After a Long Hiatus...

I now realize it has been months since I have composed a post, so now I am back at it!  

Once and for all, let me critique some recent "news" programming I encountered.  

Let's be real: I'm not expecting the Today Show to do any hard-hitting journalism by any means, but please, we can do better than this.  

First, I was frustrated by Matt Lauer's upcoming, "powerful" interview with the Captain of the ship that was captured by pirates.  The voice-over portrays it as one of the most compelling interviews you'll witness in a while.  Yes, the captain is certainly heroic.  Yes, it's an interesting story.  But, as my professor noted, LET'S COVER THE REAL STORY.  The situation in Somalia, for crying out loud.

Another example: One of Sunday's short segments illustrated how the recession is impacting some parents' ability to send their kids to summer camps and how they will now have to think of "creative alternatives" for summer activities.  Yeah, welcome to the real world.  Many our of parents could never send us to camps period.  Yet again, mainstream media are illustrating how the recession has hit THE TOP INCOME BRACKETS, not those HARDEST HIT BY THE RECESSION.  This is a small, but important trend that has been hitting print and the airwaves.  Need another example?  See my post about the article entitled, "You try to live on $500K in this town." 

This is my call for a stop to frivolous and mind-numbingly shallow news programming.  

I want the journalism that Jon Stewart wants Jim Cramer to use on CNBC.  You know, that kind of watchdog coverage that looks out for our civic interests as citizens.  In the words of Stewart, "I want the Jim Cramer on CNBC to protect me from that Jim Cramer."  

Amen.