Insert appropriate column headline here

I've written before how much I've been enjoying the commentary of Kathleen Parker. She's gone and produced another excellent view, this time on media. Read her latest column on the media elite contemplating their eliteness, laugh at the verities of it, scan the headlines and pity the media elite for their insightlessness and obvious partisanship and then head outside and enjoy your Saturday. That's what I'm going to do. There are weeds to whack, clothes to wash and a hose on my car's power steering pump I need to fix, and all the while I'm going to be soaking up some Vitamin D because it's a gorgeous day in Baton Rouge!

[Update 4/17/2005: The journalistic elite are well represented in this joke I've received:

An editorial writer for the Washington Post gets on a plane and finds himself seated next to a cute blonde. Surprisingly, while he's liberal and elite, he's neither gay nor transgendered -- he's straight. He immediately turns to her and makes his move.

"You know," he says, "I've heard that flights will go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger. So let's talk."

The blonde, who had just opened her book, closes it slowly and says to the guy, "What would you like to discuss?"

"Oh, I don't know," says the guy. "How about how horribly Bush, that jack-booted facist thug, is running this country and taking away all our rights?"

"OK," says the blonde. "That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff: - grass. Yet the deer excretes little pellets, the cow turns out a flat patty, and the horse produces muffins of dried poop. Why do you suppose that is?"

The guy is dumbfounded. Finally he replies, "I haven't the slightest idea."

"So tell me," says the blonde, "How is it that you feel qualified to discuss politics when you don't know shit?"

Pretty much explains how things at the liberal mainstream media operate doesn't it?]

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

Commercial free speech doesn't apply to government under President Bush

Many of the stories you read in the newspaper and in magazines, or hear on the radio or see on television are the result of information contained in a press release.

A press release is generally a single viewpoint, usually prepared by former journalists working in public relations, that espouses a position that favors a particular client, whether it's an individual company, an organization or an industry. As such, all press releases are propaganda to one extent or another. Newspapers have space to fill and in the case of broadcasters, time to fill, and the press release is one way of filling that space and time. When a reporter is short of story ideas, he often goes to the press release.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the press and the press release. Reporters don't have time to search far and wide for stories and the press release is the equivalent of the kid in class who raises his hand seeking to be called upon for an answer by the teacher.

In college, I would scan the news and determine what topic held the nation's interest, then I'd set about finding a local expert to comment on that particular topic. Oftentimes I'd find that expert with the help of a publicist working for the state college I was attending. For example, the Law of the Sea Treaty was big news in the early '80s when I was in college, and a non-voting delegate to the the Law of the Sea Treaty conference for the land-locked country of Nepal happened to be a American scientist teaching at my college. With the help of the college publicist, I was able to interview him and get his views and his explanation about the treaty. He localized an international story, and the information I obtained from him helped everyone understand a complex issue. It was good for me, because it helped me write the story. It was good for him, because it resulted in publicity for him, increasing his stature. And it was good for the college, because he was an professor there and he obviously had international connections.

There is also an adversarial relationship between public relations and the press. Many times a press release will be generated to counter information that is contained within a news report. For example, you might see a news report with information that eggs can contain salmonella. Very shortly after that report is issued, you'd probably see a press release from the American Egg Board saying that great care and precautions are taken to ensure that eggs on the grocers shelves are fresh and free of bacteria of any kind. And the press release might have information on what the consumer can do to store eggs so that bacteria growth is impaired.

I've written about press releases here, in my blog, devoting nearly an entire post to some press releases put out just prior to and following the death of Pope John Paul II. I consulted the press release put out by the American Association of Publishers went I wrote my comment on "The high cost of textbooks." And I would never had known about the first Army reservist in the Global War on Terror to receive a Silver Star for gallantry had I not found a press release from the Army Reserve on the award. As far as I know I was the only one to contact the Bureau of the Census regarding their press release on a very large Easter Egg hunt.

Press releases can be mailed, or they can be sent out -- for a fee -- over the major press release wires, including PR Newswire, U.S. Newswire and Business Wire. In fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission rules say companies have to disclose information that may affect stock price over at least one of these press release wires.

