The murder at the Capitol Gazette
was a horrendous tragedy; amplified by the fact that the massacre was as much
as called for by #45 and his neo-Nazi henchman, Milo Yiannopolous. This is what
our nation has become since 2016. There should be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Sack cloth and ashes should cover us as we weep for these five fine people, and for the United States of America.
But I'm a little disturbed by the
move toward all but canonizing the murdered journalists, and with them, journalism as a genre--as it is practiced in 21st-century America.
Let's not forget that the press has
been more than complicit in the mess we are currently in. The kind of "Old School" journalism which might deserve to be hallowed no longer exists.
Instead we have opinion-as-fact, news with definite political slant,
rush-to-publish without vetting, and a constant stream of hype. Not to mention
billions of dollars of free exposure for the most outrageous politicians, who
have quickly learned how to take the best advantage of the gift.
Now, I'm not saying this gives
the massacre at the Capitol Gazette one molecule of legitimacy. I'm just saying
that we should not let our shock and grief over the incident blind us to the
foibles of the current journalistic culture, or cause us to lessen our resolve
to hold our press to higher journalistic standards.
So now I'll start hearing from people who think me heartless and heretical...
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