Newsreaders

The news cycle is never ending. What once waited for the morning paper, or the evening broadcast, is a constant barrage of inane conjecture, with commercials, and public service announcements paid for by tax dollars. Journalists promote their agenda, the senior management promotes what tickles their fancy, and the public becomes increasingly bored, or jaded.

Social media was the great hope for fact presentation, but it too is guided by opinion, if not outright lies. To make things worse, people don't realize they're being manipulated. Sifting for facts is too much work, or requires understanding the processes that make a society healthy. Neither is arrived at instantly, so rumor becomes news, and news becomes suspect.

I don't know any journalists personally, but think there are many horrified by the public perception of their craft. I like to think there is a goal of excellence, but that goal is being replaced by the glitter of professional news reading. Those with integrity are being forced out by those enamored with power, or an unwillingness to admit ignorance. 

None of this is new. The libelous efforts of journalists are peppered through the history of the nation. What is new is either an avoidance, or refusal to accept the increase of news doesn't also mean the increase of crappy journalism.  Bucking the system, or the powerful, takes a gumption most journalists don't have The result is a constant onslaught of filling spaces with whatever comes along by those with the whitest teeth, the best stage presence, and a willingness to forget any moral lessons taught in their upbringing.