The Blago coverage this week neatly sums up the idiocy of the media, local and national. As if we needed another reminder after this political season. Not one Chicago station had the guts to give it a two minute hit and move on. It was newsgasm to the end.
Our former governor is a sociopath at best, a psychopath at worst. A flaccid charmer without the ability to feel anything except for himself. Blogger Rob Feder's use of the word "pathological" just scrapes the surface. We seldom give the correct definition to Evil but Blago surely comes close. He may care for his kids, but in the way some people do about their relatives' pets.
Goudie's question to Blago's wife ("Do you plan to stay with him?")outraged many but probably reveals insider knowledge and illustrates a given about Blago's future. Patty will stick with him about as long as a cowboy with a hobbled horse.
It's tough on the kids, yes. For awhile. Best they're away from him.
What makes me the most ill about the whole disgusting affair, however, are the people who still worship and support this bastard.
More than anything else, Blago's backers illustrate why Illinois government is in such a shambles: we are a state and nation of mindless sheep who believe only what we hear in the latest and best served soundbite.
What's terrifying is that there are others . . . many, many, others . . . holding, or aspiring to, public office whose rapacious lust for power overwhelms that of our former Governor.
They don't have goofy hairjobs. They don't dance for the cameras. And you won't see them coming until they have you by the throat.
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Congress and Casting Stones
So it looks like Congressman Weiner is out.
Reports in the New York Times and elsewhere say the pec-and-ab-displaying Democrat will resign after long discussions with his wife and amid threats that his colleagues planned to strip him of his committee assignments. Probably not the kind of stripping he's used to . . . but, I digress.
Yeah, he's a creep for playing around with other women while married and for the unpardonable sin of lying about it when the media came calling. Now he bows out in disgrace and goes to spend time in rehab or taking long walks on the beach. Can a nasty, but quiet, divorce be far behind?
Here's my take.
I wonder how many others in Congress are guilty of the same thing . . . or worse? Were any of those esteemed statesmen (and undoubtedly stateswomen) among the "colleagues" who urged him to quit? Of course they were!
I suspect more than a few of the finger-pointing media have their own sexual peccadillos to hide. Sure they have a job to do but, do they have the moral right to criticize anyone else? Just askin'.
Final question...what serious issues, what criminal acts, what real wrongs have gone uninvestigated and unreported while the media and pundits have been dancing all over Weiner's weiner?
Is it too much for a disgusted public to ask that we get back to the business of news sometime soon?
Reports in the New York Times and elsewhere say the pec-and-ab-displaying Democrat will resign after long discussions with his wife and amid threats that his colleagues planned to strip him of his committee assignments. Probably not the kind of stripping he's used to . . . but, I digress.
Yeah, he's a creep for playing around with other women while married and for the unpardonable sin of lying about it when the media came calling. Now he bows out in disgrace and goes to spend time in rehab or taking long walks on the beach. Can a nasty, but quiet, divorce be far behind?
Here's my take.
I wonder how many others in Congress are guilty of the same thing . . . or worse? Were any of those esteemed statesmen (and undoubtedly stateswomen) among the "colleagues" who urged him to quit? Of course they were!
I suspect more than a few of the finger-pointing media have their own sexual peccadillos to hide. Sure they have a job to do but, do they have the moral right to criticize anyone else? Just askin'.
Final question...what serious issues, what criminal acts, what real wrongs have gone uninvestigated and unreported while the media and pundits have been dancing all over Weiner's weiner?
Is it too much for a disgusted public to ask that we get back to the business of news sometime soon?
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Squeak of the Tiger
Why did any reporter cover Tiger's speech today?
Yeah, yeah, I know they gotta. But still. I would have liked to see the mainstream media take the approach the Golf Writers did. Everyone should have boycotted his little morning mea-sorta-culpa up to and including his huggy-kissy time with his mama.
Why?
Most reporters weren't even allowed in the room. They watched from a hotel a mile away.
Pool reporters were present for the speech...but not allowed to ask questions.
The whole thing amounted to what one sportswriter called an "infomercial" and was scripted down to the last hug and handshake by Tiger's handlers. To me, that's not news coverage. That's like using one of the dozens of video news releases sent to newsrooms every day.
