’s really very good. Another scarefest on Netflix comes from the great Michelle and Robert King. It’s titled “Evil,” and it is. Scary stuff with amazing creatures crawling out of a hole in the basement wall. The great Andrea Martin, pops up now and again as a fearless nun for comedic relief.
Also from Michelle and Robert King, are “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” with the great Christine Baranski, who is better than good. Law office politics and intrigue reminiscent of “L.A. Law.” Both these series are binge worthy. Both are on Paramount+.
Nothing mentioned here could be considered “light and cheery.” Possibly because there’s almost nothing new out there that makes me laugh anymore. There is “Shrinking” on Apple, with Harrison Ford at his deadpan best. Apart from that, there isn’t any new material that makes me smile or even chuckle. Nothing that’s smart or clever, even though awards for alleged comedies keep going out the door.
Wit, it would seem, is out of fashion. Except for “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which is so razor sharp and L.A.-centric as to be over the heads of much of any potential audience. It’s also possible that the very essence of what humor is considered to be is changing and I’m simply too old to catch up. Or maybe, and this is far more likely to me, they’ve just forgotten what “funny” is.
Help me out with something. I’ve been retired for a number of years, but feel I still have the ability to be reasonably objective. Even in the midst of all these new terms like “false equivalency” and “fake news.” It’s easy for the truth to get lost, especially, it seems to me, for those among us who have no memory of the Cronkite era, when the New York Times, was a shining beacon of veracity, and it was so much easier to make personal judgements based upon information that had run its course through what was then our traditional and trusted journalism filter.
So here’s the rub. For me, at least. There is now broad condemnation of MSNBC for being way over on the left and as such, far too liberal. Slanted. It is at least at the opposite end of the spectrum from the people on FOX and the gang of right-wing talkers Rush Limbaugh established. For me though, it appears that the pundits on MSNBC are simply trying to tell the truth, based upon the facts as they are currently known.
Why are media critics so eager to condemn that? Is it because the right is no longer the traditional conservative right, but a gang of lying cultists while mainstream reporters are still trying to cover politics as they always have and can’t adjust to this new normal? Is taking one side over another bad journalism, even if you’re siding with the truth over self aggrandizement and deceit?
I always thought, and still believe, that good journalism is a search for the truth, not denying it because we need to appear to be “balanced” in our coverage of a gang of liars and thieves out to steal our democracy – a thoroughly biased cult of Trump, that is so open about their deceit, that it has been normalized while those on the other side, like MSNBC, have been made to look like they are equally deceitful, because they continue to try and play by the rules in their search for the truth.
It’s so easy to get lost in the rhetorical shuffle, when fake news is real, down is up and night is day. Feels like we are being played by those that Hoover called the “Masters of Deceit.” I’m no huge fan of J. Edgar, but I did read the book and think he may have been right about this one. I think we’re being played, and being played to the max. I think it may be time to back off on Joe and Mika, with a huge assist from Rachel Maddow, for trying to tell the truth. At this point in our nation’s history, I’d consider welcoming Hoover back, tutu and all, to do combat with the demon seed left on our national doorstep by Roy Cohn.
Is anybody else the least bit interested in how complacent the news media have become regarding the fact that Ukraine has not only invaded Russia, but is pushing farther into the country almost daily, capturing 200 Russian soldiers? The captured Russian fighters are being described as “conscripts,” with some accounts making it sound almost like they laid down their arms and surrendered, rather than fight the Ukrainians. Is Putin, running out of soldiers willing to fight his ego-driven war?
The Russians, meanwhile, appear almost flummoxed over the move leading to questions about what Ukraine will do next. Will they march into Moscow, with Putin making his escape to North Korea? Of course not, and yet, there are questions. I know it’s been more than two years since Putin invaded Ukraine, I know Russia has launched a missile attack in retaliation, but come on now, this is Ukraine invading Russia. A country lead by a megalomaniac dictator with a nuclear arsenal. He reportedly thought this thing would be over in days or a couple of weeks, and here we are headed for a three year long conflict that threatens all of Europe. A conflict that has resulted in tens of thousands of Russia’s best and brightest leaving the country.
