Please!! He, along with Howard Dean, speaks for me!
I came to believe that objective journalism means describing the object being reported on, including the little fibs and fantasies as well as the Big Lie of the people in power. In no way does this permit journalists to make accusations and allegations. It means, instead, making sure that your reporting and your conclusions can be nailed to the post with confirming evidence.
This is always hard to do, but it has never been harder than today. Without a trace of irony, the powers-that-be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell’s 1984. They give us a program vowing “No Child Left Behind” while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged kids. They give us legislation cheerily calling for “Clear Skies” and “Healthy Forests” that give us neither. And that’s just for starters.
A bit more:
An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only on partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, to ask questions and be skeptical.
That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy — or worse.
I miss my old America.
I miss the July 4th celebrations as a kid in Concord Heights, NH, when we decorated our bikes and wagons, marched in the local parade and spent the whole day at a community park playing games, swimming, getting prizes for the best decorated bikes, costumes, floats and then watching fireworks.
I cannot even celebrate the 4th today. No way, no how.