He said nothing stunning or newsworthy. Yeah he's sorry. Wonderful. He's as sorry as the guys on trial for murder who cry for the judge when they're sentenced. Is he sorry for what he did, or is he sorry he got caught? Is he sorry he devastated his wife and family or sorry that he's unlikely to get any quiet action on the side for awhile, at least while he's in sex-addiction therapy?
Frankly, the Tiger story got more coverage than it deserved anyway. This guy plays golf, for crying out loud! He's not the President with the nuclear arsenal at his disposal. He's not even a politician who embarrassed himself and his constituency by getting caught screwing when he claimed to be hiking or discovered knocking up a videographer while running for President.
Tiger Woods is a professional athlete who disappointed some of his fans, probably impressed some others with his virility and stamina, enraged women and right-thinking men who disapprove of random adulterous affairs and ticked off his sponsors and a bunch of guys in goofy colored pants who (skillfully) hit little white balls into holes in the ground in unusually pristine surroundings.
And we wonder why the media doesn't root out corruption in government any better than it does.
It's too busy following pecker tracks.
Yeah, yeah, I know they gotta. But still. I would have liked to see the mainstream media take the approach the Golf Writers did. Everyone should have boycotted his little morning mea-sorta-culpa up to and including his huggy-kissy time with his mama.
Why?
Most reporters weren't even allowed in the room. They watched from a hotel a mile away.
Pool reporters were present for the speech...but not allowed to ask questions.
The whole thing amounted to what one sportswriter called an "infomercial" and was scripted down to the last hug and handshake by Tiger's handlers. To me, that's not news coverage. That's like using one of the dozens of video news releases sent to newsrooms every day.
He said nothing stunning or newsworthy. Yeah he's sorry. Wonderful. He's as sorry as the guys on trial for murder who cry for the judge when they're sentenced. Is he sorry for what he did, or is he sorry he got caught? Is he sorry he devastated his wife and family or sorry that he's unlikely to get any quiet action on the side for awhile, at least while he's in sex-addiction therapy?
Frankly, the Tiger story got more coverage than it deserved anyway. This guy plays golf, for crying out loud! He's not the President with the nuclear arsenal at his disposal. He's not even a politician who embarrassed himself and his constituency by getting caught screwing when he claimed to be hiking or discovered knocking up a videographer while running for President.
Tiger Woods is a professional athlete who disappointed some of his fans, probably impressed some others with his virility and stamina, enraged women and right-thinking men who disapprove of random adulterous affairs and ticked off his sponsors and a bunch of guys in goofy colored pants who (skillfully) hit little white balls into holes in the ground in unusually pristine surroundings.
And we wonder why the media doesn't root out corruption in government any better than it does.
It's too busy following pecker tracks.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Is Anybody Listening?
The Naperville Sun reports this week that the cities of Aurora and Naperville are in the process of buying new two-way radio systems for their police and fire departments. The communications gear used now is ten to fifteen years out of date, they say, and besides, in the post 9-1-1 era, they need better "interoperability."
That's the new buzz word. Interoperability. What it means in simple terms is...in a disaster, all emergency responders want to be able to talk to each other. Wonderful concept.
Except the new system Aurora and Naperville officials are buying, at a publicly stated cost of $20 million, is designed to do just the opposite. Yes, it appears to allow Aurora and Naperville agencies to talk to one another to their hearts' content. But mutual aid responders? Not so much. Outside departments summoned to assist with emergencies won't have any better "interoperability" with Aurora and Naperville than they do now and, mostly, it will be worse. In fact, other agencies won't even be able to hear the new communications system without purchasing or borrowing extremely expensive new gear and from a sole source provider at that. Who pays? I'd venture to guess the individual departments will, not Aurora and Naperville. A good example of hidden costs. Of course the plan may be to loan radios to units coming in from other jurisdictions but that's a laughable concept to anyone familiar with police and fire bureaucracies. They won't have the radios when they really need them. The radios that are loaned won't work or just won't be charged. There won't be enough of them. And the outside responders won't be trained in system protocols...ie: they won't know how to run 'em, police radios nowadays being just about as confusing to the average non-gearhead copper as a high-end cell phone, iPod or TV satellite receiver.