The written press release is the most common form of communication. It actually resembles the format a news story might take if submitted to an editor. It's designed that way. The thinking is that reporters and editors are generally harried and somewhat lazy. The easier it is for a reporter to put a story together and get it to his editor, the better chance the press release will be used and the better chance the company producing the press release will achieve the free publicity it seeks. Some newspapers take these press releases and run them as is, some edit the information, some do value-added, some cherry-pick quotes or salient information, and some put them in files, upright or circular. It depends on the organization.

So it was natural that corporations started putting out press releases in video format for broadcast by television. Not every reporter at every local news outlet could interview the chairman of the XYZ Widget Corp., but a publicist could interview that chairman, acting like a reporter, asking questions the publicist prepared with the chairman giving the prepared answers to the questions. Again, some stations run these video press releases as is, some edit and use what they want and some just file them.

But what's good for the corporation apparently is not good for the government, or at least the government of President Bush. While government agencies have been using the video press release for years, the liberals who are operating today's media outlets don't believe government agencies under President Bush should be putting out these video press releases and have pressured Congress to stop the practice.

The Associated Press, in its usual unbiased, fair and balanced manner, calls such video press releases "fake news." These video press releases were not termed "fake news" when they were released by government agencies during the Clinton administration, nor are they termed "fake news" when put out by corporations. That honor is reserved by the Associated Press for the video press releases put out by government agencies while President Bush is in office.

Reports the AP:

The Senate is putting the brakes on fake news.

In particular, lawmakers have passed a measure that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer money to disguise video press releases as real news.

Democrats call such videos propaganda.

Each television station receiving such video press releases are informed they are video press releases put out by the particular government agency and are free to edit or delete or to file the video press releases as they see fit. Because some broadcast stations have been running the government's video press releases without informing their viewers that it's a video press release from the government, it is somehow the fault of the Bush administration and some type of cabal or insidious propaganda plot by the Republicans.

So ... the senate voted 98-0 on an amendment proposed by Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia to force the government to stop producing video press releases that could appear like news reports. The amendment is being placed on an emergency funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan which means that if President Bush wants to continue reconstruction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, he's forced to sign the bill.

In defending the practice of the video press release to the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors today, President Bush reminded the editors that it was up to them and their broadcaster counterparts to identify the source of the video press releases.

President Bush told the editors:

"(I)t's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed. And I ... have been told this has gone on for quite a while ... it's legal ... to use these video news clips. But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, this news clip was produced by the federal government."

And that makes perfect sense to me. The fault is not in those who produce press releases but in those who fail to attribute the source of the information they use when it matters. It's too bad the U.S. Senate can't vote to force newspapers and broadcasters to hire brighter editors and producers. If the editors and news producers aren't identifying what information is coming from the government, just think of how much information contained in your newspaper and on your television station originates from corporations trying to sell products or organizations seeking to press a particular agenda.

---

[UPDATE 4/15/2005: Surprise, Surprise! An organization with an agenda!: StartChange.org has taken personal credit for the movement to stop video press releases from the government under President Bush. It issued a press release, in fact, claiming that victory. And this is how the organization describes itself:

"StartChange.org is an advocacy group that works to ensure that companies play it fair, our press is truly free, and our politicians work genuinely in the public interest. StartChange.org is a successor to the StopSinclair campaign, a successful online effort joined by 152,000 people to prevent the Sinclair Broadcast Group from running an hour-long attack on John Kerry on TV stations across the country in October 2004. StartChange.org is a 501(c)(4) organization. StopFakeNews.org is a StartChange campaign."

As you might recall, the "hour-long attack on John Kerry" was a truthful documentary produced by the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth that the Democrats didn't want aired. Now we know where the AP got its use of "fake news" from. Obviously this is another example of free-speech the liberals didn't want to see aired and in which the mainstream media were fully complicit. The documentary can still be viewed at the Swift Vets web site.]

---

More quotes from President Bush:

On an independent judiciary:

I think there are three distinct branches of government, and they ought to act independently and serve as checks and balances. I'm strongly for an independent judiciary. My focus with Congress on judges is that they're not approving enough of my judges in the United States Senate. And I think my judges ought to get an up or down vote, period. I think they ought to get a hearing, and I think they ought to get to the floor of the Senate, and I think they ought to deserve an up or down vote. But I'm strongly for an independent judiciary.

