Where's Murrow and Bradley when you need them? Oh yeah, they're dead

I was lamenting the state of the News Industry with a buddy, a former mid-market television guy named Melvin Laurence. Dynamite guy, looks and sounds like his onscreen persona.

In the 'Days of Yore,' meaning before 2010 -- print journalists, which was what I was, and television news people didn't really mingle. Print journalists used to think they were better than television or radio guys. It was arrogant, given the fact there are/were some very talented journalists in other media.

Well, Mel and I started talking about investigative reporting, which isn't done correctly or at all anymore, in either print, television or radio. For any media outlet to do investigative pieces it automatically raises the insurance rates on publications. I was considered a good bet by the insurance company, which helped me keep my publisher job in a contentious small-market weekly coverage area in Monmouth County.

Mel reported in roughly the same type of demographic for television. We laughed about some of the hum-dingers we used to report on. He talked about how Edward R. Murrow was his inspiration, while I countered with former Washington Post Publisher Ben Bradley being mine. While neither Mel or I never rose to the heights of our role models, we are both able to say we did good work. Our careers over, we sounded like two weary war veterans talking about our days 'on the front.'

It is not that newspapers are horrible now because I am not writing in them, nor television terrible because Mel isn't doing his thing on-air. The audiences changed. Our kind of news is part of the archives. And, I lament that sorely.

When the Founders of our great nation planned its visionary ideals, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, an old newspaper man himself, was sure to get freedom of the press prominently included in the ideological make-up of our republic. In fact, most journalists who went to college or can read (that cannot be assumed anymore), knew that the press was an informal check/or safeguard against tyranny in this country. Rather than redneck militia types threatening our nation under the guise of 'saving it,' or Tea Party morons trying to critique leaders who, unlike them, can both read and write, and trying to topple the status quo in favor of turning back the hands of times to the Civil War Era, the press used to inform. And, investigative reporting was an art learned by young reporters from older reporters. It was mentorship and elbow grease.

Then came along moneyed charlatans who thought they could do news as entertainment (talking about you Rupert Murdoch and those like you) and systematically decimated a once-proud American institution -- the news. After his 'gentle touch,' the news became a farce. Later the now 'respectable' Huffington Post grew on a foundation of reporting other peoples' news and spending as little time as possible on issues and budgets -- in favor of the Kim Khardashian's ass size versus Jennifer Lopez's and such nonsense.

But then, people do not read anymore, I do not even know if it is taught in schools anymore. They are online and try to cipher through 20-word briefs, if at all, talking about the finances of government, at all levels, then moving on to the serious business of Brad Pitt breaking up with Jennifer Aniston.

What is a symptom of these poisoned days of news? America was in a war in Iraq that the then-Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, says was perpetrated by the former Bush Administration for the sole purpose of exacting advantages in the oil production market and not, in any way, due to "weapons of mass destruction." Consequently, more than 3,000 young American perished fighting a war of economic adventurism rather than one demanded by national security. Why? America cannot read and is so seduced by Internet trivialities and entertainment that, while good men and women metaphorically slept, a monster was unleashed and waved the flag and sent young Americans into countless nightmares. All the while, abominations like Fox News figuratively clapped former President Bush on the back for 'job well done' and dared not find a speck of truth. This is the same for all news gathering sources.

It is rare that one of the guilty, Ms. Rice, openly admits the false nature of the entire Iraq War, and her participation in such a previously unheard of practice before even one news outlet, in any form of media, had the rocks to actually do their damned jobs. Such a thing is an indictment of the stupidity, greed and passivity of modern media.

Back to Mel's role model, Murrow, and mine, Bradley: They would have literally changed the world these days if they just did their jobs. Maybe there might not have been an Iraq War, or if there was a war it would not be 10 years of horror and lives. Oh, if only the American Public could read! Why can't Johnny read? Because he is on his iPhone and playing "Call of Duty" there.

Modern journalists online and in print, bloggers, news 'tweeters,' radio guys and television types are a pack of self-centered, untrained, language-challenged shirkers and lay-abouts of tremendously little worth in my book. These days, I wake up and read my novels, where I can find some truth in the human condition via the talent and insight of wonderful writers, albeit not in the news of the day.

The public has become as dumb as a bag of hammers and the Royal One Percent of rich Americans have effectively co-opted all forms of news to serve their ends, which is not to pay taxes or allow others to claim Social Security, among other things. Guess what, Mr. and Mrs. American...they won and we are now living in their world.

My deep 'thanks' to all those wonderful news organizations that contributed to this insanity, 'good work,' guys.