Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Didn't we already fight a war against King George?
In the past few months, George W and his cronies have installed a monarchy in the place of our democracy and the people who were supposed to defend "our freedom", "we the people" have stood by in silence. Our legistlators have fallen into two camps: the loyal soldiers of Republicanism and the disconnected, distracted Democrats. As the people, we are concerned only with our individual slices of the pie, too distracted by dialogues on moral correctness to realize that the pie is gone and even the crumbs are being snatched away. And the "free press", is no longer free but bought and paid for by corporations and controlled by fear of losing a ratings point if they focus on something larger than the Runaway Bride.
I wonder what the founders of this country would say if they could see how easily we have relinquished the freedoms they fought for? What would they think of the new King George!
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Would "Deep Throat's" story be printed by the Washington Post today?
Let's set aside for a moment, the prospects of legal challenge and accountability for using unnamed sources to get a major news story. After all, see what happened to Dan Rather and CBS news for failing to double and triple check their sources who did allow themselves to be named. Rather let's examine whether or not, any mainstream news organization is willing to still put itself in the jeopardy by invoking the foundation of journalistic reporting.
At the heart of journalism, is a simple command:
- Be objective
- Ask a question
- Get an answer
- Dig deeper for a more thorough answer
- Report what you find for the enlightment of society.
It sounds rather simplistic and naive but given the failure of today's media to follow this simple construct it must be more difficult than we imagine at first glance.
Ask yourself; when was the last time that you truly felt you got the whole story from the evening news? When did you last feel that you had a complete understanding of a situation or issue where the reporter and the report was unbiased? Whether you're listening to Fox News or Air America, the reporters like Woodward and Bernstein have been replaced by pundits and talking heads whose only goal is to placate the public and to advance their point of view. By their point of view, I am not referring to the individual but rather to the corporation that supports the individual.
How sad that a country that purports to stand for "Freedom", particularly freedom of the press has instead allowed the press to be bought and sold and bought again not because we don't know any better but because we (the public) are willing to accept so much less.
Since this initial posting Mark Felt has come forward (30+ years after the fact) and his decision has focused new attention on the story. But unlike the original Deep Throat story, today's story is about who will profit--who will have the best-selling book--get the biggest advance, etc. Unfortunately, the "seek the truth" journalism that inspired the original story will not be a factor this time around. Today's media can't risk seeking the truth.
Friday, January 07, 2005
The dying dream of democracy
January 6, 2005 the debate to uphold Americans' right to vote was belittled by Republicans and abandoned by Democrats. For a small majority of Americans, people like me, it will be this generations "aha" political moment. My earliest political memory is of the Watergate scandal and of the resignation Richard Nixon. The cynicism that gripped Americans led to an apathy among voters from which we have yet to recover. Less than 50% of our citizenry bother to vote and now that the Democrats have shown themselves all but unelectable I fear the numbers will grow even smaller...but will anyone care.
The media covered the story with no probative journalism in evidence and simply accepted the spin put out by the majority party, the Republicans. I have seen no editorial denouncement of the comments made by members of the House and Senate about their own constituents. Comments like "X-Files, conspiracy theorists, etc" designed to marginalize the very real concerns that many of their fellow citizens were in fact denied the right to vote on November 2, 2004. Even the simple act of putting an accurate face on the charges, if only to refute them, would have been better than their real and determined decision to ignore the story outright.