Dishonor Before Discomfort
I have KIRO set as the station for my tv alarm. I woke at 7am this morning, not particularly early although pretty good for me. Got to work a little earlier than usual without having to forgo any of my rituals. It helped that I wasn't a bit hungry. Now there's a conundrum. I don't want to force myself to eat when I'm not hungry, that's an old bad habit. I don't want to skip breakfast, that's another old bad habit. I'd like to keep from falling into either bad habit again. This time I grabbed some carrots and a bit after I got to work had them and some v8. Not a balanced breakfast, but I didn't skip it and waited until I was hungry.
Now back to news on KIRO, and why I lost my apetite. Pretty lame seque, but hey, it's the Monday after Thanksgiving. They were talking about the big post Thanksgluttony sales, and even went into the prices at WalMart. During the news segment they ran this infomercial. This is the left coast, right? The media is liberal, right? So, do two lefts make a wrong? Or is the whole liberal slant of the media and the west coast more mythological than w's military service? Needless to say, the local newscast lost a great deal of credibility in my mind.
On the way to work, our domestic journalists lost a lot more credibility. I was listening to the NPR station out of Bellingham, as I'd just come back from there Saturday evening. They were talking to an Iraqi journalist whose brother, sister, and their families had been killed. While I understand the difficulty of standing up to well-heeled publishers, I don't respect the failure. Like so many other aspects of american life, I was reminded of how easy we have it and how soft we really are. Would our major corporations/government like to have the same power? It's a stupid question, because the answer has been thrown in our faces. From our la-z-boy induced comfort, will we raise in time to slow the slide into violent dictatorship? It has become sadly apparent the last six years, we are not as far away as I'd thought.
Would our journalists stand up against real and imminent death threats? I think some would. What I find puzzling and inexplicable is my related belief that fewer journalists would or do stand up against the pressures from ultra-rich publishers. Or maybe I can. When you have nothing, standing up for the truth at great cost does not threaten your life style. Much the same with my employment. If I speak too openly I'll not have a job for long, so I try to be circumspect, and it takes a bit of seniority to make one more open. Much like a journalist who is working for morally bankrupt rupert. Our comfort buffers us from the dire.
I think that same obeisant journalist would not be so likely to suppress the truth if he/she was living with the constant and imminent threat of death. So, while even our outlets who aren't as far to the right as FOX, like the NYT, are still tools for the reactionary conservatives. Remember, they were utterly FOXy in their oversight of Judith Miller, without whom the launching of the Profiteer's War would have been a lot more troublesome for the neocons.
Now back to news on KIRO, and why I lost my apetite. Pretty lame seque, but hey, it's the Monday after Thanksgiving. They were talking about the big post Thanksgluttony sales, and even went into the prices at WalMart. During the news segment they ran this infomercial. This is the left coast, right? The media is liberal, right? So, do two lefts make a wrong? Or is the whole liberal slant of the media and the west coast more mythological than w's military service? Needless to say, the local newscast lost a great deal of credibility in my mind.
On the way to work, our domestic journalists lost a lot more credibility. I was listening to the NPR station out of Bellingham, as I'd just come back from there Saturday evening. They were talking to an Iraqi journalist whose brother, sister, and their families had been killed. While I understand the difficulty of standing up to well-heeled publishers, I don't respect the failure. Like so many other aspects of american life, I was reminded of how easy we have it and how soft we really are. Would our major corporations/government like to have the same power? It's a stupid question, because the answer has been thrown in our faces. From our la-z-boy induced comfort, will we raise in time to slow the slide into violent dictatorship? It has become sadly apparent the last six years, we are not as far away as I'd thought.
Would our journalists stand up against real and imminent death threats? I think some would. What I find puzzling and inexplicable is my related belief that fewer journalists would or do stand up against the pressures from ultra-rich publishers. Or maybe I can. When you have nothing, standing up for the truth at great cost does not threaten your life style. Much the same with my employment. If I speak too openly I'll not have a job for long, so I try to be circumspect, and it takes a bit of seniority to make one more open. Much like a journalist who is working for morally bankrupt rupert. Our comfort buffers us from the dire.
I think that same obeisant journalist would not be so likely to suppress the truth if he/she was living with the constant and imminent threat of death. So, while even our outlets who aren't as far to the right as FOX, like the NYT, are still tools for the reactionary conservatives. Remember, they were utterly FOXy in their oversight of Judith Miller, without whom the launching of the Profiteer's War would have been a lot more troublesome for the neocons.
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