News Media Hellscape

Lately I've noticed a lot of finger pointing at the news media for the rise Der Fuhrer Trump.   The argument goes that the media has failed to properly grill Drumpf on the details of his proposals, his flip-flops, his hate speech, and on and on.

The flaw in that logic is this: news media is now a business.  Journalism is now a business.  Les Moonves said it best on February 29, 2016 when referring to The Donald Duck's candidacy, "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS." 

Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite have been dead and gone for a long time.  With the rise of the Internet as the place voters turn for news has come the abandonment of journalism.  Who needs to pay smart people to interpret complex issues when I can just check my Facebook wall for the wisdom of my college roommate's brother?  He's got internet access,  he must know what's going on.  Media outlets practicing authentic, true, unadulterated journalism are as rare as high school students learning Latin.  Audience, ratings, followers, and subscriptions are all that matter in the hellscape that passes for modern news coverage.  (Note:  Journalism historically was supported by a paying audience and advertisers.  The Internet has vacuumed away both leaving journalism to run on the vapors of public funding or the largess of philanthropy.) 

And so the news media gave Trump air time because he draws crowds.  He activated angry whites and won a plurality of GOP votes in the primaries and that draws viewers, audience, and followers.  His performances incite, excite, and titillate so let him phone it in, just so long as he draws viewers/audience/followers/subscribers.  I no more blame the media for this than I blame my local gas station for raising the price of fuel when light sweet crude prices spike: they're both businesses struggling to turn a profit.  Period, full stop.

Now all that sounds very cynical, I know, but I had a front row seat to the collapse of a true journalistic institution that served America well since the 1920's: NEWSWEEK. I sold advertising in the last issue.  The cover read #LASTPRINTISSUE.   That institution collapsed because they refused to abandon journalism so advertisers and readers abandoned them.

That experience, preceded by 25 years in the print and online media world taught me these lessons.  This is why the only place you'll find authentic journalism (liberal or conservative or centrist) is through outlets that don't have to depend upon market support for survival such as NPR/PBS or BBC. (And don't point to the WSJ; their readers, by and large, get their companies to pay for their subscriptions because it's a "must read" for business.) However, if the scourge of a Trump presidency is visited upon our great nation, I'd expect him to disappear NPR in short order.  Why fund public journalism?  Let the market decide.  They're doing a bang-up job already!

My Mom said...

My Mom said…
Date tall women if you’re a tall man.
Wash your hands before dinner.
Wash your hands after you use the bathroom.
Take a bath at night.
Don’t bite your nails.

My Mom said…
Enjoy eating.
Learn to cook.
Eat Swiss chard.
When picking a partner, find someone who makes you laugh.
Cook things you and your partner like to eat.
Never stop romancing her.
Never stop romancing him.
Stay on pitch.
Tell the truth, but if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.

My Mom said…
Read books.
Practice every day for 20 minutes.  Preferably music.
Tend to your relationship with God.
Raise a pet; dogs, fish, snakes, cats, doesn’t matter.
Have children.
Love those children and your partner as if your life depends on it.
Make enough money by working hard to take care of yourself, your partner, and your children, and then a little bit more, just in case.

My Mom said…
Go camping.
Play a competitive team sport when you’re young.
Play sports when you’re older, even if you’re competing with yourself.
Take care of your joints.
Don’t drink too much.
Don’t smoke.
Stand up straight.
If something makes you angry, get mad; then move on.
Get your teeth, eyes, and body checked by a doctor once a year.
Know your body; listen to it, and like it.

My Mom said…
Sing in a choir.
Respect your parents.
Fear no one, not even your parents.
Put something in the basket at church, or into the donation bin
behind the library.
The teacher is right.  But if he’s not, work with him and the school directly to fix it.
Keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving.
Pack sandwiches.
Play games with your family.
Do jigsaw puzzles.

My Mom said…
Do manual labor, especially if you get paid to think.
Do yard work.
Plant a garden and eat from it.
Learn to play an instrument well enough that you’ll play for your own enjoyment as well as others’.
Go to college and live on campus.
Get a live Christmas tree.
Send birthday cards to the people in your family.
Don’t spend too much on a gift but don’t get something cheap.
Buy good quality clothes and take care of them.
Don’t lose your jacket.

My Mom said…
When disciplining children, speak quietly.  A look, a cluck, or a finger may do more than words.
Boys, treat girls and women as special.  They are.  They made you.
Go to live performances as often as you can afford to.
Don’t give a standing ovation for a mediocre performance, even if it’s your child’s.
Breastfeed.  But don’t overdo it.
Keep meeting new people.
Speak your mind.
Make the effort to visit friends or family when it’s important to you.

My Mom said…
Explore America.
Explore Europe.
Learn to vacation.
Take a nap.
Don’t waste time.
Be still.
Listen.
Smile.


My eulogy for my Mom, who died on August 6, 2014.

GOP Betrays Reagan

Today's GOP has betrayed its most venerated modern-day icon:  Ronald Reagan.  Whether it's Trump building big, beautiful walls. or Cruz or Rubio talking about crackdowns on illegal immigration, no one in a leadership sounds anything like the President they all like to invoke as their party's hero.  Watch this and then explain to me how today's GOP can square their position on immigration with the Gipper's?

Who knew I'd pine for the days of Reagan.  What's happened to the party of Lincoln?  One in three Republican voters say they'd pick Trump if the primary was today.  One third agree with the man endorsed by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.  One in three Americans back the guy who quotes Mussolini.  WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT??

My Dad sent me this today.

