The end of 'news' as we knew it...

I discovered journalism in college. I had two teachers. Mal Salter was my journalism teacher and the college's Public Relations Director. Mal hired me in my sophomore year to work part time in the PR office. When he left the college, Pete Durham replaced him. I continued to work for Pete, and he referred me to the Farmington Valley Herald where I became the editor after graduating from college. I served as editor for two years and did the job part time while I taught school.

Mal and Pete grew up at the Hartford Courant. The Hartford Courant is a serious newspaper and is the oldest newspaper in the United States.

I loved these guys. They were affectionate, family focused, patriotic, skeptical and had a 'bull shit' meter that they wore on their rolled-up sleeves. They worked hard to get the story. They were fair. They wrote good leads, good headlines and made you want to read the whole story. They had trusted sources and used there authenticity to put people at ease as they talked. They believed they were the fourth pillar of the American constitution just behind the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. I absorbed that style like a sponge and it shaped all that I do today.

I grew up with the assumption that the press wouldn't change. Over the past 20 years, I've watched in horror as the fourth estate disintegrated. The last bastion of the that estate was Tim Russert. I hardly ever missed an episode of "Meet the Press" . Tim was Mal Salter and Pete Durham on steroids. He had all the same qualities...just larger than life.

As the American audience developed a giant case of attention deficit disorder, TV news went to entertainment and finally split into left and right wing info-tainment outlets. All the prinicpals of journalism are gone. Pretty faces read garbage....over and over again. Newspapers are shrinking and giving way to blogs which have no value for the principals of journalism.

Tim Russert was the last journalist standing...and, now he is gone. He can't be replaced. There was no succession plan. Tom Brokaw will come back for a few months to let us down genltly. Then, Tom will fade out.

When Tom fades out, there should be a funeral for journalism.

It's a new day!

There is something about the Clinton's that made me queasy. I wanted to like them. After all, they are liberal democrats. Bill presided over the country during some great years. But I always felt that he was recklessly ambitious and that Hilary was right there with him. I didn't trust them. Yes, I was happy the Republicans weren't in office, but I had to hold my nose for those eight years. I felt that they were a big bubble...just like the housing bubble. I couldn't understand what power inflated that bubble.


And then came Bush. He was so bad that he made the Clinton's look good.

We watched Barrack Obama speak at Kerry's Democratic convention and thought, "Wow! he'll be a player before long." I never thought for a moment it would be this soon.

Then we read " The Audacity of Hope" and we were really hooked. When Obama decided to run this year, I thought it would be a dry run. Then, the Clinton's made me remember why I wanted to hold my nose. I think it was when Hillary said that she though John McCain would be a better President than Barrack Obama. Good lord, talk about recklessly ambitious!

I began to wish for a miracle. I've never been right about politics in America. I thought Bill Clinton would lose both elections. I thought George Bush would lose both elections. So, I stopped predicting. I'm too out of touch with mainstream America. I can't believe that more than half of the country refuses to believe in evolution. I can't imagine that the 99 channels on cable TV actually have an audience.

Even early this past week I thought the Clinton's would do something slick and postpone a conclusion. I felt the same way the last time the Red Sox won the World Series. I was so used to them losing that I expected them to lose in spite of the evidence. Yesterday, the bubble burst.

Well, here we are. We have a black Presidential nominee. It's also clear that the country is ready for a female Presidential nominee even though Hillary lost this opportunity. And, now, despite all the evidence, I won't predict that Obama will win. John McCain is an interesting guy. I don't think he would be as bad as he is promising to be, but it's time for the next generation to jump into leadership roles. This is a new day. The country needs to make a break with big money vested interests. I don't know if it will happen. I'll can only hope!