New Old Days....

This is only partly about the extraordinary investigative report on our national security which The Washington Post has launched.  The Post, one of the benchmark Liberal mainstays in our journalistic history has been splashing in rather shallow waters in recent years, its reputation gone fallow except for an occasional moment,  even as its once highly publicized resources were slashed away, like so many of its print media brothers and sisters.

But now comes Top Secret America, proudly labeled as a Washington Post Investigation "two years in the making."  It is the detailed, deeply troubling, thoroughly researched and sourced material that used to be the paper's hallmark. I urge you to read it, and to applaud when the awards are handed out.

But, as I said, this is only partly about the (at least momentary) rejuvenation of The Post. It is also about two other media matters.

One is how, on-line, the paper is able to use all its potential.  Here is the written word, proud and powerful.  There are videos, profiles of the reporters, time-lines, places to write your own comments, and much more.  The paper says: 

You can page horizontally through our stories and view photos, video and graphics without leaving the package. Browse all of our offerings using the top nav bar above the viewing pane or the archive section beneath it.

Indeed you can, and then some.  Other newspapers, notably the NY Times, have been using this multifaceted on-line technique for some time, but the Post's series, bound to attract a lot of attention from its readers, is an excellent place for you to see the powerful and evolving potential of the how the marriage between the new and old can be used for maximum effect.  It is both the future and the past combined.

Second matter has to do with a print (and other) media practice which I deplore.  And that is, when a newspaper has accomplished such an important task as the Post's it goes basically unnoticed and uncredited in other newspapers.  I understand the competitive demands, but I still maintain that the media has a more ingrained responsibility to inform, and to point to to places where you can see and learn and better understand. But, try to find mention of the Post series in other papers, other places. You won't.  This is unnecessary, sad, and particularly short sighted as all media are struggling to restore credibility and audience.  Surely, pointing to work such as the Post's endeavors in this particular case ennobles the profession, enriches our experience, and validates the field as a whole.

Piling up... and on

Ugh.

Looked over my two most recent posts and I see what is happening.

The media is in love with the mountain of garbage that's obstructing whatever view we might have of the real issues of the day.  And there are plenty of those, although you have to be willing to claw your way through the avalanche of rot to get even a peek at them.

I'll give you just two examples; there are plenty more:  The coverage of the vile rants and apparent actions of  Mel Gibson, and the incessant obsession with whether some, the few. the menacing, probably the only, members of the New Black Panther Party threatened voters on their way to the polls some time ago, and should have been prosecuted as a result.

Now, I am all for Gibson being hauled into the public square and revealed to be the person he is.  But not every minute of the day, and not at the expense of, say, real probes into causes of the oil spill, or the failure of the unemployment bill to pass.

And I wonder at the examination of the New Black Panthers (who seem to be enjoying the media exposure themselves) even though they apparently have fewer followers than a Mel Gibson Fan Club, when the Justice Department already did its job and found nothing there. Especially, to give only two other examples, since I don't see at least as much concern and real investigation into the state of our current role in Afghanistan, or the genuine impact of the economic stimulus.

It's not that the media doesn't have the guns to to its job.  It just doesn't want to . After all, it is so distracted diving into the dumpster after Gibson, and the New Black Panthers, and Lindsay Lohan, and the iPhone reception, and.... and... and.....

Something smelly here, and it doesn't require all the heat we've been having lately to make it obvious.