Nail, Standing Up

Cake!

I-Name

Just got my I-Name. Hope this works.

You can call me rob.hayes.

It's been a while

In looking back at the post I wrote late (too late, really) last night, two things come to mind:

1) There was a time that I used to know how to write. That period of my life has apparently escaped me. Time to break out the Strunk and White for the first time in fifteen years.

-and-

2) Is blogging really about fine writing? It seems to me that many folks just write the equivalent of a "what's up?" type of post. I'd love to be able to write like my friend Tim who can write like a sonuvagun. But is that really necessary?

I know. I'm wavering.

The news media sucks. Your point would be....?

I admit that I became just as embroiled in the Jon Stewart/Crossfire firestorm as many others. I agree that he showed real courage to stand up and call Tucker Carlson out on the carpet for being the putz he is. And I sent the link to the iFilm around to anyone who would listen.... "Isn't that Jon Stewart just great! Jon Stewart for President!"

So what happens now?

The most appalling thing is the backlash that Stewart is receiving from the media themselves. He is being derided for being a comedian who doesn't know his place. Yep. He's a comedian. Your point would be....?

I know what my point is. Media, really news media is what I am talking about here, has transformed into entertainment. People used to turn to Walter Cronkite because what he said counted for something. He reflected opinion and he affected policy. Today, people turn to new programs for reasons that are beyond me. To see the "theater" that Stewart so deftly exposed? To see shills spew a particular candidate's talking points over and over? Because Jerry Springer is no longer on the air?

The issues that I want to see covered aren't being covered. I have no confidence that on any given day that I am being told the truth instead of marketed to. I want a media that is less concerned with losing it's coveted seat in the press cabin on Air Force One and is more concerned about holding both candidates feet to the fire on how honest they are being, asking hard questions, and investigating greed, corruption, and misdeeds by the people we elect to represent us.

The Fourth Estate is forgetting their rights and responsibilities and in doing so will lose both those rights and responsibilities. They will try to ignore or even destroy anyone who has the gall to point this out to them. Thankfully, the change is inevitable. I just hope the transition from traditional media to whatever takes its place happens before the next presidential election so we don't have to go through the agony of, once again, picking the least vile of two uninteresting, corrupt, unrepresentative candidates.

Okay, so one is more uninteresting, corrupt, and unrepresentative than the other, but you get my point.

You can ignore this

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster.

Well, you can but it isn't really going to do anything.

Tap, tap...this thing on?

I've been reading weblogs and spending time dervishly whirling through RSS, aggregators, syndicators, bloviators, and escalators; it just dawned on me that I, too, have the power to create my own blog.

Oh, and I have a credit card.