THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS

Insanity. Albert Einstein is credited with describing insanity as “Doing the same thing over, and over again and expecting different results.” By that definition I certainly must be insane. Each day for months now I have turned on my television, switched the channel to CNN or it’s sister CNN Headline News hoping to hear some news coverage of current events and each day I can stomach about five minutes of coverage before I want to vomit. To be fair, much of what I am about to say could be said of many other network and cable news organizations.
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but some time ago “the media” decided that what American viewers wanted was entertainment, not news. Programs like “Entertainment Tonight” were born. They were plugged into time slots near or next to “the news”, I guess in hopes that some “newsiness” would wear off on it and that viewers might begin to confuse the “entertainment” with real coverage of important current events. Well it comes on just before the local news so it must be news too! It seems to have worked. The coverage given to “Hollywood gossip” is now quite interchangeable with any “news” program….stories cross from entertainment to news without anyone even noticing. What is Paris doing? What’s wrong with Tom Cruise? Which glamour girl is cheating on which boyfriend? Who kissed who. Who needs to be in drug rehab and who is in trouble with the law? WHO CARES?
I don’t object to a program devoted to this trash….er, uh….I mean these kinds of stories, but I do object to those same stories being foisted upon viewers of News programs. What terrifies me the most isn’t the fact that I see these stories reported regularly on CNN Headline news, what really frightens me is I think many viewers believe these kinds of stories ARE news or that they are important enough to report along with stories about real issues that affect millions of people.
Be afraid, be very afraid….the media would have us believe that viewers would rather hear about Paris Hilton’s latest antic than to see coverage of human rights violations in places like the Saudi kingdom, or genocide in Darfur.
The coverage of both of our major political party conventions speaks volumes on what is wrong with Television news coverage. There has been much hand wringing from both the right and the left about the media. They are too liberal, Fox News is too conservative, the media gave the current administration a free pass on all kinds of issues, they treat Barack Obama like a rock star, they don’t ask John McCain the “hard” questions, they give McCain a free ride, and on and on. You know what? I think it’s all true, all of those charges are true because journalists no longer know how to be journalists. Journalism has been replaced by entertainment.

The most trusted name in news has provided us with hours and hours of something they call analysis. Analysis is performed by placing two or more (but always an equal number of each opposing view) entertainers on stage at the same time and then allowing them or encouraging them to, make faces at each other, interrupt one another, yell back and forth, talk at the same time, and in general act in ways that would warrant a spanking if they were our children. Seriously now, if our children behaved like that there would be punishment involved. Wouldn’t there?
While hurricane Gustov approached the mainland U.S. just as the GOP was preparing their extravaganza in the Twin Cities there began to be talk among the pin heads about what would be “appropriate” for the GOP to do. Naturally the GOP opted to “look worried” to wring their hands and assure every one that the administration was on top of things and that they would put the safety of our country first over the party being held in the Twin Cities. hmmmmm??? Our President decided to stay in Washington so that he would be in a position to take necessary action in case of a calamity.
I can’t help but to remember what the leaders of the GOP were doing on THE VERY DAY that Katrina struck New Orleans. That’s right….they were having a party at a posh exclusive country club in Phoenix. They didn't look very concerned about hurricane victims during this party. Seems the mainstream journalists have forgotten all about this. Gee...what an inconvenient picture this photo op has turned out to be. So....One wonders, what's all the hand wringing about this time around?

Stuck In The Middle With You

“Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,Trying to make some sense of it all,But I can see that it makes no sense at all,Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.Clowns to the left of me,Jokers to the right, here I am,Stuck in the middle with you,Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,Stuck in the middle with you.”
Stealers Wheel, 1972

This might be my political anthem. After years of political drift , the ground I occupy that used to be seen as the middle is seen as left of center by many. One thing hasn’t changed though, we are still surrounded by jokers and clowns on both sides. These days the Jokers and Clowns are not only the politicians….but as often they are those we used to trust to “report the news”. That’s a laugh. These days even an organization that has the word “news” in it’s name doesn't really report news. It’s mostly manufactured entertainment, opinionated bloviators termed analysts by the networks, yelling back and forth at one another.
But this isn’t about politics or the state of modern journalism, as tempting as that might be. This summer Camilla and I traveled through the “heart of the heart of the country.” Quite literally the very middle of the lower 48 states. In the middle of pretty rolling Kansas countryside just outside the unremarkable little town of Lebanon is a neatly mowed little park and a field stone monument announcing we had found the geographic center of the contiguous 48 United States, and the location had been certified in 1918 by no less than the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Now comes the Jokers and Clowns part. It seems this center point was arrived at through something less than scientific methodology. Someone carefully cut out a map of the lower 48 on some thick cardboard and then balanced the piece on a sharp point….it was determined that the map would balance if the point were on this spot representing a spot about 3 miles northwest of Lebanon Kansas. Town fathers no doubt had visions of tourists flooding into the town. A small motel was even built near the site. Of course the floods of tourists did not come, the motel had to close, but a small dedicated group of local backers still maintains the park. I can attest to the natural beauty of that tiny plot nestled in the rolling farmland one beautiful, blue sky, summer day in 2008.