Will Future Journalism Prompt Government Representatives to be More Accountable to the People?
Will Pitt lays out the names of those he considers heroes in last week's objection to certification of the Ohio Electors.
While I highly respect Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. John Conyers for doing their duty [I consider them to be honest and forthright in light of standing up to such an ugly and intimidating Congress], I expected far more from the rest of our Democratic representatives. I couldn't be more disappointed with Senator Kerry himself for disappearing on "objection day". I realize he has political aspirations and is aiming for the next Presidential run. Good for him, but remember this: Politics stopped him from defending the American people's right to vote and expect the vote to be fairly and accountably counted. I'm sorry. That's not "okay" with me. Think back, if you will. It was not moral sense or common sense that led Kerry and many other Democrats to vote "yes" on the Iraq resolution in 2002. Politics was the prime consideration they offered when they gave Bush authorization to unleash immoral hell upon Iraq's people, writing a death scenario for over 1000 Americans and, according to a Lancet report, over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. God forgive them, I don't think they knew where their political stupidity was leading them or our nation. How can we reward any of these people for their utter stupidity?
Lately I hear many of them rationalizing about the acceptability of torturing other human beings, as if they were not human at all, but some form of alien called "terrorists". In their rush to accept the wrong man for attorney general, dopes in Congress waver on the respect for the rule of law and call a torturer their "buddy". Call it politics. Call it whatever you want. Our nation is totally messed up because of a lot of fantasy-hugging lunatics are making a circus of our government and ignoring the base truth behind the sheer will of the people. The Founding Fathers would line them up and shoot every one of them for their dedication to fantasy and their irresponsible stupidity. The only thing I can tell you, based upon knowledge of history, is that history will surely see that we, the people who allegedly have a say in our own government, will pay for that stupidity in ways we probably would never suspect. We are responsible for letting these government representatives run roughshod over sanity itself.
Will Pitt is right, though. The big heroes in this story are the individual citizens who stood up in the face of so many lies and demanded the truth. The force of the people's demands for accountable and reality-based government must become more concentrated and much stronger. My hope for 2005 is for a strong Blogger Corps to create that force. [Rebecca MacKinnon gets credit for this great idea]. I believe it is only citizen-bloggers can save our mainstream media from falling into a permanent state of fantasy-following. Rather than working against one another, my hope is that mainstream media will work directly with the blogging world in order to produce honest stories in the full scope of the American experience.
I recommend Jay Rosen's 2004 Top Ten ideas to get an an idea as to where he believes journalism is going.
1. The Legacy Media.I look forward to seeing what comes from the Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility Conference: Battleground and Common Ground, to be held January 21st and 22nd, 2005 at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
2. He said, she said, we said.
3. What the printing press did to the Catholic Church the blogging press does to the media church.
4. Open Source Journalism, or: "My readers know more than I do." (Dec. 28)
5. News turns from a lecture to a conversation. (Dec. 29)
6. "Content will be more important than its container." (Jan. 1)
7. "What once was good--or good enough--no longer is." (Jan.4)
8. "The victory of affinity over geography."
9. The Pajamahadeen.
10. The Reality-Based Community.
To be continued..