Unfortunately, "interesting times" are here

I worry for this country. I worry for my kids. And I worry for a world in which a submissive American foreign policy creates a power vacuum the assorted bad players throughout the world will be only too happy to fill.

“May you live in interesting times” is the way the ancient Chinese curse goes. Well things are getting pretty interesting lately.

The stock market’s tanking, banks are failing, pension plans are becoming insolvent, people have stopped spending, our Big Three car makers are crashing and retail stores are beginning to feel the pinch and the weak sisters are beginning to close. Our Congress just agreed to spend $800 billion as part of a stimulus, which does little actual immediate stimulation and, in fact, primarily rewards Democrat special interests. Property values are plummeting and our President just announced plans for massive tax increases on businesses, investors, utilities and ordinary citizens. Several states have been forced to near-insolvency by their free-wheeling spending habits coming face-to-face with the hard reality of declining revenues and, oh yeah, a class war is brewing as the government makes plans to take from the “haves” and give to the “have-nots.”

Have I left out anything? Oh, yeah, the unemployment problem is probably just getting started as cutbacks and belt-tightening are not enough to save many struggling companies which may have overreached during boom times. Higher unemployment means more people receiving government benefits, and, hence, fewer people available to buy the non-necessities which seem to power this economy. We’re digging ourselves a multi-trillion dollar hole from which our children may never be able to escape.And thanks to our preoccupation, Iran is building the bomb, North Korea is testing an ICBM and strategic supply routes are being cut off as countries go for the bigger, better deal.

Interesting times, indeed.

And to top it all off, we’re worked ourselves into such a apoplectic, polarized fury that we can’t even talk about it. Democrats have made clear their “we won, so get over it” stance and Republicans can only provide opposition, without articulating any alternate plans of their own. Democrats and Republicans alike are content to wallow in their own echo chambers, fiddling in righteous certainty, while the United States burns.

It should be clear to one and all that we are in trying financial times. It should likewise be clear that we can’t continue such profligate spending. And it should go without saying that we can’t recover from a financial meltdown by hamstringing the very people and corporations we depend on to revive the economy.

But we can’t even agree on that. Businesses and corporations are the enemy in this new world, evil overlords who exist merely to keep their heels upon the downtrodden workers. It’s time they got their just desserts, right? Hmmm, where have I heard that before? From the Communist Manifesto, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez…heck, even Eva Peron!

People on the left were justly worried that during the Bush years, freedoms were being eroded. They were right in expressing concern that the Patriot Act and various executive orders were giving the government too much oversight over the populace. I salute them for it.

I can’t understand, however, how those same people can blithely allow the government to assume even more control of their lives. Government health care (see how well that’s working out with the VA), government subsistence (expanded welfare) and governmental allocation of our resources (restricted drilling, mining, energy production, except through marginal “green” technologies) should be raising red flags in any freedom-loving Americans. As far as I can see, the only thing the “stimulus” serves to grow is government – even those “shovel-ready” projects are government projects.

One ideology’s suffocating nanny state is another’s comforting feather bed, I guess.

And the media, which should be facilitating the dialogue, seems more interested in phoning in the various talking points than looking at the problems. We can’t even be intellectually honest enough to talk about it – we’re too worried about power and scoring points against the opposition to worry about the actual course of the country.

Continuing on its current course, my kids stand to inherit a second-rate nation in which mediocrity is encouraged through onerous taxes on achievers and indolence is rewarded through state-sponsored benefits. They’ll inherit a country where those in government get a slap on the wrist for violating the law while the rest of us are jailed. And they’ll inherit a former Republic where the best and most rewarding job they can hope for is a cushy position in the government…and maybe eventually a spot in the Politburo!

Such a dream, comrades! More accurately, a nightmare for these “interesting times.”

The holy caste of Journalists

*****Warning: Looooong post*****

I am endlessly fascinated by the print and news media assumption of some holy mandate proclaiming their product to be sacrosanct because they’ve been anointed by the sweet balm of a journalism or communications degree. This divine diploma apparently sanctifies as holy writ all information imparted by such beings…and condemns news generated by lesser- or non-degreed pamphleteers to the dustbin of irrelevant history.

It fascinates…and embarrasses me…because I was once a member of that priesthood.

I graduated from a small liberal arts college with a degree in print communications, jumped into the Professional Journalist world with both feet, won many awards, had many stories on the national wires, and eventually worked my way to the news editor position of a couple of large suburban papers. I’ve questioned Presidents, Governors, sports stars, murderers and movie stars (though I never wore a trench coat or a fedora.) and I’ve been in contact with local and national media of all persuasions.