On the U.S. relationship with China and the price of fuel at the pump:

On trade, we're pressing China, for example, for floating her currency, so we can have free and fair trade with China. With human rights, we expect China to be a society that welcomes all religions. When it comes to foreign policy, we expect China to cooperate in the war on terror, and we expect there to be peace with Taiwan.

I mean, there is a lot to our relationship with China. My view of China is, is that it's a great nation that's growing like mad. And that's one of the reasons why Americans are seeing over $2 gasoline, is because demand for energy in China is huge, and supply around the world hasn't kept up with the increase in demand. That's why you're seeing crude go up, and crude is the feed stock for gasoline.

But we've got a very complex and a good relationship with China right now, and I intend to keep it that way. But I'm constantly reminding China that a great society is one that welcomes and honors human rights, for example; welcomes the Catholic Church in its midst; doesn't fear religious movements. As a matter of fact, a vibrant society is one that welcomes religious movements. But we've got good relations with China.

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.

Citizen journalism takes hold in the 4th estate

My friend St. Scott is the latest recipient of The 6th Estate's prestigious "Faith Popcorn, eat your heart out! Award*" for noticing the latest trend in citizen journalism.

Print media, the 4th estate, apparently is feeling the pinch of blogging as an outlet for the disgruntled voices of middle America and is seeking to welcome the voices of the conservative. Bloggers compete for reader attention, and if readers are reading blogs instead of print media, then print media can't sell that audience to advertisers and make money. Or if they contribute stories to blogs, they aren't contributing them to print media. So now the diversity of the newsroom will include the voices of the old, the conservative and the religious. Lenin and Marx would turn over in their graves!

The Wall Street Journal Online reports that several newspapers are asking its readers to submit articles for publication. They include the Bakersfield Californian, the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record and Morris Publishing Group LLC. The WSJO writes:

James C. Currow, executive vice president of newspapers at Augusta, Ga.'s Morris Publishing Group LLC, is an unlikely proponent of (the idea that journalists and newspapers don't hold a monopoly on knowledge). This week, his company pulled the plug on the Carolina Morning News, a 10-year-old daily newspaper in Bluffton, S.C., with a circulation of 6,000 and replaced it with a flashy Web site and matching newspaper called Bluffton Today. As part of the launch, Bluffton Today's staff passed out digital cameras to the community's best gossips -- "the unofficial cruise directors," Mr. Currow calls them -- and told them to snap away, then upload their photos to BlufftonToday.com. The site also hosts blogs by local residents, and Mr. Currow says he'd like to solicit articles written by readers in the future.

Should I, as a blogger, be worried that the mainstream media are entering this domain and trying to reach out to readers? Not no, but hell no! I'm happy as a clam at high tide about the trend. Newspapers are once again trying to connect with readers, and if blogging forces them to do it, all the better.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times bemoans the notion that readers believe journalists think of themselves as elites. Actually, readers know journalists think of themselves as elites. If you read the major newspapers or listened to the nightly news from the three major networks, you'd think that nearly all America was anti-war, disliked President Bush, was anti-religious ... until President Bush was re-elected handily over John Kerry, an elite connected Boston-brahmin and liberal east coaster. And then the pundits realized we're not a nation of Tom Hayden clones married to clones of Jane Fonda.

Is it any wonder that print media have been losing readers and the network news programs have been losing viewers? As I pointed out in my earlier posts "The Cinderella story that wasn't" and "The Journalism Stockholm Syndrome," the mainstream media have an incestuous relationship with Washington politics, notably liberal, extreme left Democratic and elite politics.

No high school in the United States would offer a separate prom for gay and lesbian couples but this month the American Society of Newspaper Editors, for the first time in its 83 year history, will host a reception specifically for its gay and lesbian members at its annual meeting. It's not just including the gay and lesbian singles and couples as part of a general reception, it's holding a special reception in an apparently forced way of showing just how liberal, accepting and diverse the organization is.