Or am I expecting far too much from the U.S. press? A media controlled by a relative handful of industrial giants who have normalized a national criminal running for president? A man who should be in prison for leading an attempted coup? Only in America. Or Germany, in the 1930’s. Or is it just me? Am I losing my perspective, something I worked so hard to develop and nurture over so many years as a journalist? I think not. I think the news business has changed, and I’ve remained pretty much the same. Proud of it too, thank you very much.
Thinking about the horror of Trump’s appearance with the NABJ, and what a terrible catch-22 we’re in.
If you put him on the air, even if you feel it’s your obligation to cover what he’s doing as a candidate, you’re giving him a national platform to spew his anger, hatred and fear. True, it’s not a journalist’s job to avoid reality, even if it does look like the next episode of “Evil,” but in this case, normalizing someone who led an attempted coup puts everything in a different light, doesn’t it?
Since his outrageousness is what feeds his campaign to destroy American democracy along with his ego-driven sociopathy, shouldn’t journalists stop providing coverage of his lunatic dog and pony shows and stick to an analysis of the issues? Since rational thinking is apparently something he can’t do, and he has no solid plans for America, other than attacking immigrants and women and cutting taxes for the rich, limiting coverage would provide added perspective on the vast divide between the candidates.
So far, covering Trump as though he’s just another candidate has done nothing but make a bad situation worse by normalizing his neo-Nazi movement. I know the campaign must be covered, but the Trump-free week following the announcement that Biden wouldn’t seek another term, while Donald was conferring with his cabal was heavenly. A return to sanity and the safety it provides as opposed to the master of chaos filling our screens and front pages with his blather each and every day. Or maybe putting all that insane drivel out there is a good idea, as there may be one or two voters who haven’t yet realized that the Donald is certifiably crackers. Co-morbid, as Mary Trump put it in her book, exhibiting more than just one psychological or possibly psychiatric dysfunction.
I dunno, it just feels to me like the news media was horribly late in getting to the party by not recognizing that this is not just another campaign, and as such, it requires a whole different kind of coverage. But that’s where the catch-22 comes in. Not sure what the answer is, I just hope Harris has the staying power to pull us through the storm and into a safe harbor while the usual bunch of reporters struggle to cover this mess as best they can.
What a pleasure it was to turn on “Morning Joe” today to hear Joe and Mika, talking about something other than Donald and Stormy Daniels. It was jaw-dropping, really, hearing them talk with a senior editor from the New York Times, about “How McHaters Lost The Culture War.” I don’t really care all that much, as I gave up on McDonald’s years ago, back when the square burgers at Wendy’s seemed like health food, but it was at least interesting and it was something other than Donald J. Trump.
It was then equally refreshing (caffeine loaded pun intended) to hear Mika, express her opinion that Starbucks has lost its way. She held off for a full year in offering an opinion she said, but now feels that their coffee has changed and that it tastes terrible. It tastes “burned” she said. They also got into Starbucks new drinks, which sound more like a caffeinated ice cream parlor than a haute cuisine coffee bar.
I don’t frequent Starbucks anymore, as I switched to decaf some years ago and Starbucks never seemed to have any decaf brewed. I always had to wait to get a “half-caff,” and I got tired of waiting. Anyway, weren’t they offering those fluffy coffee drinks with lots of whipped cream and syrup decades ago? Is this really something new? Or was the article they were discussing written and then edited by someone without the advantage of being in possession of having any perspective? If you don’t know the history of a topic, you should probably seek out someone who does before going to press?
Granted, the menus at McDonald’s and Starbucks aren’t likely to kick off World War III or change the outcome of the upcoming election, but that’s precisely why I needed to hear it. Hearing something , anything, other than the Donald and Stormy hush money show was exactly what I needed. I wouldn’t be surprised if others feel the same. It’s like we’ve done this before and enough is enough. I’m just tired of it.
Personally, I think they should have just skipped Stormy Daniels II, and moved on with the other three criminal indictments against DJT. I think there are three others? I’m having a hard time keeping it all sorted out and I have to wonder if they filed the hush money case because they thought the other three would be delayed until after the election, and they wanted to get Trump’s sexcapades and creative funding issues back in the press before America goes to the polls.
Please know that I don’t like Trump. I’m not crazy about Joe Biden, either, but Joe isn’t crazy and Trump, apparently is. If you haven’t already done so, read Mary Trump’s book, “How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.” You owe it to yourself and the country.
