Double Standard

The Mayor of a major U S city is charged, jailed, more charges, a major scandal. Would the press mention the party affiliation of the public official? Well I guess not since neither CBS, NBC or ABC mentioned that the Detroit Mayor was a democrat. If the it had been Mark Foley, there would have been twenty references in one story as to his party affiliation. Did you know that Sen Craig was a Republican? If you didn't you're brain dead. It was mentioned every time his name was.

I have some self respect. If I worked for one of the main stream media, including the Associated Press - the news gathering entity for much of the country - I could not call myself a journalist. When you stop presenting the facts as you know them and stop letting the readers interpret them as they wish you are no longer a news reporter but an opinion writer. This is sad for the American public.

During the cold war, the Soviets were masters of misinformation. The approach of one step forward and two backward was perfected to an art form. An example, " X won the election, but there was a rumor of voting irregularities. An unnamed source saw a trained dog in the voting booth allegedly pulling the Republican lever. Republicans have been accused of using dogs to impersonate registered voters.

These are the guys that yell first amendment rights at the first restraint of their diatribes and rantings by anyone. Where are the ink stained fingernails of the reporters of the old days. Where are the guys ( and gals) who worked their way up from the press room or copy writing etc to become reporters. Today's reporters are all too often upper middle class kids, whose parents could afford the luxury of sending their kids to journalism schools at prestigious universities, knowing that they might not be able to get a job and support themselves.

All I can say is thank goodness for the internet and talk radio.