Many suggest that I should stop whining about the same things over and over again, and they are probably correct; HOWEVER, the same stuff keeps happening over and over again in our country as the purported "electronic media watchdogs" sleep.
Our country is rapidly sinking deeper into the morass generated by our government and its outlandish policies.
If "the sky is falling," or there is a perception that it could be falling, in my probably ill conceived thought process, that should be reported over and over again, even if we were to know less then we needed to know about Anna Nicole Smith, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, an my latest favorite "media star," Ann Coulter.
When over 40 years ago, an 85 year old Rumanian intellectual said to me "Norman, as long as you expect the world to behave in a sane and reasonable manner, you are doomed." Years ago I did not think that he was right, but of late I realize that not only was he right, but he was indeed an optimist.
As a "media person," whatever that means, I keep having the same expectations of the American media companies that I grew up with in the forties, fifties, and sixties. The broadcast media was, I expect, probably like so many other things, not the way I remember it, but perhaps it was indeed the way I remember it.
I do have in my head my own definition of journalism that differs from the ones given by dictionary.com which is: "...the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business."
For me, the definition transcends these things to include the responsibility of "putting all of the above items into some sort of perspective." If you were going to cover a story about the unlawful domestic wiretaps, you MUST continue to cover the story and not treat it such a "ho hum" manner. I follow this stuff and I have no idea what is happening with it, and of course paranoid that I am, wonder if my phone calls to strange women are being monitored by the feds. If so, it must be very boring.
A friend, in big time law enforcement during the "McCarthy" era once told me that the feds had watched almost all suspected Communists who were not breaking the law. 50 years later the same thing is happening, except that we have substituted suspected Terrorists for suspected Communists, Aint life just grand.
The ongoing Ann Coulter event is making me nuts, not because she says what she does, but because she is given a platform by the "cable" guys to do what she does. Can anyone possibly refer to that presentation as "Journalism?"
The Iraqi war, now well into its fifth year goes on with less attention then Paris Hilton receives every day.
Our Constitution is violated on a regular basis, and the "news people" treat it with a "oh well" attitude.
NBC and CBS "killed" Imus for a very stupid racial slur yet the serious Coulter stuff is repeated over and over on MSNBC among others. She should have NO COVERAGE for her hate speech, period.
We are almost 9 Trillion dollars in debt as a nation and it is hardly, if ever mentioned by the television reporters.
The horrid Attorney General "events," have gone away as well.
The Washington Post "investigates and publishes its findings" about our Vice President, and the broadcast guys go "ho hum," and move along into "irrelevance."
There is so much more that "could've, should've been covered every day by the "electronic" media that is just ignored.
This would all be so much more acceptable if the purported organizations that provide electronic news would stop the "journalistic horseshit" that they retail about their work.
IGNORING THE WAR THAT GOES ON 24/7 AND NOT REPORTING IT EVERY DAY AND PUTTING IT INTO SOME SORT OF PERSPECTIVE JUST IS NOT JOURNALISM TO ME.
Our kids are dying, getting blown up, horribly wounded in so many ways, and yet this horror goes on in some sort of secret place. If the three networks and Fox were to report EVERY SINGE DAY and report in detail the horrors of it, things might not be the same and continue to reflect the politics of it, and not the horror surrounding it.
It may be journalism to "them and theirs" but it is not to me and mine!
Society should break up the media holdings of News Corp, Viacom/CBS, General Electric, and The Walt Disney Company.
Norman Horowitz
Former Bleeding Heart Liberal, Now Just A Bleeding Heart
Bring Back Bill Paley, Frank Stanton, Leonard Goldenson, David Sarnoff, and of course Edward R Murrow