The fact that DJT is talking about the fictional character Hannibal Lecter, from the “Silence of the Lambs” movies as if he actually existed, should be enough to make anyone question the man’s mental acuity. When Ronald Reagan, talked about “Rambo,” we all knew that Reagan knew that he was talking about a movie character. With DJT, it’s difficult to know what he thinks when it comes to separating reality from fiction. He seems to think they’re interchangeable, like using a magic marker on a map will actually alter the path of a hurricane. And if it doesn’t, maybe we can just nuke the thing before it hits the Florida coast?
Just as I was starting to feel good about Joe and Mika again, they proved themselves to be true to the MSNBC marketing machine and went back to the trial, which caused me to pick up the remote and switch over to Reuters TV to get some actual news, offered in various lengths from 5 to 30 minutes.
I’ve been watching the Reuters TV 15-minute show lately. Feels about right. Similar to the way I used to feel after watching Cronkite at 6:30. After spending some time with Uncle Walter, I knew what I needed to know. It was a diet of actual news. A well-rounded and intellectually nutritious diet as opposed to being stuffed with iced moca lattes topped by a mountain of whipped cream at the local coffee bar.
A sugar rush can be fun, but depending upon it over the long haul could prove to be fatal.
If you feel like you can’t get what you need from commercial television via a nightly newscast or the 7-24 news channels anymore, there’s a good possibility that you aren’t alone. According to more than one source, the ratings of CNN and MSNBC combined don’t equal the ratings of FOX.
It’s not like they aren’t trying. The guy who is now running CNN, brought in Bill Maher, to try and bump up their numbers with some comic relief. Which is what it’s all about. Better ratings bringing in higher paying commercials. That’s why it’s called “commercial television.” That’s why American tv switched in a comparative blink of an eye from “family tv” shows to shows targeting young women and mothers and then finally teens as their prime demographic. More profitable commercials. Plenty of disposable income and superstores loaded with lots of crap to spend it on.
Point is, a whole lot of us are not in anybody’s target demographic or “demo” as the sales guys like to call it. At least that’s what they called it when I was still in the biz.
All of it has left some of us behind, grateful that the BBC, France24, Sky News and Al Jazeera are out there on streaming video, providing us with some variety of actual world and national news and not just the latest on Trans M&M’s, which politician inadvertently left classified documents stashed away in the bathroom at his beach house or how many murders there were in the inner-city over the weekend.
The networks keep hammering away on the same two or three stories again and again, day after day, and they wonder why their ratings are dropping? What we used to refer to as giving our viewers a “balanced diet” of news and information has been transformed into turning the news into whatever some executive thinks might get a better number. Meaning, friends and neighbors, we are now just inches away from Sybil the Soothsayer as portrayed in the prophetic movie “Network.”
In desperation, and thanks in no small part to Los Angeles radio personality, Ken Minyard, I found some relief. The place to go, is to that magic podcast button on your smartphone or streaming video device.
I follow Minyard on Facebook, so I knew he and his son, Rick, had started a podcast, but I had never listened to it because I just never got into listening to podcasts all that much. I grew up with Sky King, Mr. Greenjeans and Edward R. Murrow and old habits, like turning on the 6 o”clock news and expecting the news to be there, are hard to break. Then, the other day, Ken Minyard mentioned something about Keith Olbermann’s podcast on Facebook.
Olbermann’s departure, left a giant hole in the MSNBC lineup – one that has not been adequately filled – and so, I found his “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” podcast refreshing. It’s not like he’s back on MSNBC, which is where he should be and would be if the people running the place had the courage to overcome whatever political nonsense led to his departure, but at least he’s there in cyberspace with a podcast, providing a voice, a point of view, that’s badly needed.
I’m also now a listener of the “Minyard & Minyard Do a Podcast.” Again, they provide a point of view that is needed and is no longer being provided by our commercial media, because, apparently, they no longer have the courage and (or) common sense to provide it. Apparently they’re afraid those on the right will yell about big media giving a megaphone to those on the left, and, as we all know, those on the right feel they’re the only political entity deserving of any voice at all. Bringing us to our current situation – a general condemnation of anyone with the courage and intellect to search for the truth and then report it out. Even if that means infuriating those on the right, many of whom can’t handle the truth and would rather hear about space lasers and Hunter Biden’s laptop and any other claptrap Fox News happens to be promoting because it gets them a big number.
