Two recent events - where's the news?
Something happened last week and the resulting epiphany was so great that I can't remember what it was.
And, then it happened again last night and I had the repeat wash of horror. Last night it was the disappearance of the Indonesian plane still lost.
I was in my studio puttering around with the TV machine on (background) something like NBC on (both occasions) when a 'news update' mentioned the incident(s) without details.
So, I start at CNN and MSNBC nothing except sophomoric talking heads without a clue. I literally could have winged it much more articulately. No reporting, no background, no stock footage of Indonesia even. Completely lame.
Now I am a Free Speech TV Democracy Now guy but comeon they haven't a prayer to fund 24/7 news coverage or but a few isolated foreign correspondents.
I ended up getting very professional real time on site reporting from Al Jazeera and CCTV - whaaaaaaaaaaa?
In this day and age we don not have a single dependable broadcast news outlet of ANY kind other than the alternative propaganda channels.
These people have been so successful in undermining our acceptable level of BS we, I, didn't even notice. No respectable source originating in the US whatsoever. No one who actually has a stable of journalist and the resources to deciminate stories exists any longer.
I suppose Rueters & API & Knight Ridder have there networks of stringers and staff. But what happens now is that these type sources and the NYT and WPost or Rolling Stone first needs to investigate, develop/fact check, interview, write and post.
Then an aggragator such as Huff Post or TPM needs to find & post before we get any quality info.
There is a pitch for a 'slow press' meaning long form deep content pieces which I am all for (if anyone will takes the time). But that is not where we're in dire need. We need facts, just facts and reasonably consistent real time reporting easily available for mass consumption. If. not we are domed with 50% of the population being fed lies and the rest of us in the dark.
Join me below on some other observations on the media and why we can't solidify a Lefty force, even here.
Look I get Dish TV so Free Speech, Link TV, AlJazeera & Chinese Gov sponsored CCTV. I can watch RT (Russian state sponsored) or France 24 but NO US based outlet whatsoever.
finally when they know they're dying CNN will patch in CNN Internatiinal - light years better than the pablum they feed us here but rationed only when CNNA sucks or if it's off hours. Why does the rest of the world feel it's important to have objectivity but not us?
I remember being very excited as we watched in real time the USSR remnants held up in their 'white house' with the Russian tanks firing on the building ordered by Yeltsin. I remember being so happy naively thinking that oppressors on camera will be different. Little did I know that our minders would simply disassemble that wonderful technology via access.
Jefferson said (and I paraphrase) 'a successful democracy depends on an educated electorate'
The further we move from a common reality, a common agreed upon set of intransigent facts & clues as to the truth, the further we move from a cohesive society. When 50% of the population believes 50+% lies there wI'll be no reconciliation.
BTW, where is the Lefty section? Or, should I look for a more enlightened space? I read too many, well meaning comments reflecting the Common Wisdom as fed from above. We really are overdue at raising hell & taking names now.