I hate what the news has become.....
No, this isn't a diatribe about how the news is always full of bad things and never any uplifting stories. As much as dislike Katie Couric's move to the CBS Evening news, she hit the problem right on the head. The news, especially the 6:30PM TV news is just becoming less & less news and more & more just the two spins each political party has of the same issue. In fact the gory liquor store hold up that leaves two dead (that everyone hates to hear on the news) is more news than this. At least you don't have to figure out what each side of the issues wants you to hear.
The final straw was earlier this week when I was driving home from work listening to Morning Edition on the local NPR. It was an interview with the new Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne. The interview started off as usual but the interviewer (Elizabeth Shogren) started asking the nominee about his soon to be predecessor's picks for department heads and how some used to be lobbyists for companies their new departments oversee. Now I can see her point that it looked a little bad for one example she stated but when Mr. Kempthorne gave a high road answer and didn't want to get into what previous department officials had done, she kept on asking the same question 4 different times and was almost answering for him (the answer she wanted to hear) by the end! In the end what I remember most about the interview isn't the plans the new director will have or issues facing the Department of Interior (what I thought the interview was supposed to be about) but the attitude the reporter had. She may have had issues with the previous director and how things were done in the past but taking the issues out on the new nominee was petty and Mr. Kempthorne and the listeners didn't deserve it. (In the interest of full disclosure I will say that I have been a loyal NPR listener for over a decade and will continue to be so. I also don't feel guilty at pledge drives because I actually do give!) Also, my 2 cents on the reporters point... maybe getting a major lobbyist to run a department might be over the top but as I see it, you do have to tap industry to get qualified people who know what they're doing. To insinuate you need someone entirely outside a departments scope to run the show is just plain stupid.
The final straw was earlier this week when I was driving home from work listening to Morning Edition on the local NPR. It was an interview with the new Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne. The interview started off as usual but the interviewer (Elizabeth Shogren) started asking the nominee about his soon to be predecessor's picks for department heads and how some used to be lobbyists for companies their new departments oversee. Now I can see her point that it looked a little bad for one example she stated but when Mr. Kempthorne gave a high road answer and didn't want to get into what previous department officials had done, she kept on asking the same question 4 different times and was almost answering for him (the answer she wanted to hear) by the end! In the end what I remember most about the interview isn't the plans the new director will have or issues facing the Department of Interior (what I thought the interview was supposed to be about) but the attitude the reporter had. She may have had issues with the previous director and how things were done in the past but taking the issues out on the new nominee was petty and Mr. Kempthorne and the listeners didn't deserve it. (In the interest of full disclosure I will say that I have been a loyal NPR listener for over a decade and will continue to be so. I also don't feel guilty at pledge drives because I actually do give!) Also, my 2 cents on the reporters point... maybe getting a major lobbyist to run a department might be over the top but as I see it, you do have to tap industry to get qualified people who know what they're doing. To insinuate you need someone entirely outside a departments scope to run the show is just plain stupid.
posted by James at 2:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home