Can anything fix the media? Honestly, I've given up. CNN is run by a Republican billionaire, the Washington Post is run by a billionaire Murdoch crony, and Twitter is owned by an aspiring fascist. Local newspapers (even the ones that aren't owned by hedge funds) are still tiptoeing around hot-button issues that might drive away their financial support.
I've been blogging for 22 years. I was a journalist for 20 years, and when I started blogging, I still thought most of the awful journalism I saw was just laziness, or badly trained staffers without an experienced editor.
Eventually, it became impossible to ignore the fact that far too many journalists were simply jockeying for power, access, and influence. The Iraq war was only the beginning. So I no longer defend my former profession.
If I were running for office, I wouldn't talk to the press, either.
And then we have the standards now set by the New York Times, whose work product is often beneath contempt. Maybe the best thing would be a polar shift that left all these media giants buried under a mountain of ice, like in "The Day After Tomorrow."
