At some point many years ago there was a sort of Bretton Woods for journalists, whereat they resolved that the only permissible matters for discussion would be Politics (by which they mean the Tweedledum-Tweedledee kind practiced in America and most other 'Western Democracies') and Diplomacy (a kind of international Politics and identical to it inasmuch as the point of the exercise is not really to solve anything or bring an end to a discussion, but is rather to keep the whole silly game going).
This, then, is what passes for serious news in the Serious News portion of your newspaper. The rest of the paper is filled out with Human Interest Stories (cripples, beggars, and others the reader is expected to feel superior to), Sports (don't ask me), and Entertainment (press relations and puffery for the movie and broadcast business).
And of course most people don't read real newspapers anymore anyway. They get their news from blogs and online papers, Fox News, CNN, and chat shows. What do you suppose are the items of vital interest on these newer media outlets? See paragraph one.
But *do* journalists report Politics? I'd say it was more like meta-Politics: what officeseekers are doing to win a race, and what officeholders are doing to position themselves (or their parties) for the next race. Actual reporting on what anyone thinks or does about an issue or intends to do about it if elected is somewhere on the list below "man bites dog."
Posted by: npetrikov | February 28, 2005 at 06:49 AM