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...anyone? Everywhere Pigpen walked, he carried a 'dust-cloud' all spinning around him. It seemed as if he didn't do anything to cause it...it didn't require any effort on his part to create the cloud...but it was an integral part of the character 'Pigpen.' Pigpen himself didn't seem to be aware of the cloud. But the cartoon character...the caricature...would not have been the same without that dust-cloud.
The MSM (main-stream media), I think, is like Pigpen. They aren't really journalists anymore (well, maybe just a few still are). They just perpetually walk around, doing what they do (exploiting stories for ratings, creating caricatures out of real, honest-to-goodness Americans) without being aware of the effect they are having on those same stories, or people, or the country, or the Presidential race...and on and on. They just keep spinning. They keep creating new shows to fit what they think we (the public) want...and therefore will sell. But they seem oblivious to what they are doing.
Because I am a positive person (and a 'hope-monger') :) I really hoped the MSM, like we Democrats, had learned the lessons of 2000 and 2004: #1 for the MSM is WE NEED REAL JOURNALISM back. We need the MSM to uphold their civic responsibility to inform the American electorate. I thought, because of people like Bill Moyers and others who have spoken on this issue recently, that 2008 might be different.
But it seems the MSM heard something different and learned a different lesson. It was more like, "Countdown is doing well and it must be because Keith Olbermann discusses political things." And as a result, every new program has a new slant on politics (currently Obama vs Clinton vs McCain), but they beat the politics to death without ever getting into what REALLY made Keith different: issues like FISA, pre-emptive war, habeus corpus, torture, and the truth he spoke in his 'Special Comments.'
They may have heard some of us complain that the 2000 and 2004 elections were flawed (to put it kindly) and have responded with 'over-kill' on the statistical analysis. I don't know about others here...but speaking for myself...I can do without the constant poll results on TV (if I want to know, I know how to research it). What I really want to see are stories about our fragile voting process, ways to improve it so that Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 NEVER happen again, stories on people like Debra Bowen (new SOS in California making a difference), Hillary's Senate legislation on the electoral process and who supports it, etc. You get the idea...REAL stories. About REAL concerns.
But, like pigpen, the MSM just walks on...dust-clouds spinning higher and higher, bigger and bigger, and dirtier and dirtier. I wonder how dark and dirty those clouds will have to be before they notice them.
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