Edward R. Murrow... where have you gone?

Watching the tube over the last several months..... it hit me.... I am either really confused or journalism really is dead.   Roland Martin and Candy Crowley... are they journalists or analysts?  DL Hughley.... I thought he was a joke...ehhh... I mean comedian... not a journalist.  Edward R. Murrow's trademark high standards for honesty and integrity in reporting the news may never return again.

Who is a journalist anymore?  Doing an interview doesn't make you a reporter.  It's about objectivity. It's about reporting news with transparency.

Oprah does interviews, but is she a journalist?  Katie Couric is not a journalist.  The format's look similar.  Interviewer......Interviewee.... solo camera shots with muted backdrop.... subject seated.... hot lights.... narrator provides backdrop story intertwined with music.  The line has been fatally and forever blurred to the point that the average viewer can not distinguish between journalism and entertainment.

• Watch Matt Lauer on the Today Show get crushed at (8:23) and admit his bias to Obama by John Zieglar who made a documentary, Media Malpractice.

A Feb. 5, 2009 Time Magazine cover story titled "How to Save Your Newspaper" detailed the tragedy of losing large newspapers due to their failed business models. What about the role of "crap journalism"?  A failed business model says something profound....news has been commoditzed.  People would rather trust their news from free and varied sources, regardless of a journalism degree, regardless of a Pulitzer Award.  The difference between "Joe Blogger" and Cynthia Tucker is that at least "Joe blogger" lays his biased information out there with  honesty.  

 

First of Many

So.... "where do we go from here?" you ask.  How we got here matters less than how we are going to get to where we need to be.....as fast as possible.  Purge the world of bad habits and start anew.  Not to be misconstrued as "throwing out the baby with the bath water", but abandoning thingss that have historically not worked.  This is what the new administration promised... Change.

What is there to change you ask?  Lets start with the campaign promises:

Government transparency..... can someone build an application/service that tracks the pork, uncovers the fraud, and helps this countries electorate become qualified, informed consumers of government

Public Education..... flip it on its head....somebody..... please!  Give it to Nike and Coke. They already fill our kids heads with product placements and advertisements from 3pm to bedtime.  Who cares if "this pop quiz is brought to you by McDonalds".

Healthcare......basic/quality national healthcare doesn't mean stem cell research and advanced/expensive treatments of complicated illnesses.... rather give us emergency care and preventative care for free and upsell patients more advanced treatments.

My feeling is that there is an opportunity for world change NOW!  Why? Because everyone is listening.  That is half the battle!  Now lets think BIG and start the chain reaction of change.