Maybe that's the reason newspapers like the Washington Post continue to push to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, like it did in an editorial today. They just don't get it. It has nothing to do with some kind of homophobia; at the very least it's a privacy matter. As I wrote to the Post in a letter to the editor that I doubt they will ever publish, even though I double-dog dared them:

As a veteran of the U.S. Navy I would whole-heartedly support homosexuals serving openly in the military ... as soon as Congress passes a law forcing Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to shower with me. And, in case you're wondering, I'm not sexually attracted to her at all.

I'm not a homophobe. It's a matter of privacy. And there is none in the military. Lavatory and sleeping facilities are separated for males and females based on sexual roles, heretofore historically defined by gender. There is no other reason for this separation. Apparently, liberal society has determined that gender roles no longer distinguish the sexuality of a human; that the sexuality of human distinguishes the sexuality of a human. Thus, either new separate facilities should be constructed allowing privacy based on varying sexuality or all barriers must come down. Given the economics of the situation, the latter must be the accepted course.

The Washington Post's argument is that preventing gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military is costing the country millions of dollars to prosecute violators of the screwy Clinton "Don't ask, don't tell" legacy. What it doesn't address is just how much money would be saved if there were no separate lavatory or berthing facilities for males and females. I expect it would be billions. Of course, the liberals wouldn't approve the introduction of any unisex lavatory and berthing facilities because women wouldn't join the military. But they're wholeheartedly supporting homosexuality in the military. That's what the agenda of the Post editorial writer is: supporting homosexuality in the military. Because you can't support homosexuals in the military without supporting homosexuality in the military. I would doubt the writer of that editorial ever served in the military. I would doubt that many on the editorial staff of the Washington Post served in the military or would ever serve, but they want to force that liberalism down the throats of those who do serve. They treat the military of this nation as some kind of grand social experiment rather than an important arm of its political and economic will and self-defense.

Newspapers aren't reflective of middle America but they try to reach a middle America audience and sell it to advertisers. It wasn't that long ago that a survey was published proving that most journalists and editors would call themselves liberal. And they wonder what happened to America, why America all of a sudden grew so conservative.

It's not that America has all of a sudden grown conservative. America has always been conservative. "Mom, apple pie and hot dogs" is not a saying that would be uttered from the lips of a liberal east or west coast elite unless it was in a statement of disdain for who they would call "uneducated red state country bumpkins." It's the media that have changed and grown more liberal than the audience they try to reach. In their move to "more diversity" they have pushed middle America out of the newsroom entirely and replaced it with liberal left coast and east coast elitism.

Maybe the publishers and the owners of the print media and the broadcast outlets are finally getting the message from the bottomline: no red-staters on the editorial staff means red ink.

[*Note to St. Scott: All you get is an "Attaboy!" in an e-mail and a mention here. No swag; can't set a precedent. Okay, fine, I'll send you some popcorn. I've got a 50 pound bag from Sam's Club I've had for a year and I've hardly put a dent in it. I have to get rid of it somehow so I'll dole it out on special occasions like this. But that's it! I hear any more grumbling about cash, money or loot, I'll have the governor of Wisconsin send you a cat.]

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

All lay loads on a willing horse!

It's Sudafed season down south

Alaska has its mosquito and mud season. Vermont and New Hampshire have their mud seasons when the winter snows begin to thaw. Western states have their fire seasons. And down south, we have Sudafed season.

Until I moved to Louisiana, I had no allergies to pollen at all. Cats, yep. And for some reason, handling some fibreglas fabrics made my hands swell up like balloons. I found that out helping my late mother hang some curtains one year. But I don't recall ever having a problem when the blossoms filled the trees and the flowers began to bloom.

But Louisiana is a special state. They've got plants here that rival triffids. Winter is short here, shorter than the summers in Vermont where they have nine months of winter and three months of bad sledding. So when the spring rains come in the bayou state, so also comes mud, mosquitos and enough pollen to turn my black 1985 Subaru station wagon yellow. And I automatically head to acquire generic forms of Clor-Trimeton and Sudafed from the Wal Mart and walk around in a sinus-stuffing, sinus-draining, itchy-eyed haze until things calm down somewhat.

When I moved down south, friends asked my why I did it. Although I grew up in upstate New York and lived many years in Connecticut and Massachusetts, I've always felt attracted to the southern United States. There are several generations from a limb of my deadbeat dad's family buried in a cemetery in Amite, Louisiana, not too far from Kentwood, the town Britney Spears calls home. But that's not the reason.

