Financial markets around the world seemed to react favorably
to the pro-Conservative results in the elections in Greece. Pre election news stories indicated that the
voter sentiment was leaning toward a socialist agenda.
Some skeptics were questioning the legitimacy of the election results in Egypt.
It seemed like the only journalist who was concerned about
the legitimacy of the voting results in Wisconsin
was Brad Friedman, who has provided extensive coverage about the reliability of
the electronic voting and vote tabulating machines being used nation wide. He was the only person drawing attention to
the implications that if the recall results in Wisconsin were questionable,
then conservatives might have used the contentious recall election there as a dress
rehearsal for sliding more skewed results past the media in November. (Google News search hint: "Brad Friedman" plus "Command Center")
In the past, reporters in the group known as Murrow's boys (Yeah, we've read The Women Who Wrote the War" by Nancy Caldwell Sorel so we know that the war correspondents weren't all guys) risked their lives to bring a very high standard of excellence to American Journalism during World War II. Media owners (who are usually conservative) would like Americans to assume that is still the norm. Unfortunately that is just as unrealistic as believing that Paul Josef Goebbels was a champion of freedom of the press.
These days it is much easier to get a major career boost
from rude and boorish conduct at a President's press conference than it is to
do so via high quality reporting. Who
doesn't love a class cutup from the Spicoli School of Journalism who can
disrupt a President's speech just as easy as he used to toss snide remarks at
the teachers giving lectures at Ridgemont High?
How difficult would it be to convince high school dropouts (via cleverly disguised political propaganda?) that teachers don't deserve to get the pension benefits they spent a lifetime earning?
The state of the art for Journalism in the USA has become so
wretched that American journalists are happy to manufacture drama and
uncertainty about how the Republican majority United States Supreme Court will
rule on a case that could subsequently provide Republican propaganda
specialists with an opportunity for asserting that there is no basis for
speculating about the legacy of the first President with a pan-African
heritage.
The world of conspiracy theory connoisseurs is buzzing with rumors that the Amalgamated Conspiracy Theory Factory is conducting a competition that is offering a cash prize for the first employee who can come up with one single, all encompassing, narrative that includes three diverse items from the current events beat.
There is rumored to be a wealthy journalism media mogul who
used wire taps and e-mail hacking in Great Britain to accumulate
material which was then used to blackmail politicians for unspecified ends.
Brett McGurk's e-mails were posted on a web site called Cryptome and caused the fellow to withdraw his efforts to become the American Ambassador to Iraq.
Some recent news stories reported that the e-mails of Mitt
Romney, who is expected to be given the Republican nomination for President,
have been hacked.
It is doubtful that even Philip K. Dick could concoct a logical narrative connecting the dots using those three items of public record, but if he were still alive and if he did concoct an entry for the competition and labeled it "Hackgate," it is very unlikely that news media would take any notice.
Famous con man Frank W. Abagnale, in his autobiography,
wrote: "Almost any fault, sin, or crime
is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved."
Now the disk jockey will play "Charlie Brown," Chuck Berry's "School Days," and the drinking song from Sigmund Romberg's "The Student Prince." We have to go see what odds the British bookies are giving for bets on the Supreme Court's decision in the Obamacare case. Have a "not drunk he is who can from the floor can rise alone to still drink more; but drunk he is who prostrate lies with power to neither drink nor rise" type week.
[Note from the photo editor. A good deal of time was spent on Monday trying to get some adequate news photos from the Lakeview school sit-in in Oakland. A return trip on Tuesday produced a better result. A casual encounter with carpenters' local 180, which was handing out information leaflets on Market Street in San Francisco on Wednesday, produced better (but less relevant?) photo images.]
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