Is denying the truth because some on one side or another find it to be objectionable a valid reason to avoid it altogether? Or is pursuing the truth and reporting it out – “telling it like it is” as we used to say – still a worthy goal regardless of whatever impact it might have on an outlet’s profits?
If money matters more than the truth, then the truth will go begging, leaving us all ignorant and at the mercy of a relative handful of wealthy tyrants who care only about growing their wealth.
If you’re disappointed in what used to be called television, if you feel defeated in your search for the truth, feeling MSNBC and CNN which has just brought a professional comedian on board, are coming up short on what you need, then you might try podcasts. There are plenty of them out there, and some, like Minyard & Minyard, don’t have any commercial announcements, so they don’t have to worry about losing advertisers should they offend someone’s delicate sensibilities. Others, like Keith Olbermann, will give you what he sees as the best available version of the truth regardless of what any advertiser might think, which could be why he is no longer on the air at MSNBC. Or maybe someone who is still there is afraid he’d be too popular? Either way, they need to put Keith, back on the air. Until then, he has a podcast. But you’ll have to look for it.
In Indianapolis, a Dutch military commando, in the United States for training, was shot outside a hotel. He has now died. Two of his buddies, two other Dutch commandos, remain hospitalized.
There were six shootings over the weekend in Baltimore, leaving one dead and six injured.
Just a bit earlier it was announced that the family of a man who was shot dead in downtown Baltimore, allegedly by a 15 year-old “squeegee kid,” is suing the City, for failing to provide adequate public safety. City officials and their “Federal partners” held the obligatory news conference saying the violence has to stop. Truth is, the violence won’t stop in Baltimore, until the people of Baltimore get so fed up that they start assisting the police in putting the bad guys in jail. To date, that hasn’t happened. Not enough to make any real difference. I suspect City leaders are afraid to call the City’s residents out for their negligence out of fear that they’ll lose what little cooperation the cops are currently getting. But enough about the long-term woes of Charm City. There is so much more.
Sunday night in Phoenix, three people were killed, including a “suspect” and two police officers were injured following some kind of shootout. Apparently the suspect was wearing a bullet-proof vest and there was a molotov cocktail involved.
Earlier on Sunday, in Houston, four people were killed after a suspect set several homes on fire and then shot the occupants as they ran outside trying to escape the flames.
And this just in: An off-duty Harris County Texas Deputy Constable was shot and killed last night while driving home from a restaurant, where he had gone to pick up dinner for his family.
I apologize if I missed any of the weekend shootings but there are so many on any given weekend, that it’s difficult to keep up.
Some ninety percent of America thinks the country should enforce national background checks for firearms purchases, a position that’s opposed by Republicans and the gun lobby. For this one issue alone, you need to vote for Democrats in the upcoming election. This Republican supported madness opposing common sense gun safety legislation has to stop.
In a very real sense, opposing Republicans supports the police, and right now, they need our help. Big time. Before long, people will be afraid of traveling to America, out of fear of being gunned down on our streets. We are nearly there. Or, maybe we’re already at that point but most of us got so used to all the mass-shootings that we simply missed it?
Ozzy Osbourne, didn’t. On Sunday it was announced that he and his family are fed up with the violence here in the U.S. and are moving back to the U.K. A move Rod Stewart made some years ago, after he was mugged at gunpoint in Los Angeles back in 1982. Stewart had his 3-year old daughter with him at the time.
Suddenly it hit me. It’s very simple, really. The filter that professional journalism provided is mostly still there, but it’s no longer the only megaphone to the masses. It no longer protects the masses against disinformation and evil intent.
Legitimate journalists must now compete with another megaphone, one that’s available to the liars among us, the lunatic fringe that wants only to bend the masses to their self-absorption and delusion. Those who are blinded by avarice. Those who blindly accept the lies.
As a result, millions of Americans have been left believing not the truth that’s put forth by legitimate journalists, but lies being spewed daily over the Web and on right-wing broadcasting. Lies, like real news being fake and Fascism being preferable to Democracy.
How we reconcile stopping this evil without corrupting the First Amendment is beyond me, but if we don’t, it could lead to our downfall as a free people.
