When no news is ... not news!

I was trying to remember what it was like when the evening news was brought by personalities like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley or David Brinkley? You know, back when people trusted the news anchors. With today's broadcast journalism being more about getting the lion's share of the audience (and associated advertising dollars) than about reporting news, what is presented as news is mostly spin about otherwise less than newsworthy items.

I'm really not wanting this to be a political post, but since politics is driving the news it is difficult to avoid. For instance: I'm sure there was a time when Gov. Romney's disclosure (or non-disclosure) of his tax returns was a legitimate news item. It's not anymore. As a matter of my personal opinion, it's becoming the 2012 version of the birther non-issue.

Is there anybody in the USA that doesn't know that Gov. Romney is incredibly wealthy? Is there anybody that wouldn't take advantage of every opportunity to avoid paying taxes if they had the wealth and means that he has? Is there anybody that thinks that he makes any kind of connection with the economic woes of the majority of Americans?

Why aren't we hearing about the news?

Today's "news" personalities are either spinning one candidate or the other. They are not presenting news; they are presenting the information that the campaigns are putting out. The campaigns are always trying to force us to look at the other guy and all of his faults (real or fabricated) because neither candidate has a good plan for getting us out of the economic mess that we're in.

When the primary agenda of one political party is to make sure that the President is a one term president rather than to take care of the business of running the country, we know we are in trouble. When those that are supposed to be keeping watch over the US are more interested in campaigning for their entire term of office and only willing to follow the party leadership to keep the fund raising machine running, and when the media is more concerned with highlighting candidates' mistakes and misstatements to get ratings than they are concerned with simply sharing something that resembles the truth, we are destined to have a very divided country.

Recently, I compared the red and blue state maps to the blue and grey state maps of the Civil War. Today we are red or blue with no middle ground. Maybe it's time to declare Congress as "neutral territory"; white ground (meaning middle ground and in red, white and blue; not anything racially motivated). You can run on your party's ticket and share the same philosophies, but once you hit the beltway, your only job is to run the country!

I know! I know!
...but I can dream, can't I?

John <><