Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. Horatio Alger, twist in your grave. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.
The sheer rock-pounding stupidity of the article put me off. What hope do I have in the face of such fact-checked and three-layers-of-editors writing? That piece is clearly what our press want and expects from their writers. Who am I to rub their noses on the mess of writing that the authors left on the floor? As if that would do any good.
Luckily someone else tackled it, noting: "The 'article' made me weep for my chosen profession."
Oh, and Lileks hit it. Do check that out.
This AP article isn't journalism. It is a sad cry for help by two writers too ashamed to seek help for their obvious psychological issues.
One day, perhaps, if my idealism lives long enough to see this hope become reality, we'll create schools for reporters where they will learn how to report the "who, what, when, and where" with some skill, while clearly separtaing their own opinions as to the "why."
Call me crazy, but I'd call these institutions "journalism schools." Can you imagine what we'd get if our reporters were actually trained in their profession?