I hate the cold. I hate cold weather. I had one decent vacation in my life and that was a week spent laughing and scuba diving with a wonderful woman in Aruba. It was $12 for a case of Amstel beer, which is made at a brewery on the island, and $8 was the deposit on the bottles. Visibility 75 feet down was about 150 feet. If you want a great vacation, head to Aruba. The warm tradewinds blow constantly and the sky at night is filled with trillions of stars blinking from horizon to horizon. Don't take a package like all tourists do; rent a studio for the week on the north end of the island. It'll be less expensive and much more fun to piece the package together yourself.

The vacation ended and I flew back into Boston on March 17, St. Patrick's Day. I got off the jet and ... it was snowing. Not heavy snow, but late winter snow that was wet and cold. It was great to be in Boston on St. Patrick's Day, just not in the snow. As I stood waiting for the trolleys to take me into work over the next few weeks, the cold sleet would pour on me, the cars would drive by and splash me with slush and I'd get into work with wet, cold feet and have to work like that all day. I said to myself, "That's it. I've had it. I can't stand it anymore." The only thing that kept me going was visualizing myself back in Aruba, and the fact that I lived only a mile and half from Fenway and baseball season would soon start.

The biggest difference between the south and the north is that when the weather gets unbearable down south, the women take clothes off. Now ask me again why I like living down south.

I love to swim but I don't swim much down here. There's a lot of water in Louisiana, but most folk don't swim in it. They've got snakes in the water down here, water mocassins, as well as snapping turtles (I saw one with a 2 foot diameter shell a few years back) and, oh yeah, alligators. If you go swimming in fresh water down here, most of the time it's clorinated. The alternative is to go tubing with some friends. Buses drive you up the road and you take your cooler full of beer and sandwiches and your truck tire inner tubes and float lazily down a river for the next four hours or so until you return to the spot where you parked your car. You can feel catfish nibbling your toes as you float down the river but I've yet to see a snake when I've been tubing, although I'm sure there are some there somewhere. That's why you need the beer when you're tubing. Anesthetic properties just in case of snake bite.

Pretty soon in Louisiana it'll be like scuba diving. The humidity will rarely fall below 80 percent saturation, and I'll be hot and sticky and feel like a used 5-day deodorant pad. But it's better than feeling like a frozen fishstick. The weather will become unbearable and the women will start taking clothes off. It's a tough life.

Use the comment function to tell me what special seasons your particular geographic area has.

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A camel is a horse designed by a committee

An actual auto critic ... how refreshing!

It's rare to see a member of the 4th Estate, print media, write like a blogger. But Dan Neil, a Pulitzer Prize winning auto critic for the Los Angeles Times, did just that last Wednesday when he lambasted the management of General Motors in a column that didn't mince many words at all.

Neil blasted the Detroit automaker's management for failing to make competitive vehicles, notably slamming the new Pontiac G6 as a "sales flop" despite an unprecedented multimillion dollar promotion coups giveaway on the "Oprah" television show last September. And he called for the resignation of GM's Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner for turning GM into a "morass of a business case" who missed the boat on hybrid vehicle development, handing the business to Honda and Toyota, while planning even more SUVs. "When ballclubs have losing records, players and coaches and managers get their walking papers. At GM, it's time to sweep the dugout," wrote Neil.

It wasn't long before GM caught wind of the article and pulled its advertising from the newspaper, estimated to be a whopping $10 million annually. In reports, GM's spokesman said GM dealers in California were unhappy with the coverage by the Los Angeles Times and that GM is free to advertise or not advertise where it pleases. Harumphhh!

While GM's stock held firm the day Neil's column was printed, as soon as the story about GM pulling it's advertising was picked up by the wire services and put into the hands of readers, GM's stock tanked and pulled the Dow Jones average down with it. On the same day, Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to "sell" from "hold."

Companies often pull their advertising from the media when it contains an unfavorable report about them but they rarely get zapped by the stock market like GM did. GM exacerbated and magnified the column by yanking its ads, and anyone who wasn't paying attention to the management errors at GM soon was.