What Aurora and Naperville really want to do is make their police and fire communications "more secure." Police agencies have been trying to do that for as long as medical researchers have been trying to cure the common cold. Translated, it means they don't want you and me (and the three master criminals who are scanner savvy) and especially the scary, scary news media listening to them on easily purchased scanners.
The thinking is not new. I started in the news business in the 1970's. Cops regularly warned me that, by responding to police and fire incidents after hearing them on my ten-channel scanner, I was endangering emergency personnel and would therefore be subject to arrest! Yawn.
Here's my take on the Aurora/Naperville plan.
First, any publicly funded agency that feels it has to hide its daily routine from the people it serves doesn't understand its mission statement. It goes without saying that police departments should encrypt their sensitive communications. But "sensitive" would be things like homicide/gang crime/drug investigations and SWAT responses not barking dog calls, domestic fights, traffic accidents and house fires.
Second, if administrators put away their "who's listening to us?" paranoia, especially as regards the news media, and really concentrate on designing a system that is interoperable, they would find better and cheaper technology that doesn't rely on a single provider for service.
Third, the Chicago Police and Fire Departments are still working with a radio system that was state of the art in the 1960's. Forty years ago! I'm sure many Chicago coppers don't like the idea of crooks listening to them or having scanner buffs and the media showing up at their crime scenes but they manage to work around the annoyances just fine. Chicago, too, is planning to upgrade their equipment but with truly interoperable radios other agencies can easily buy if they choose to do so.
So what are Aurora and Naperville doing that's worth spending $20 million to hide?
That's the new buzz word. Interoperability. What it means in simple terms is...in a disaster, all emergency responders want to be able to talk to each other. Wonderful concept.
Except the new system Aurora and Naperville officials are buying, at a publicly stated cost of $20 million, is designed to do just the opposite. Yes, it appears to allow Aurora and Naperville agencies to talk to one another to their hearts' content. But mutual aid responders? Not so much. Outside departments summoned to assist with emergencies won't have any better "interoperability" with Aurora and Naperville than they do now and, mostly, it will be worse. In fact, other agencies won't even be able to hear the new communications system without purchasing or borrowing extremely expensive new gear and from a sole source provider at that. Who pays? I'd venture to guess the individual departments will, not Aurora and Naperville. A good example of hidden costs. Of course the plan may be to loan radios to units coming in from other jurisdictions but that's a laughable concept to anyone familiar with police and fire bureaucracies. They won't have the radios when they really need them. The radios that are loaned won't work or just won't be charged. There won't be enough of them. And the outside responders won't be trained in system protocols...ie: they won't know how to run 'em, police radios nowadays being just about as confusing to the average non-gearhead copper as a high-end cell phone, iPod or TV satellite receiver.
What Aurora and Naperville really want to do is make their police and fire communications "more secure." Police agencies have been trying to do that for as long as medical researchers have been trying to cure the common cold. Translated, it means they don't want you and me (and the three master criminals who are scanner savvy) and especially the scary, scary news media listening to them on easily purchased scanners.
The thinking is not new. I started in the news business in the 1970's. Cops regularly warned me that, by responding to police and fire incidents after hearing them on my ten-channel scanner, I was endangering emergency personnel and would therefore be subject to arrest! Yawn.
Here's my take on the Aurora/Naperville plan.
First, any publicly funded agency that feels it has to hide its daily routine from the people it serves doesn't understand its mission statement. It goes without saying that police departments should encrypt their sensitive communications. But "sensitive" would be things like homicide/gang crime/drug investigations and SWAT responses not barking dog calls, domestic fights, traffic accidents and house fires.
Second, if administrators put away their "who's listening to us?" paranoia, especially as regards the news media, and really concentrate on designing a system that is interoperable, they would find better and cheaper technology that doesn't rely on a single provider for service.
Third, the Chicago Police and Fire Departments are still working with a radio system that was state of the art in the 1960's. Forty years ago! I'm sure many Chicago coppers don't like the idea of crooks listening to them or having scanner buffs and the media showing up at their crime scenes but they manage to work around the annoyances just fine. Chicago, too, is planning to upgrade their equipment but with truly interoperable radios other agencies can easily buy if they choose to do so.
So what are Aurora and Naperville doing that's worth spending $20 million to hide?
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