Signal Over Static
Ever since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine I have found myself abnormally skeptical about what today passes for legitimate news coverage. One station, two station, red station, blue station. They’ve all been infected/imbued with an urgent sense of allowing the chips to fall where they might.
This newly founded, ill-advised standard for valuing speed to market over any attempt at accuracy reporting is allowing for shameful, at times painful, dishonest rhetoric including laughingly fictional events and persons with clearly partisan, self-interested opinions passing as genuine news reporting.
Whatever happened to kudos for Honesty and Accuracy by the press? Truth is the latest MSM roadkill victim of the 21st Century. This does not forebode well for slowing down or stopping the seemingly endless stream of missives, bragging points and pure drive up the rating scare tactics going forward. Be it broadcast, cable, internet, or any device able to carry a charge and still has a relatively intact screen.
The end of the world, demise of democracy, final erosion of mankind’s morals, and planetary soil along with the rest of our entire way of life reporting as today’s news concerning speculative at best events guaranteed to occur as soon as tomorrow. How did that turn out for you, Sparky? Got to watch this very station at the same rabid bat time and rabid bat channel to find out.
Regardless of any previous prognostications with or without lukewarm to red hot warnings of destruction, demise and devastation tacked on for shock effect, premonitions of evil intent and existential event horizons coming our way, the sun will rise rosy fingered at the dawn with no indication of running out of power anytime soon.
The sun triggers the various Pundits of Penzance into beginning their endless daily ablutions for yesterday’s bungles, bungle their way through a girth of jaw grinding, grinning and bear it insincere apologies and lame excuses for most part along the lines of “Yes, I got it wrong yesterday, but today I will get it right.” Hillary’s emails and Hunter Biden’s laptop included? Fair and unbalanced.
The perfect background noise to accompany our slow but steady decline into third world status. High infant mortality rates and new low rock bottom reading scores. Teenage pregnancy rates are up with the onslaught of a deadly mutating virus or two included.
We now live in a society where facts, alternative facts, and straight-up lies, conjured from the bottom of a cauldron filled with leaden paint chips, asbestos, and ready for mass consumption are cheaper and easier to produce than to do due diligence, source reliability and good old fact checking.
Your pernicious, paranoid laced and prefabricated fantasy tales of white privilege the people want to hear versus real news that the Faux audience do not want to hear as it’s contradictory to the last sickly sweet, saccharine lie and the worst of all and heaven forbid, hurtful to our faithful (gullible) viewer’s feelings, for it contains the truth.
Fair and dangerously unbalanced if you ask me is how the Fox Cult likes its information. Particularly if it includes a side of eggs sunny-side down with a touch of doom, gloom, and end of times philosophy.
Perhaps the saddest of all is we, the conscientious real news hounds can no longer simply skip the channel to get what we want, for we are talking about a new culture of journalism, truth and honesty that must give way to the economic realities of running a news organization. Sex, lies, and video tape sells. The truth does not.
Ours is a world where tabloid sensationalism has infected the MSM at every level. Not sure your reporter has what it takes to make a responsible member of a once proud profession? Don’t worry about that, just make sure she has ample bosom and a somewhat curious predilection for all things from the Third Reich and your rating will soar to a place where no man has gone before.
For the truth is racism, misogyny, homophobia, religious intolerance, and stories about sticking horse dewormer pills and/or fluorescent light up one’s arse are now all in good standing with the part and parcel of what sells.
On the flipside, we who value veracity in our news coverage and genuinely want to know what Merrick Garland is or is not doing via the red and blue pundits, are left with few viable, reliable, and dependable options.
And so, most of us sit watching the daily ritual of Jen Psaki stuffing her newly collected now disgraced talking heads bastards as they try to slink back under the nearest bug infested rock lobster waiting for their chance to take the next shot at making amends with a chance for redemption for their journalistic “sins”.
Many of these wrongdoers fail their way up the media ladder. The bigger the lie, the higher the climb. Pay raises and special stories in a better time slot for their loyalty and service to an evil empire bent on destroying the world by wantonly promoting the political interests of would-be autocratic despots and their lackeys as somehow best in our interest of “saving democracy”.
While promoting a political lifestyle comprised of laws, rules and regulations fit to the needs of the illegitimate and unconstitutional interests of a small gaggle of grade A villains, pay to play donor class, to undermine if not completely obliterate any beneficial rights held by the masses as enumerated in our Bill of Rights if those rights get in the way of profit.
Greed is glory and glory is good for both society and individual interests and American aesthetics. Looking rich is just as good as being wealthy, right? If you are making your car payments, renewing your country club yearly dues with under the table pro for quo business with lobbyists and there is beer at the end of the day, well, hasn’t this become part of the new American success story?
Throw in a little white grievance and voila! Even if you sexually molest a former classmate, yes, you too can wear a black robe while sitting upon the US Supreme Court, our highest arbiter of justice in the land.
With civility, sincerity, and accountability all but gone at virtually all levels of political intercourse we poor pedestrians can only stare in disbelief at what passes for journalism while each day the bar becomes lower and lower in what appears to be a surreal limbo dance to see that when it comes to journalist integrity, how low can one go?
Meanwhile, what with the Earth still stubbornly refusing to implode or explode despite the previous warnings from polka-dotted bow tie wearing pundits to the contrary heralds in the next deluge of broken, false from the beginning predictions and promises of death, doom, and destruction while kick-starting the next round of mea culpas, but please, please, please as my ratings keep going down, keep watching my show anyway.
I mean c’mon now, who else has given you such quality lies and half-baked conspiracies on such a consistent and frequent basis? Admit it, you love it and that’s why I, you, they, love you too, honey.
And so, while the MAGA/QANON/GQP/Faux/Tucker/Ingrahamster cults still adhere to that which will never happen, what are those who miss a singular figure behind a desk, reading from notes prepared in the interest of nothing than disseminating the signal, aka the truth to the masses to do?
This is where my explanation of what it means to be “woke” starts for one can only become truly awakened to the truth by first realizing they are surrounded by lies. Therefore, our job is to seek out new, true, and probably blue reportage based upon honesty and integrity in the world of 24/7 media.
I have my favorites and I’m sure you do too. Perhaps we can start coming together to share our research for existing outlets of value and perhaps come together to form even more such outlets dedicated to truth itself as the only true arbitrator of what is, well, true.
From this day forward, our marching orders must be to place signal over static by removing the deadwood from our, the people’s airwaves to be replaced by responsible individuals who crave the truth for no other reason than it is, well, true. And then make our decisions from there. Who is with me?
PS: This communique was partially inspired by the work of Bill Palmer over at the Palmer Report. Keep up the good work!