If you're an employee for a corporation like that and you're caught saying something the company doesn't like, even if true, it does the same to you -- it fires you. My late Uncle Richard used to call that being "Dead right. You're right, but you're dead nonetheless." The "golden handcuffs" are the primary weapons used to keep suppliers and employees in line. The media are addicted to the money, and many times corporations get their way because the media are corporations worrying about the bottom line too. It might be helpful for a corporation to pay off critics in the short term -- or the alternative intimidation technique of threatening and actually cutting off their pay -- but the best solution is to fix the problem(s) that led to the criticism.

Neil is lucky. He's won a Pulitzer Prize for his commentary and so the Los Angeles Times can hardly fire him for speaking his mind. Plus, the Times would lose major face in journalism circles if it caved in to GM intimidation tactics. As they say, a good name is worth more than money.

When I was first starting out in journalism I was scribing for a small weekly newspaper in Connecticut. I was out of the Navy just barely over a year and had yet to earn a degree. I was paid 50 cents per column inch of printed copy and $2 for each photo I had published. It was barely cigarette money but I was doing it primarily for the experience and the clips. And it was at this job I was confronted by my first wrathful advertiser unhappy with an article I'd written.

The towns in this particular area did not have fire departments with paid firefighters. They were all volunteers. When a radio call went out, depending on how bad the fire was, trucks from several towns would show up and help put out the blaze. One time a fire erupted about a mile from the fire station of the little town that I covered. All the volunteer firefighters showed up, but no one thought to remember to bring the firetruck. While they went back to the station to get the truck and their equipment, volunteers and trucks from towns 15 miles away showed up and were able to put out the flames. The truck from the fire station a mile away was the last to arrive on scene. A young couple's gifts being stored in the house for the wedding two days hence were destroyed but no one was hurt.

As you might expect, the volunteer firefighters didn't want this embarassment getting out. But I found out about it and wrote it up for the newspaper. The firefighters were taking a lot of ribbing for it and that got them pretty hot under the collar about my story. They were looking for just about any excuse and I had made one mistake in the story. When firefighters make a "call" they don't do it by telephone they do it by radio. When I interviewed the chief of the volunteer fire department, he said "I called the crew." I paraphased the quote and, thinking I was cleaning up his slang for the newspaper, wrote that he "telephoned" the firefighters.

That was enough of a peg to hang their embarassment on and a jewelry store in town, owned by a relative of a firefighter, cancelled its advertising in the paper claiming story inaccuracies. The editor and publisher, both in their early 30s, stood by me and I'll always appreciate that support. A retraction was printed clarifying that the chief had radioed his crew and did not telephone them, and shortly thereafter the advertising was back. Apparently the laughter had died down to a dull roar by then. The burned wedding presents were replaced, and some new ones were added including a few donated by some red-faced firefighters. I don't recall them ever again forgetting the firetruck.

---

Time for some western style payback: A group of county commissioners from western states including Utah and Nevada are petitioning to have the Northern Snakehead declared an endangered species. If you don't recall this particular fish, it is native to Vietnam but has been found in rivers on the eastern coast of the U.S., presumably dumped there by people who had kept them as pets. Because of the Snakehead's voracious appetite and its ability to walk on land as well as swim, it's been dubbed by the media as "Frankenfish." Thousands of dollars were spent last year in Maryland trying to remove the fish from local ponds. To the eastcoasters, the fish is a menace and that's why the commissioners want to have it on the endangered species list, the Washington Times reports. Folk on the east coast meddle in the affairs of western residents, getting all sorts of pests declared endangered, the commissioners say, and this is just their way to give some people back east a taste of their own medicine. While it's doubtful the Snakehead will be made an endangered species, the commissioners are hoping just to get the point across.

---

I have updated my post: Here's my report on clo*(*($@#$%^@# Marketplace reporter Cathy Duchamp checked in with The 6th Estate and provided us with a hyperlink to the transcript of her story on closed captioning placed on her radio station's web site.

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

Where is the cold case journalism?

I don't like the liberalism of CBS News or the anti-veteran attitude of the network's owner Viacom but I enjoy watching several shows on the CBS network when I happen to catch them. One of those shows is normally broadcast on Sunday and it's called "Cold Case."

