Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley I continue to like Charles Krauthammer, Ann Coulter and Dick Morris as smart, savvy people who have something to say worth knowing. Krauthammer is serious, Coulter can be outrageous and cutting, and Morris remains the opportunist. It is likely that Krauthammer and Morris really need some attention and audience to be happy: I doubt Coulter cares what anyone thinks about her views, she is unwavering. I will read and listen to Morris and Coulter because they also bring humor to the conversation.
I love Morris' classic line about the reason Bill and Hillary's marriage has worked is because Hillary loves Bill and Bill loves himself. Coulter cuts up politicians like a stir-fry chef at Benihana's and is enormously entertaining, hysterically funny and right on more often than her targets would be comfortable admitting. Despite being entertained by writers I like to read, there is probably nothing that disappoints me more than the current sad, sorry state of newspapers in America.
There is more personal journalism in newspapers than news, and newspapers today try to pass off government and political propaganda as actual news. Big time and small time wannabe journalists start off stories today with leads like this: "Beleaguered President Bush refused to answer questions again in his press conference today about the debacle that is the Iraqi War, still refusing to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction today any more than there were when he decided to unilaterally invade Iraq four years ago." This sort of personal journalism never would have passed muster when I was graduating from Michigan State University's College of Communication Arts with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism in 1966. I feel plenty qualified to speak on the topic of personal journalism since I was an investigative reporter, sports editor and managing editor for a daily newspaper, and the owner/publisher of a community publishing company.
I believe that the trend toward personal journalism was jump-started in the 1960s by Time magazine which became a bastion of liberal ideas trying to influence opinion and culture in America. Time managed to sully the landscape of truth and integrity in the process, and continues to spew out its own brand of liberal personal journalism today. Newspapers today are faced with declining readership as younger generations flock to the Internet which is no better at reporting news and is even more vitriolic. They simply pare down and reprint the same crap that is in newspapers. Name brand newspapers that once had proud heritages with outstanding reporters have become nothing more than pandering sluts who cannot get enough of their personal journalism and politics into the news side of the paper.
Their chief contribution is to try and trick enough readers into paying for the newspaper, thereby elevating themselves to word prostitutes for hire to the political party nearest to their misguided beliefs. I know this sounds harsh but do not think you are being misled by me. The figurative definition of a prostitute is a person who misuses their talents or who sacrifices their self-respect for the sake of personal or financial gain. That is the vast majority of newspaper reporters today.
I have no idea what our universities are teaching in journalism schools today, but it sure has nothing to do with the objective reporting of news. Instead of being presented with the facts and letting the reader decide what is meant, we have become inundated with liberal pundits who think we are too stupid to think for ourselves. In this process we have become surrounded by mediocre minds and mental midgets masquerading as important purveyors of the news. What we are getting is propaganda disguised as news.
Propaganda is thinking of the most outrageous lie, repeating it ad nauseam and then people will accept it as unquestioned truth and build it into an even bigger lie. Two examples of propaganda: 1) There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq so we were wrong to invade Iraq. 2) President Bush and the United States government planned, financed and orchestrated the 9-11 attacks on America by the terrorists. The only advantage for the reader is that we are still honoring the First Amendment to our United States Constitution, so freedom of the press does allow us to see what a degenerate press looks like when in full bloom of political hysteria.
(Editor's Note: This ends Part 4 of a 5-Part Series).
Ed Bagley is the Author of Ed Bagley's Blog, which he Publishes Daily with Fresh, Original Articles on Internet Marketing, Jobs and Careers, Movie Reviews, Sports and Recreation, or Lessons in Life intended to Delight, Inform, Educate and Motivate Readers. Visit Ed at . . . http://www.edbagleyblog.com http://www.edbagleyblog.com/MovieReviewArticles.html http://www.edbagleyblog.blogspot.com
