Rant!

[mdehners]

I'm pretty much done with America's Journalists. They don't "Do" investigations anymore, just Google and Poll stat-mining. Add in a weird need to be "Fair & Balanced" and I'm done.
"Annoying Orange" is their fault. they gave him a free pass and he became the Rep's Anointed....much to the Horror of ALL my Republican friends except my older brother and my Dad. Watching them build up The Pantsuited One's foibles to make them look as bad as the Great Pumpkin's actual Woeful Acts is sickening to me. And watching them "bitch" that they weren't notified of her illness until A COUPLE HRS after(for doing something they and ANYONE who's wished to keep a job....)when "Tangerine Nightmare" had NEVER given any REAL medical info?
When he wins, it'll be due to their laziness. There are few real journalists left in the States and they're not Interested in Politics. At least half the crap that "The King of Orange" has done is in records archived all over Manhattan and Jersey but that requires them to get their hands literally dirty, since records collect dust, even in the best archives;>! So it ain't gunna happen.
As I've reminded Chuck before, it'll be no worse than one or two Rep admins FOR US but the Hets(esp the White Male ones) don't have a lot of experience "dealing" with being treated as 2nd Class and disposable) will have an "Interesting" few yrs. Esp when their kids are shipped off as cannon fodder....
Cheers,
Pat

Comments

[arlie]

In our area, the basic problem is that a single big company has pretty much bought all the newspapers - probably radio and television stations as well, but I'm not as aware of that.

They then proceeded to cut staff to the bone - after all, one person located several hours drive away can easily cover local news for numerous small papers, as well as the local big paper (which may have a journalist or two of its own).

About the only thing they seem to have staff for is advertising - trying desperately to get people to subscribe. But with the main paper getting its news from the same wire services as everyone else, I certainly don't see the point.

Their staffing levels are suitable for publishing press releases and not much more. And it shows.

Meanwhile, I understand the big thing in "journalism" these days, at least online (where it's still legal) is producing articles to order for advertisers, which are doubtless no more accurate or unbiased than the advertisements - but are misidentified[if only implicitly] as journalism.
(This practice in print media led to laws requiring that such content not appear in the same font etc as actual journalism, and be labelled "advertisement" - long enough ago that I was a child when I first noticed.)

[mdehners]

Very TRUE. What I read nowadays is usually Overseas(BBC, DW, NHK)and GLBT newgroups(though they tend toward Entertainment they DO carry news that's important to us...).
Cheers,
Pat

[arlie]

I think Trump may be capable of a lot worse than past Republican presidents - not so much domestically as internationally. What will China do if he chooses to use nuclear weapons somewhere? What will North Korea do? India? Israel?

[mdehners]

True. I was thinking personally. With both of us near our "Sell By" dates and no children or young relations we really care about, the EOTWAWKI isn't that terrifying of a thing anymore. At least it would give other species a chance.....
Cheers,
Pat

[arlie]

The EOTWAWKI is already inevitable, due to human caused climate change. But that's not going to get really bad in either of our lifetimes.

But I've probably got a bit more time left on my clock than you do, and I'd prefer not to lose that to a senseless war.

[ahmik]

I've found Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera English to be helpful, as well as BBC World News.

[mdehners]

BBC is one of the few I pay attention to anymore....
Cheers,
Pat