'News Entertainers' miss the mark in the American Republic

By Rev. J.J. Purcell

For most of my working years I was a journalist, and I will not feel remotely offended if anyone characterized these years by saying I was an 'activist journalist.' Yes, I was. Though that career is relatively long ago, and I have since found new interests and a new way of life, some part of me is still a writer/editor/publisher.

I was a child in the 1960s, though not of the 1960s. When people were marching against the Vietnam War, for Women's Rights, Civil Rights, No Nukes and against governmental corruption, I was barely out of diapers. But, those messages resonated with me the very moment I was aware of their importance, when I was still no taller than my Dad' knee, right up until today. This is not to say that I was ever blessed by the world or my loved ones for my strong opinions about the rights of others in this better-than-all-other countries. In contrast, I paid very dearly for advocating for the poor, for others' rights, civil liberties and against thieves and charlatans in office.

It turns out that thieves and charlatans in office seem to run things in this world, or at least the parts of it I have seen. And, no one bothered to tell me that these guys and gals would not relent when discovered and written about, and would be very angry, indeed, with me for trying to throw a flashlight on whatever they were doing that invoked the need for public examination.

You see, what I learned about "Journalism" came from Revolutionary thinkers, like Franklin and Payne, etc. And, those crafters of American Journalism regarded the News Industry as being yet another, more informal check or safeguard against tyranny. The News informed a responsive citizenry about the events of the day, using facts and records of transactions, eyewitnesses and expert opinions. Because, if arguments did not meet this level of credibility then they could not be worth very much. This was the difference between gossip and news -- the facts.

Today, ignorant  so-called "Conservative" masses want to arm themselves against imaginary threats, which most of them are too dense to understand in the first place, whereas it involves who is trying to take what from them under the guise of who knows. The American citizen today is less articulate, literate, informed, understanding of American history and more pliable by smooth-talking, well-groomed thieves than at any time before, in my opinion. Today -- 2014 -- represents a new 'low-water mark' for American intelligence, which has almost become a term that is mutually exclusive.

In my day, newspapers who were in conspiracy with certain political candidates and office holders, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, essentially blackballed me. Political activists holding government office, I have been told, made the rounds to advertisers that they would be "in trouble" if the powers that be took advertising in my old rag. And, business people do not want to subsidize crusade. Yes, I understand that.

However, at some point, discrimination, thievery of government funds by officials, outright racism, sexism, blatant corruption of office through many mechanisms (no-bid contracts and public purchases of land being the worst offenders) should be enough that, armed with the proof of these things, the public should be moved to right whatever was wrong. Yet, that is not my experience.

When someone becomes a "Conservative," something must happen to them. Blinders come down like air respirators from an airline seat overhand. The sound of the burst of air from those overhangs forbid the passenger from hearing a single thing being said around them. They cease noticing the world other than in the narrow reference of from their seat. And, once it has been accepted that everything wrong with the world lies in the poor, minority, women, homosexuals, immigrants and old people then there seems to be such a clarity of ignorance that it is used as eyeglasses for the rest of the now-Conservative's life.

There are Republicans and Conservatives who are Women, Black, Poor, Illegal Immigrants even: And, they are absolutely either insane or just barking ignorant.

People don't fight for things that are right anymore, and have not for a long, long time. In fact, judging by my experience, no one wants to hear a thing. No one wants to see a thing. They want whatever news they see to be in a video and not longer than 3 minutes so they can get 'caught up.' But not very much that is terribly serious can be said in 100 words, or spoken about effectively in a minute or a little more or less. Critical thinking demands a smidge more than that to have the fact set necessary for clear logic.

There is always the other side of the matter, though, and that song goes something like this: Put a good-looking girl into a short skirt, have her read from cue cards made up for her, bat her eyes and act really sincere about whatever it is she is reading from the cards. This is the explanation for how FOX News came about, in all of its 'glory.'

I was always a fan of newscasters like Bill Buetel and Roger Grimsby, both anchors at Channel 7 Eyewitness News in the '70s. There was nothing lovely about either of them. They were two old white journalists who covered stories the old-fashioned way -- by being there, reporting and taking pictures. While Bill was dapper enough, Roger was a bulgy eyed, caffeine-stained rumple who could never make it through the first cut of people looking for the next "Megyn Kelly." Of course, Bill had advantages. He was smart, honest, literate, no one's puppet and he had actual talent for news. So, him and Megyn would have been a horrible match on air.

Conservatives have learned to punish the messengers and provide whatever balms they must when dealing with the semi-conscious, preoccupied masses of the country today, the majority of whom are actually Democrats and more liberal than anyone feels comfortable about on the Right. They put on a show. There is smoke, mirrors and affable faces smiling. Oh yeah, they are stealing everything they find, beginning wars of luxury (forget about convenience anymore), undoing the work of the Civil Rights and Women's movements, and dragging our country, our nation straight through the mud to a dirty end. This is how great powers shrink and contract into obscurity. We are well along this road already.

For my part, as personally un-saint-like as I have been in my private life, I have never accepted a bribe (they've been offered), signed a story that I thought had one fact wrong, or stopped being activist until my retirement from public life. And, I can live with that score. I suppose journalists are not unlike ball players when they are about to retire: Did I do enough, was the work good enough, can I live with the record as it stands right now -- forever. One day, everyone who serves in those many professions where there is an expiration date on people and talent must one day be OK with whatever their career was, and not want to do one more day in it. Well, that's me, thank goodness.

To be patently clear, I do not see a lot of good journalism out there, other than in my state's paper of record, The Star-Ledger, or on TV at MSNBC. The rest of it is more "news entertainment." I remember when baseball players stopped calling themselves "ballplayers" and became "sports entertainers." And, I want to see them play on the field as much as I want to submit my eyes and ears to the shrill ranting of news entertainers as well. I'd so much rather have journalists giving me the news and ballplayers entertaining me by playing a good, solid match of whatever sport they are in. But, apparently, those are old-fashioned sentiments as well.