I took a step back from all that when my first child was born and my wife started her medical residency a couple months later. Fourteen years later, I’m still Mr. Mom (and Farmer Dad) and have had the luxury of watching a titanic sea change in my former professional world. The monopoly is gone, the gates have been broken and the internet hordes have been pillaging the halls of “the big story,” formerly the exclusive home of Professional Journalists.

In the words of the great sage Austin Powers, “It’s a brave new world, baby, and it’s very groovy.”

Oh yeah, and that Journalism degree? That and $4.50 will get you a mocha-frappa-cappa-gollychino at Starbucks (my, how times have changed.) Now anyone can write and publish anything in any media, 24 hours a day, with worldwide exposure…an internet post can go from the keyboard to the Kremlin in less time than it takes to brush your teeth.

The problem with a degree in journalism or communications is that the profession has always been more about affinity and ability than degree…the university time does little to train someone in the profession. You can either organize your thoughts and write or you can’t; you either have the wit and drive to recognize and follow stories or you don’t; you either have the fortitude to write the blunt truth or you don’t. That’s my perspective, and as someone who interviewed dozens of journalism school graduates for various positions I can say that the only way to truly gauge ability is to watch and read what they produce.

And as far as the “impartial servant of the truth” goes, journalists never have been and never will be impartial. Discrimination and slant comes into coverage in so many ways, the best that can be hoped for is that names, dates and numbers are accurate in whatever is forthcoming.

Core beliefs influence which stories are covered and the manner in which they are covered…it could range from something as simple as “it never occurred to me to ask that” to outright sympathetic coverage because the journalist believes in the cause. To pretend impartiality is laughable…at the risk of parroting Fox, it’s better to be accurate and balanced.

All of which brings us back to the new media…the internet…and its hordes of ardent, largely unpaid, pamphleteers. On the whole, I think much better coverage is provided about items of local and national interest by internet journalists and bloggers than by the major media outlets and Professional Journalists. Internet journalists, imbued by their interest in the story with more drive than the pros, dig deeper, provide more detail and follow up better than the mainstream can ever hope to do. Sometimes the writer is skilled in the area about which they’re writing…how much better to have the source for a story writing the story than some journalistic hack who doesn’t even know which questions to ask? You go from hearsay to a first person narrative, cutting out the annoying middle man! Instead of lazily printing some pols comments instead of digging into the facts (that’s too tiring), internet journalists are frequently focused on a single issue, devoting more attention, determination and passion to researching that issue than a Professional Journalist could ever match.

The coverage is better because it is more thorough and there is usually more than one writer digging into the subject.

The recent coverage of the immigration bill is a perfect example of internet journalists burying the professionals’ efforts on the story. The internet writers, no doubt clad in pajamas and merrily typing away on their basement computers, actually READ the bill instead of relying on the boilerplate commentary supplied by the politicians. - the commentary that was the mainstay of mainstream media coverage. Thanks to their superior knowledge (superior even to the pols supposedly crafting the bill), bloggers were able to define what the bill actually said and were able to point out huge problems that resulted in public outrage and the bills eventual demise.

Bloggers exposed the chinks in the armor of the media and showed that the mainstream media is not the only way to get information and, in this case, was certainly not the best way. Score one for the new media. But change comes slowly, and I’m sure our society will experience more growing pains as we shift from the old way of delivering information to the public to a new, more individually-tailored, way.

During “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” in January, I was talking to one of the other actors, a very bright and talented girl who graduated in May with plans to pursue Professional Journalism. She looked like I punched her in the stomach when I said “well, we’re all young and stupid once...(perhaps I could have come up with a better choice of words, but diplomacy has never been my strong suit).” I then explained how, for the most part, journalism has become the profession of everyman now and to jump into journalism is to board the Titanic about an hour before its rendezvous with the iceberg. We talked about it for quite a while and she said her plans were a little more focused on television than print, a venue in which there will still be some opportunity (though I told her I hated to see her intelligence and ability wasted on such a vapid enterprise.)

I hope she’ll eventually rethink her plans…

Gone are the mantles of indispensability and impartiality which once graced journalism – it’s been demonstrated that drive, knowledge and ability outweigh degree anytime. The mainstream media beast is ailing and may very well be dead…it just hasn’t gotten the news yet.