Dear Source,
Thank you for your editorial setting the record straight on the biases and tactics of the national media. Well said!
Far too many people are gullible enough to believe that, simply because a recognizable, (please note that I did not say ““reputable””) journalist such as Larry King says a thing, then that thing must be unwaveringly true. Unfortunately, the opposite is more likely to be the case, as the Larry Kings of the infotainment industry depend on getting their material from their hired help and then presenting it in the most sensational manner possible so as to attract readership and thus advertisers.
It is a real shame that the viewing and reading public has become so mindless that they do not question the outlandish claims made by these talking heads. It is a greater shame that the written media is being gobbled up by the Rupert Murdochs of the financial world and made into a homogeneous pablum of the same bland, shallow disinformation that the electronic media has become. Where are the hell-raising editorials we used to see in the newspaper? Where are the insightful stories that detailed the facts of situations? Gone the way of the twenty-second ““information bite”” and replaced by the mindless natterings of too many self-appointed pundits of pixels, I’’m afraid.
As the masthead on the old Colorado Daily (Univ. of Colo. Student paper) in my hometown used to read, ““It is a newspaper’’s duty to print the News and raise Hell.”” Print real news, and keep the editorializing on the editorial page. This new-found habit of mixing editorializing into facile and often even fictional reporting is an abomination. Joseph Pulitzer must be whirling in his grave like a lathe every time one of these “stories” breaks and is reduced to drivel by the mainstream media. Larry King and his ilk are a plague upon the journalistic landscape, but only lack of an audience will stay their inevitable progress. Sadly, the public prefers entertainment to enlightenment and ““factoids”” to real facts.
Requiat in pacem Joe, the world of journalism has changed, and not for the better.
Rich Waugh
St. Croix
Editors note:We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
