Category: Journalism

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Jeop or Shep?

It’s 7 PM. What to do?

Shep Smith has moved to CNBC. Now the best evening news show on TV. He is the rare journalist with his own twist. Stories from around the U.S. and the World with a unique brand of enthusiastic entertaining delivery.

It’s not typical cable slanted political narratives with panels who regurgitate the network’s talking points all day and night. Amazing to find out that there is more happening than Trump and Covid.

7 o’clock is also the Jeopardy time slot. Cannot miss our favorite info game show every night. Which to record? It’s a good choice.

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Footnotes & Stuff

As college students, we had to type footnotes on the bottom of each page in our term papers. Back then, with an IBM Selectric, even with the backspace eraser, that meant re-typing pages for days. Just to organize the stupid format so everything fit. And. We had to read all of the footnotes in a text, which seemed so tedious.

Later learned to love great writers’ footnotes. Many were better than the core work itself. David Foster Wallace had the funniest footnotes ever. They could go on for pages and were laugh-out-loud biting wit.

Nephew Matt Levine is the DFW of Finance, with a happier ending. Matt’s Bloomberg Money Stuff column is stuffed with clever footnotes. For that and other stuff, he is profiled in the NYTimes.

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Rainy Day Reality

One of the few rainy mornings on the South Fork this summer. So. Checked into reality for a bit.

Michael J. Sandel’s Column – New York Times caught my eye. That disdain for non-college-educated voters is the last acceptable prejudice. Labeling groups with condescending remarks such as “people who cling to their god and their guns” or “baskets of deplorables”.

Suggestion to media elite:

Read J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. For the first time or again.

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Off Balance

Stormy gusts knocking over anything not bolted down out there. Hurricane Isaías here and gone with the wind.

Journalism is also off-kilter as brave women speak out against the corrupt ratings-fueled media news outlets. Bari Weiss of The New York Times and Ariana Perkary of MSNBC did not leave their respective outlets quietly. Each railed against editorial decisions based only on what social media responses would be purely for profit. Rather than requiring balanced content as a core tenet.

Hope their voices will be a catalyst for a return to journalistic integrity.

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Parts Unknown

Traveling through current parts unknown, it is fitting that we remember Anthony Bourdain today. Lamenting the loss of this visionary poet, raconteur, chef as we pass by shuttered bistros and shattered dreams.

Nostalgic for Tony’s New York of debauchery and mystery. What would he do to resurrect the City and its dining scene.

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Fickle Focus

So. Last week Coronavirus data blinking on every cable news screen. Scoreboard of cases and dead like a countdown clock. Non-stop coverage of crowds in parks not social distancing, shaming officials not wearing masks. Outrage. Disgust. Reporters reprimanding workers who wanted to open businesses to feed their families.

This week. Crowds crammed together in protest, screaming and spewing anger and despair. Many wearing masks. Many not. They sure aren’t gathering in groups of less than ten. Oh. And SoHo looting has left that neighborhood decimated. No stories about that.

Tuesday. Primary elections in swing States. Not one channel talked about them. How quickly the media’s faux concern and focus shifts.

btw It’s systemic racism. Not systematic. Pundits.

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For the Birds

Birds are Not on Lockdown. More of them chirping out our City window every day. A couple weeks ago, visiting BroJoe in Westchester, looked up to see a vivid red bird which was singing a beautiful song. Immediately recognized it as a Scarlet Tanager. Hadn’t seen one since a kid, but no confusing it with any other.   ( Photo –  NYTimes )

 

Bird watching is on the rise and in the news. A birder in Central Park had the audacity to ask a woman to leash her dog, and it’s become a national story about racial injustice. As Minneapolis burns.

Watching birds beats watching riots and Covid coverage even when they converge. Don Lemon on CNN last night was outraged that the protesters were not wearing masks and social distancing. Seriously.

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Arbiters of Truth

Who fact checks the fact checkers? What is the lifespan of a fact? Even science-y facts evolve and change with new information and studies over time. Just look at the CDC’s Covid-19 flip-flops.

Are the Washington Post and CNN credible as definers of truth with Twitter. Or is Facebook? Sliding down the slippery slope of censorship.

Instead. Instagram is encouraging everyone to Find More to Heart.

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Objectively Speaking

NYTimes article about Ronan Farrow’s “Resistance Journalism”.  In other words, he did not prove many of his inflammatory conspiracy theories. Sound familiar? Journalism is an anachronism in this media environment. Cable News always has a clear bias and agenda as do most networks. Newspapers have had a point of view for decades. It’s rare to find any true journalists anymore. Ronan Farrow is clearly not one, either. Most people are happy to read what they want to believe on the left or right, that matches their righteous indignation and moral outrage. But. It’s a sad commentary on what once was an honored profession.

Frank Bruni wondered whether it is better to vote for a “confused” or “corrupt” candidate. Is that the choice we’re left with? If Biden’s bumper sticker is I’m not Him, it’s as uninspired as I’m with Her was in 2016. No driving message to vote FOR.

And. While I’m at it. If Sports announcers don’t change their remote commentary to fit the times with a lot more enthusiasm and detailed color, it’ll be a boring slog without fans or multiple cameras in real time. The Skins golf exhibition was unwatchable for more than ten minutes.

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Grand Jeté

A gracefully athletic move in ballet. Taking a leap like today. Hard to believe that Sadie Hawkins is relevant in 2020. Men typically still “propose” to women. Only on this leap day can a woman “ask” the man to marry. Equal rights and pay? Not if these traditions stay.

South Carolina primary. Will voters keep Biden in the race or continue the Bernie revolution into Super Tuesday. Bloomberg will be buying ads ’til the end either way. And. For $17m Tony Romo remains at CBS. Yay.

As coronavirus panic-demic dominates the news, it’s a good time to be an agoraphobe.