A Bad Week for Journalism

By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet. Posted April 22, 2008.

"Great minds focus on ideas. Average minds focus on events and small minds focus on people" - anonymous

I'm hoping this week is a better one for journalism.

Last week began with the American Society of Newspaper Editors reporting that 2,400 full-time newspaper jobs were lost in 2007 -- the largest annual drop in 30 years, bringing the total number of tanked news workers to about 15,000 over the past decade.

"It was an even larger decrease than the 2,000 drop-off in the recession year of 2001," laments Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poytner Institute.

Then, millions witnessed ABC's Democratic presidential debate moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson putting all of their feet (via their mouths) on the accelerator toward the collapse of modern journalism, in their trivial pursuit of "tough questions" on behalf of "ordinary Americans."

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the Washington press corps asked Obama if he's ever given someone the middle-finger and if so, what does that say about his character? "Mr. Obama, are you aware that one time, someone burned a flag somewhere in America at the precise time you were giving a speech. Does that say something about your patriotism?"

Notice when candidates are pilloried with red-herring inconsequential GOP talking points, campaign commentators point to the "wise" public, adroitly able to sniff out political flaws, as the reason. But when there's widespread public opposition to war policies or corporate-friendly trade agreements, the "wise" public turns back into the stupid, unthinking rabble the true elite have always seen it as, in need of a lecture about personal responsibility and what the experts say is in the "national interest."

And do you recall political reporters grilling W about cocaine allegations and his "character" when he was running? Neither do I. Bush said he didn't want to talk about it and that was that.

I won't belabor the absurdity of two highly paid "newsmen" claiming to have the slightest clue about the experience of "ordinary Americans" or the patronizing responses of Clinton and McCain, essentially arguing that economically-assaulted Americans are not obviously bitter, which implies the masses are enjoying the nearly $4-a-gallon ride. But Gibson thinks an annual salary of $200,000 is middle-class, when the overwhelming majority of Americans earn a quarter of that! And we're talking about Obama's elitism?!

Memo to Gibson and former Clinton confidante (conflict of interest?) Stephanopoulos: Other than "analyzing" the meaning of bitterness and the Sean Hannity inspired Weather Underground nonsense, Obama's "character" issues are well covered in David Mendell's book Obama: From Promise to Power.

Maybe you ought to read it, where you can learn why thinking Americans are way past you, having already read about why Obama begrudgingly accepted his campaign manager (David Axelrod's) advice to dumb-down his policy-wonkish speeches to better connect with ordinary people before he ran for the Senate, later criticized by Washington pundits, Clinton and McCain as being "empty rhetoric."

The book, published LAST SUMMER, covers everything from young Barry in Hawaii to the emerging Barack in Chicago who spent his post-Harvard years actually living and working with poor people (unlike his "regular folk" challengers). Mendell also explores Obama's relationship with the "controversial" Rev. Wright, since you can't seem to get enough of questioning the patriotism of a former Marine who happened to passionately articulate what a lot of "bitter" people are thinking and feeling.

See more stories tagged with: journalism, newspapers, debate, clinton, obama, media

Sean Gonsalves is a syndicated columnist and news editor with the Cape Cod Times.

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