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"That's all we can report on the plane crashes and floods right now without leaving our swivel chairs," read a recent cartoon depicting an earnest 6 o'clock news anchor. The cartoon might have added, "all we can report on the New Orleans massacre." What has happened to today's news? For example, what is it with the term "we-- "as in "what WE know now" and "what WE have learned so far." Who is "we"? "We" just means what the site could scour off other news sites which probably was also scoured off other news sites--or from AI. (The great Peter Jennings reportedly maintained that if ABC had nothing to do with a story's reporting, it didn't run.) Where Has Shoe Leather Reporting Gone? Shoe leather reporting--think Jimmy Breslin, Seymour Hersh and Studs Terkel--has been dead for a long time but it has never been more apparent. Whether President Carter's death or Mike Johnson's re-election as Speaker of the House, a breathless "press" parrots the "news" to appear relevant, involved in news gathering or even justified in calling itself a press outlet. Some of my colleagues still do beat reporting--interviewing witnesses and experts, going to police stations, even morgues and yes, leaving their swivel chairs. Sure it's a cold, thankless task, fraught with dead-ends and rudeness but that's where "news" comes from. At least it used to". Not only is today's news copied by outlet wannabes (or should that be "used-ta-bes"?) it is shamelessly censured for what is "fit" to print in light of the bottom line. What news station will report bad news about one of its advertisers-- increasingly drugmakers and Big Pharma? (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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