From the web site description:

COLD CASE is a drama about Lilly Rush, the lone female detective in the Philadelphia homicide squad who finds her niche when she's assigned to "cold cases"--crimes that have never been solved. Previously, she used her instinctive understanding of the criminal mind on current murders. Now, she's interrogating witnesses whose lives and circumstances have since changed, making use of today's new science and finding fresh clues to solve cases that were previously unsolvable, all of which appeals to this smart, driven detective. She's also prepared for the consequences: that her work will open up old wounds and may lead suspects to commit new crimes.

The Hollywood part is that Det. Rush always solves the cold case by the hour's end. It's fictional, but I like to think that police somewhere are always looking at old cases. Several women were raped and killed in the Baton Rouge area before anyone thought to wonder that perhaps a serial killer might be at large. It was the local newspaper that tied it together and finally got the police looking for a single killer. DNA from a suspect questioned in a cold case eventually tied a suspect to the crimes but not until after several more women were killed.

I don't expect journalists or media organizations to always find the culprits on cold cases but I want them looking, and they really don't. I'm sure time and money are two reasons. Motivation, I'm sure, is another.

Journalism is a profession not unlike that of the police or firefighters where it's mostly about the here and now, putting out fires, looking for that "news peg" that ties the story into today's issue or news broadcast rather than tomorrow's issue or news broadcast or next week's issue or news broadcast. Yesterday's news is left for puppies and wrapping fish.

The problem is that most of the culprits at the base of these cold cases realize what a short attention span media have. They probably count on it. If they can get through this current round of headlines, perhaps the media will go away. The media does, eventually, and the problem is not always rectified.

One of the best examples of this were reports done by CBS' own Steve Kroft, now a 60 Minutes regular but previously a lead reporter on CBS' yuppie version of 60 Minutes called West 57th.

Just days prior to the beginning of Iraq I, Mr. Kroft, then working for West 57th, came on the television with a chilling report on how inadequate the chemical warfare suits are that are supposed to protect America's military. I was absolutely livid when I saw this report. Mr. Kroft could have waited to report to Saddam Hussein that the U.S. chemical warfare suits were inadequate, or he could have reported the story long before the invasion were to take place and alerted the public that changes needed to be made. He didn't. The war was the news peg and he went with the story. That report, in my opinion, threatened to put the U.S. troops in harm's way. Luckily, Saddam didn't use any chemical weapons, or at least any chemical weapons of which we knew.

Several years passed, no follow up report from Mr. Kroft. Or at least no follow up report from Mr. Kroft until just days before Iraq II. Then working for 60 Minutes, Mr. Kroft again reported just how inadequate the chemical warfare suits are that are supposed to protect the U.S. military. I could've strangled the man. He had years, years to follow up on that report and bring it to the attention of the public just how bulky, hot and inadequate those suits are. But he didn't. Has he followed-up since then? No. I anticipate he's waiting until the next time the U.S. forces may face a chemical attack when he will come on the television and broadcast to everyone listening how inadequate the chemical warfare suits are.

A short media attention span, a willingness to report a good story even if means sacrificing the lives of people, or a case on early-onset "sometimes-ers." You tell me.

Such is the case with the short-selling of the airline stocks in the days just prior to 9/11. At that point, it was headline news and top priority with the FBI and the media. One hot story and then ... silence.

Then, of course, there was the alleged suicide of the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Jeremy "Mike" Boorda. A flurried month of articles and then nothing. The press in Washington is supposed to have the power to topple presidents but no reporter ever interviewed any of the witnesses directly involved in finding the CNO's body. And the Navy refused to release the autopsy results and the alleged suicide notes. Several months passed and there's a report in The Washingtonian, claiming to contain contents of one of the alleged suicide notes but still no autopsy. May 19th this year makes the ninth anniversary of the CNO's death and there hasn't been a single report since the article in The Washingtonian was published other than an Associated Press report reporting what The Washingtonian reported.

There are a number of cold cases, some big and some small. The owners of the nation's media have the funds to investigate these cold cases and they don't. And that, in my opinion, fails to serve the public interest.

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A positive pessimism is better than a negative optimism