"I Feel Like the World has Lost a Terrific Dancer" -- A Rant about How our News Fails Us

Today I was dragging a bit from my most recent dance with the devil (cytoxin and cytarabine), so I decided to stay home in the air conditioning and take a day to rest and recuperate.

After eating breakfast, showering, and checking work email I headed back to bed and slept most of the morning away -- in one of those deep, comatose sleeps one rarely finds during the daylight hours.

When I awoke I cooked myself some lunch (we're back to cooked-only food now), and clicked on cable news as to see what was happening in the world as I chowed down my grub.

In a half hour of cable news, flipping between networks, here's the breakdown of coverage:

Conflict in Iran: 45 seconds
Stock Market Update: 1 minute 15 seconds
Death of Michael Jackson, Debate over custody of Michael Jackson's children and estate: 28 minutes.

Maybe I'm an idealist. Perhaps I'm just old school. Probably journalism school tainted my view of the news. But I firmly believe that the news media of all types should enlighten and inform the public. That it should drive public dialogue, debate, and discussion while steering said discussion toward the important issues on any given day. That beyond simply setting the agenda, that its pages and studios should act as a forum to debate local, regional and national issues. And finally, that it should serve as the watchdog of our leaders, elected and otherwise.

And Michael Jackson's death, while sad and perhaps a bit shocking and morbid, just does not fit the bill. Coverage of Michael Jackson's death will do nothing to help us move forward and find common-ground solutions to challenges in a world full of strife and conflict. I am left no more enlightened or informed as a citizen knowing that Michael Jackson's third child's nickname is "Blanket."

I feel sympathy for his kids and family, but then again I did when he was alive as well. And, furthermore, there are thousands upon thousands of individuals out there who deserve our sympathy -- why focus our national attention on one or two because they are celebrities, the very people who probably need our sympathy the least.

And as the news camera's face the Neverland Ranch today, they turn their backs to real and consequential events happening in the world.

In Iran alone, grassroots opposition to the religious establishment continues with thousands of courageous individuals already having been incarcerated and hundreds killed in the fight for religious and democratic freedoms.

Journalists in the country are being incarcerated and the government is stifling nearly all reports or images from Tehran and across the country. A high ranking Iranian cleric this morning endorsed the execution of protesters under Muslim law, and The U.S., Germany, and Britain are increasing the rhetoric condemning the actions of the establishment government -- as they well should.

Individuals in Iran are dying in a fight for freedom that could well alter the shape of the Middle East and of the world.

These events welcome a debate over the balance between the need to protect human rights and freedom of speech and religion weighed against the right of nations to govern they're territory sovereignly.

It welcomes a debate about the role religion should play in government, and a discussion about the differences between major religions and how that shapes our world.

It is a sad but fascinating conflict and its outcome -- one way or the other -- will have a profound effect on our world.

Yet, instead of facilitating these important and consequential discussions, the U.S. news dedicates its time and space to the absurd life and sudden death of a celebrity.

And that's just in Iran.

Here in the U.S. Federal Policy Makers prepare to vote on climate change legislation that will profoundly impact the future of our country -- It's time to act to address global warming and it looks like Congress is finally poised to do it.

This bill, The American Clean Energy And Security Act (ACES) will shape the future of American energy policy as we ween ourselves off of fossil fuels and will likely be voted on in the next couple of weeks, yet you'll find very little coverage of the bill on television news. Especially, when there's something far more sensational -- and far less consequential -- occuring.

Finally, more deserving of coverage than the Jackson scandal, is the fact that members of Congress and the White House are currently attempting to do what so many have failed at in the past -- reform and make sense of our health care system.

There are deep, deep injustices in our health care system as it currently operates, and I sincerely hope that this administration and this Congress can find a way to ensure all Americans receive effective and affordable health care. It will not be easy and there are many challenges -- but few things worth doing are easy and fixing health care is the right thing to do. This issue hits close to home with me, and you can expect to hear more in the coming weeks and months.

With so much of consequence going on in the world, the nausea from the cytoxin has passed, but I had trouble holding down my lunch (and my temper) when the national news played footage of someone being interviewed on the street who had this to say of today's events:

"I Feel Like the World has Lost a Terrific Dancer."

Wow. I can only imagine what the great journalists of the industry's hay-day would think of today's media. Actually I can -- they would be ashamed.

If there is a heaven (and I have no intention of getting there any time soon) the nightly TV news will be narrated by Walter Kronkite and Tim Russert, the radio news will be reported by Edward R. Murrow (where he got his start), and that the pages of the newspapers will be filled with journalist as brave, talented, dedicated as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Here on Earth we'll need to continue to search for good, consequential news coverage as one pans for gold (It's still out there as there still are many very talented and dedicated journalists around -- I work closely with many of them). Until a revolution occurs across the industry, however, we'll have to put up with the senseless "infotainment" that dominates the pages, broadcasts, and hours of today's news media.

And there's my two-cents worth.

I hope everyone has a terrific and enjoyable summer weekend!

Sam