It’s really very simple. It’s about evil. It’s about the liars among us. It’s about who will have the courage to call them out and take them on. It’s about who will have the courage to stand by the law.
As Robert Bolt has written: “And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned around on you–where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast–man’s laws, not God’s–and if you cut them down…d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.” – Sir Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons”
Why are the Communist Chinese so uncharacteristically unnerved about the visit by Nancy Pelosi? Could it indicate a struggle inside China, pitting military against political leaders? If that’s the case, then what are the implications for the United States and the West?
Why is the 7/24 U.S. media mostly ignoring the situation as though it isn’t happening as the Communist Chinese turn the water and air space around Taiwan into a free-fire zone? I know the networks no longer have correspondents overseas, so they’ve pretty much abdicated any responsibility they might have for covering it in person, but they could at least discuss it on the shows in that it is LEGITIMATE NEWS, as opposed to the same old political nonsense about exactly the same players they continue repeating ad nauseam.
Why do the 7/24 news channels refuse to do “news?” Can they no longer identify what it is? If they don’t know what to do they could watch the BBC and France24 where news coverage is still going on.
They have no audience because people are sick and tired of hearing the very same three or four topics being discussed again and again and again by the same three or four “experts.”
Is it a simple question of the same pundits spouting opinions being less expensive? Has actual news coverage become too expensive for commercial television to cover?
What to do about the new 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles? Almost from the moment it opened the bridge has attracted consternation, conflict and controversy leading to the LAPD shutting it down on multiple occasions.
The first problem I recall reading about, was the muscle car people “taking over” the bridge to do donuts, spinning around in circles with their cars. After that, people started doing all kinds of goofy things on the bridge, like a barber cutting some guys hair out in the middle of traffic. And then it hit me. It’s not the bridge that’s attracting all the attention, it’s video of what people are doing on the bridge that gets posted on social media. The 6th Street bridge, has apparently become the biggest “Look at me!” social media site in Southern California? Please understand that I’m not there, so I’m just guessing based upon news coverage. And a little history.
Some years ago, way before O.J. and his famous “slow speed chase,” police pursuits were a new thing for Los Angeles television. It started at some point when someone noticed that helicopter coverage of a police pursuit pulled in an audience. After that another station did it and then another and another, until eventually we had a half-dozen or more choppers up, chasing a police pursuit regardless of the reason for it or the speed involved. Some guy could have been driving an old tractor down Ventura Boulevard at three miles per hour. If the police were in pursuit then by god, we’d all be there with our choppers overhead providing live tv coverage for an audience that loved it. We knew they loved it because they were watching in record numbers.
A couple of the stations decided to stop covering pursuits because they had no news value whatsoever and their ratings crashed. That’s how we knew. But back to the 6th Street bridge.
It was during one of those early pursuits that something really strange happened that led to me having an epiphany. There we were, chasing the police who were chasing a suspect – our helicopter was overhead and my cameraman and I were in our truck on the ground – when the strangest thing happened. Crowds began gathering in advance of our arrival. That is to say, people were running out into the street to cheer and jeer before the parade passed by because they wanted to be on television. We, had become the cause of all those people gathering out in the street. They were watching the pursuit on tv, and then running outside when they saw it was headed their way because they wanted to get their faces on the tube.
Instead of providing coverage of an event, we were the event, or at least one part of it and making it bigger than it would have been had we not been there. You could say we were adding to the problem instead of just providing coverage.
Could the same thing be happening with the 6th Street bridge? You can bet video of the barber who was cutting hair out in the middle of traffic ended up on social media. If you look carefully, you can see someone holding up a smart phone to record or maybe provide a live feed of the whole hair cutting adventure.
I suppose it’s a case of “everything old is new again” or in this case, maybe it’s “news again?” But this time you can’t blame the news media. This time it appears to be just a bunch of goofballs with smartphones showing off.
Turned on the tube this AM to find Smerconish on CNN and Velshi on MSNBC. Two bald guys. I wondered if one of the channels saw their competition had a bald guy and decided they had better get one too? It can’t be coincidence that these two channels have their bald guys facing off against one-another on Saturday mornings? There has to be some reasoning behind this bald guy competition?
Then it struck me. Enough with this emphasis on hair and makeup. What America needs, is an all bald guy news channel. “All bald, all the time.”
