Where Do They Get These People?

Like so many others before me, I bitch about the media a lot. I am mystified as to how the people who are supposed to be covering the news are chosen. Most of the cable news readers seem to be attractive people, good readers, have nice capped teeth and terrific hair. Few offer much more.

When you look back at the history of American journalism, you see Woodward and Bernstein breaking the Watergate Scandal, The Boston Globe and the Catholic priest mess, the New York Times and the Pentagon Papers, just to name a few from the last 40years. There has been quality investigative reporting by local newspapers uncovering dangers to citizens' health, welfare and tax dollars. The press has been a positive force in American life that keeps government, business and people honest.

I've been doing my family's genealogy for the past 10 years or so. This type of research requires reading old newspapers looking for birth, death and marriage notices. In the course of this browsing, I've looked at newspapers going back 165 years in this country. The striking thing is that they actually reported real news. To be fair, they also reported lots of sensational stories about wives who drank acid to commit suicide, murders and mayhem in the streets. However, there was in-depth coverage of real stories about government, full texts of laws that had been enacted, stories on tariffs, legislative wrongdoing, what local governments were doing day-to-day. Editorials came with the political sympathies of the newspaper written there for all to read. None of this Mickey Mouse "balance" on the editorial page. If you didn't like the views of the management, then find another paper.

Since few subscribe to the newspaper anymore, we can only compare the in-depth coverage by yesterday's newspapers with today's cable outlets. The comparison is not one that should comfort anyone who actually wants to know what's going on in this country.

Let's see....there's the car chase on a California freeway. There's the lost child or the horrendous family murder or bus/train wreck. There's news about some Hollywood person that most of us couldn't name under penalty of death. Presently, this is followed by snippets from the various presidential and vice-presidential candidates on the road. The blurb chosen is almost always a personal attack on an opponent. This is moved to the lead story if it's really a new and truly nasty accusation.

Let's face it, though. When have you heard one of these nicely coiffed, surgically enhanced men and women give you the latest plan for the economy by either candidate? How about an update on a new educational policy? Do you think that what the candidates are saying about the Middle East and diplomacy could be helpful before you vote in three weeks? Well, you're not going to get that on CNN Headline News, MSNBC, or Fox, that' for sure.

The reasons for this are two-fold. First, reporters at these outlets would need to do some actual investigative work in order to procure the real stories. It can't just be Candy Crowley getting off the bus and spouting the McCain talking point of the day. It would mean doing some fact-checking to see if that talking point had merit. It would mean not reporting some Drudge Report rumor as truth, then supporting it with repeats of the same rumor picked up by more internet sights. Today's reporters seem too busy being mini-celebrities to go out and do any leg-work. Better to rely on some campaign insider with an agenda.

The second reason we get this type of desultory news coverage is that we deserve it.
Yes, indeedy, we do. We can't concentrate long enough to listen to something as boring as someone's foreign policy plan; that could cut into valuable reality-show viewing. This rather large failing is one reason that we are governed so poorly. We didn't ask for better coverage as W dismantled constitutional protections to privacy. Most of us didn't understand what this adminstration was doing...and didn't want to take the time to find out. The same goes for the sinkhole that we call the War in Iraq. No disturbing pictures of dead American soldiers or Iraqi civilians. We went right along with the plan to keep those nasty images out of sight.

So, the cable networks, after what was, undoubtedly, a marathon of focus groups, decided to give us what we want . Instead of knowing what was going on in our country for the past eight years, we've spent a lot of time on Anna Nichole Smith, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Brad and Angelina, John Edward's $400 haircut, whether Hillary is too pushy, inportant topics like these.

We're in a pickle now, but there is a way out. We can insist on better coverage, and complain when we don't get it. Every one of these networks has a website. We can start yelling until we get better coverage, or turn off the set and read. The newspapers and the internet are fine sources for the information we need as citizens. We can stop settling for a bunch of beatiful people reading us "quasi-news" and find the real answers ourselves. Who knows? The cable news stations might come to miss us and start doing the kind of jobs they should have been doing all along.