It got me to thinking about who the Federal government helps most.  So I looked up the states who get the most help from the Federal government (ie, me).  An article from The Atlantic citing independent analysis is here. But to summarize, here are the top 10 States ranked as most dependent on Federal dollars as a ratio of Federal Income tax paid by each state.  These are ranked in order of "receive most/pay in least":

1. SC

2. NC

3. FL

4. LA

5. AL

6. HI

7. MS

8. NM

9. KY

10. WV

The colors show which states are solid red, light red, blue, light blue, or purple based on how they've voted in the last 4 Presidential elections.  That data came from here.  But if you want the color key, here it is:

Summary of results of the 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 presidential elections:

  States carried by the Republican in all four elections

  States carried by the Republican in three of the four elections

  States carried by each party twice in the four elections

  States carried by the Democrat in three of the four elections

  States carried by the Democrat in all four elections

If this analysis is right, 7 of the top 10 States getting more help -- in terms of Federal aid -- from the government than they're contributing via Federal income tax, are voting for Republican Presidents most or all of the time over the last 4 races.  Three of these states are blue, light blue, or purple,meaning they're voting for Democratic Presidents all, most, or half the time.

SO, I agree with the Gipper to a great extent.  But it seems his Republican disciples in SC, NC, LA, AL, MS, KY, and WV are all hat and no saddle.

Vox, Velocity and Vectors Vaults to Victory

I was treated to an amazing performance at Dickinson College on Saturday night when I attended a joint performance mounted by the music and dance departments.  The evening drew together modern minimalist music from Philip Glass and others, piercing light show visuals creatively projected on the black main drape, and helium balloons.  Taken together I found myself at turns gasping, laughing, and scratching my head.

Sometimes we were in deep space as depicted above.  In this piece the dancernaut may well have been working alongside Anne Hathaway in Interstellar for her ability to move across the stage untethered from Earth's gravity.

Later we attended a cocktail party that viscerally captured the social energy, awkwardness, venom, and gayety one often experiences when music and adult refreshments mingle.  When the twirling dancer above was slain by the party at the close I jolted in my seat at her sudden demise.

But my favorite piece came at the conclusion with the homage to one of my childhood favorites,  The Red Balloon.

We were shown this movie year in and year out when I was in elementary school.  The entire school was brought together to journey with a young boy and his red balloon through the streets of Paris.  No words are spoken yet we come to love the boy, his balloon, and their friendship.  Here the dancers evoked that same feeling with the help of real red helium balloons as one dancer discovered, selected, and eventually lost her red balloon.  The emotions from the whole movie were beautifully evoked transporting me to my primary school in suburban Philadelphia, circa 1973.

Were it not for my intrepid freshman daughter, Carrie Gillespie, my son -- her twin, Ben -- and I would never have spent such an luscious evening surrounded by light, music, energy, and emotion all showered upon us by the amazing talent on display at Dickinson's Mathers Theater last Saturday night.  For more on the performance, go here.

Thanks to everyone in the performance. Bravo!

When random is calculated

This report from today's Dallas Morning News carried the jump page headline, "KC killings called quick, random".  The online version doesn't have the jump page so this headline doesn't appear here.  But trust me, it is in the print version today, April 15, 2014.  Click here and read the story if you want to know why I wrote the letter below to the Editor of this award-winning paper:

Who defines "random" as "calculated"?

Your jump page headline of the Cross killings grossly misleads readers at best, and at worst it frames his calculated, heinous slayings as unpredictable, chance events that could have happened to anyone anywhere.

The report chronicles Cross's lifelong anti-Semitism, bigotry, and fanatical devotion to the twisted ideology of white supremacy.  When he went to the Jewish Community Center to hunt and kill Jews he was taking the next step in his lifelong quest.  How can you describe this story as "random" just because a local cop used the word?

I'm from Boston, birthplace of ideas like the 2nd Amendment.  I suspect and fear that the Texas tilt towards gun rights quietly bends your word choice to promote notions like, "Hey, well, you can't outlaw crazy; look how he randomly killed his victims?" when in fact Cross was hunting Jews.  Change the headline to "Jews hunted down" and next you'll have to consider the fact that the Founders enshrined our right to bear long rifles that took several minutes to load and fire one shot that usually missed its target...not the right to bear the military-grade hardware Cross so loved.

Make Docs Pay for Healthcare

I find it intriguing that no one is asking this question: why, when doctors choose to give away their services, are the rest of us forced to pay for their largess?

The Regan era law requiring ERs to treat the uninsured sure doesn't help.  But that law feeds upon the medical profession's ethic that drives docs to give free medical service to those who can't pay.  I'm not saying they shouldn't treat people who can't pay.  But if one of my advertisers (I sell ad space for Newsweek Daily Beast) asked for an ad in the magazine but said they didn't have the money to pay, I'm fairly sure management wouldn't raise every other advertisers' rates by 1% to cover the cost.

Advertising isn't healthcare.  But somewhere along the line docs who are duty-bound to give away their services successfully passed the buck to me and everyone else who pays for health insurance.  Let's ask the medical profession to back up their ethics with action.  Rather than forcing consumers to buy health insurance let's force medical accreditation boards to allocate X% of doctors' time to serve the uninsured.  Remember Northern Exposure?  Kinda like that.  But on a national scale.

With the exception of legal defense against a criminal charge, I can think of no other profession in which services provided for those who can't pay are underwritten by everyone else who can pay.  Since healthcare is a unique service with limited price elasticity, a universal potential market, and morally freighted in every dimension, it has to be treated differently than other markets.  Turning our legislative guns to the root of the problem -- doctors who have to give away their service -- will lead us to a more just and effective solution.