Network Nitpicking

In this age of information it would be oh so wonderful to get some news. Real news that asks tough questions, probes, investigates and demands answers. There used to be a job for those with the stamina and leathery skin suited to it -- it was known as journalism and it wasn't always a degree program at some elite grad school that got you directly into the field (in case Daddy couldn’t swing it for you). These days, the Ivy League is the fast track and almost a sure way to secure a gig and worthy contacts in the Big Press. It also helps if you have an enormous, teased, and highlighted Texas do – ladies too! But time was when those with a yen for digging in the dirt and unearthing gems spent less time in front of the mirror, bypassed the degree options (there weren’t any when I was in school) and headed to Fleet Street, in London (now gone), where the pubs were crowded from 11am through dinner with the owners of seriously pickled livers, who could sniff out a great story while completely plastered. These guys scoffed at the notion that a BA in English Literature, let alone Shakespeare or Gerard Manley Hopkins could inform your journo skills. But hang around in their shadows for a few years and you'd learn a thing or two about scoops and leads. They didn’t give a monkey’s ass about hacks or PR people, press releases, or spin, let alone celebrities. And to some extent, the English press is still paving the way and holding dear to the notion that there are two sides to every story and that everyone is accountable, no matter their status, wealth, or position. The higher you climb, the harder you're going to fall if you don't play by the rules should be the directive in every newsroom. Alas, this is apparently not the case Stateside, where we bow to Mammon.

Take Madoff, who managed to elude the truth-seekers, wherever they were, for nine years, or Bush and Cheney, who ruled supreme and subverted the laws, goodwill, and safety of the entire planet in full view of us all, to benefit their own interests while the press stood around and picked lint out of their navels. It was interesting to watch the sheer rage and outcry about Clinton's faux-pas with a girl and a cigar, versus the indifference, bordering on stony silence, in the face of the lying, cheating, stealing, and overall corrupt antics of Messrs. Bush and Cheney, not to mention sending a couple of thousand young American service men and countless Iraqis to their deaths. Forget about Palin. In any other country the press would have ended it for her before it all began.

It’s sad, that we as a nation, have lost our ability to follow through and expose the BS but I guess there is some truth to the aphorism that if you don't get what you like, you end up liking what you get. There is still hope -- Rolling Stone frequently offers excellent investigative pieces, shame about their format -- but the mainstream press? CNN's new promo boasts that they ask the tough questions, but didn’t bother to put any of them recently to officials at the National Association of Evangelicals who booted Pastor Ted Haggard when allegations of his same-sex dalliances surfaced. What happened to Love Thy Neighbor? Poor Ted. But he’s still a believer. And so goes our press. Offering us double standards and keeping us all in a house of mirrors where little truth but lots of crap emerges. As for the real news, the stuff going on beyond our borders, in places that some of us have never even heard of, visit BBC America and discover that there’s a whole world out there that isn’t concerned about whether or not chocolate or red wine will prolong your life.