See The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes' two cartoons this week (one a republished classic from 2003) for her view about all of this.
The toons are good and the headline is:
The White House press corps, ready for the next party invitation
Then there are journalists who will never get a Beltway Cocktail Party invite. Not many and not enough, but they're still out there.
BuzzFlash Wings of Justice
Many of those in the mainstream media were appalled this week when Rolling Stone magazine published a story entitled "The Runaway General" that ultimately dethroned Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his position as commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The typical mainstream media reaction included snide references to the publication, saying that it appeared "in Rolling Stone, of all places." John Amato on the Crooks and Liars blog chuckled about Fox News contributor Brit Hume's reaction, saying in jest, "How dare (McChrystal) use a hippie rag instead of coming to a Villager?"
Just as an aside, I bought a subscription to the dead tree Rolling Stone because it was dirt cheap, and there is a lotta hippie shit to wade through to get to the good stuff. Naturally, as a subscriber I'll be the last one to see the McChrystal piece. Figures.
More examples and then the last ¶:
Go after the truth, wherever it may lie and regardless of whom it will taint. When comedians and high school students and a hippie magazine outperform you, then the journalists should take a long hard look at their profession.
There are still journalists who understand their craft and its purpose, which is to afflict the comfortable. They're a little hard to find sometimes, but once in a while their work leaps into public view.
Leave us hope that some amongst the oh-so-comfortable talking hatracks and Beltway Villagers of the mainstream Corporate & Cocktail Chattering Class still have enough of a conscience to realize that they long ago sacrificed principle and gave up real journalism to be insider nattering gasbags. Perhaps when they see an example of what they once were or aspired to be, they get a little twinge of regret in between the shrimp and appletinis for leaving those of us with The Need To Know in the lurch. Fat chance.
Note to real journalists who are out there dodging bullets and the slings and arrows of corporate and political criminals and regressives: We need you. Good on yas and continue the march.
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