(Untitled)

[threejane]

When I was a kid (growing up in Canada)I really admired journalists. They were smart. They respectfully asked the tough questions. That takes a lot of courage. They also spoke for people who had no voice or influence. That takes compassion. I think people generally respected them. Two of those journalists went on to become the Governor General of

Comments

[contentlove]

Let me join you in the cane-waving then. I recently "got to" watch 3 hours of mainstream TV, while flying back from SF on JetBlue. It was eye-opening, to say the least. I surfed around and watched various news presentations, including Anderson Cooper's show, which is basically a patient debunking of the fallacy-laiden 'news stories" of the day, and some O'Reilly and the truly hideous Greta van somebody ignorant, and oh my fucking god. Not much better to be had on CNN or anywhere else, for that matter. As I said, eye opening. And not in a good way. No wonder many people are miseducated.

[helios137]

In the year or two that I have belonged to facebook, that one of the saving graces of that social network has been the meaningful exchange of real news articles among and between my friends. Yes, there is silly news exchanged too, like yesterday's article about Sal Esposito who is a cat in Boston who is being called for jury duty. But I have also benefited greatly by being exposed to a number of different news sources which I read after having them recommended to me by fb friends - many of who were (and continue to be) initially lj friends. So, while I agree that most TV news is crap, the written word press is still strong and going to the root of issues.

[mantator]

I totally agree. The school closings are a prime example of lack of depth in reporting. Why an AISD shortfall? (exactly... why?) Why a state shortfall? How bad is this shortfall? When was the last time this happened? What political motivations might be behind the extra scary numbers coming from the House Appropriations committee? What is a rainy day fund? Why don't they use it? Should we really be hyperventilating now?

No, questions rarely go even one level deep. I'm not sure why that is? Did we (the royal we, mind you) Americans ask for that? Did we say... no, keep these stories short, so we can get onto the mugging story, the murder case, the exaggerated claims about the weather, the human interest story... blah.

Hey, where did I get that cane! Someone planted that on me!