With the demise of Al Jazeera America in April, I am lost
and saddened; with no viable news source
other than the usual hot air and ego on cable or the incredibly superficial
hash coming from broadcast networks. I
am sentenced to Trump Trivia 24 hours a day with no end in sight (well, maybe
November). Still, after the election, there
will be other celebrities that our ratings obsessed stations can fawn over.
And that’s what it’s about -- celebrity. It’s about
gossip. It’s about the lewd and the
profane; it’s about reporting the most trivial remarks that require the dutiful
and meaningless “apology.” About who
said what to whom. It’s about the glitz
and the sets and the perky weather girls, the strong jaw line and cute banter.
It is show biz, folks.
Carl Bernstein, one of our most respected journalists,
has been aware of the lack of content from the news media for decades:
"In actually covering existing American life, the
media--weekly, daily, hourly--break new ground in getting it wrong. The
coverage is distorted by celebrity and the worship of celebrity; by the
reduction of news to gossip, which is the lowest form of news; by
sensationalism, which is always a turning away from a society's real condition;
and by a political and social discourse that we-the press, the media, the
politicians and the people-are turning into a sewer."
(The
Oregonian, June 21, 1992).
And, it’s worse today by far.
The oil rich emirate of Qatar took a chance on us but it
didn’t pay off financially – nobody watched.
I should say, some of us watched, and re-discovered how satisfying investigative
journalism can be. Staffed with hard-working American journalists from CNN, and
the broadcast networks, Al Jazeera America filled a crucial void for many of us
who are sick of the show biz approach to the news.
There is nothing that comes close to the last 2 ½ years of hard-hitting stories and the sharp,
insightful features like Fault Lines and America Tonight – not cable, not BBC,
not the DW from Berlin.
RIP Al Jazeera America.
We will miss you.
Back to bland pap and regurgitated commercialism.
