REPRISE

Yesterday I wrote about how much I will miss George Carlin. So many others feel as I do. That Op-ed piece was written by Jerry Seinfeld, another man who has made us laugh but never quite as irreverently as George Carlin managed to make us do. Here is a man who contributed more reality perspective to his country as a service, made us laugh at ourselves, and forced us to think out of the box with him.

While Tim Russert was eulogized (and no one ever says a negative thing in a
eulogy) there were many who saw what was less visible to the world. Not every one thought he was a smiling, benign journalist. However, his death makes us face yet another reality. Even when you are doing everything to take care of yourself, it still might not work.

Since I do not believe in a malevolent Higher Power, I do not believe there was retribution in either death. Both were just two more deaths in the life cycle of humans. They just happened to influence and affect more lives than most of us ever achieve.

THE MEDIA HAS TOTALLY FAILED US

The media should report the news. It has failed to find out the truth about the news, having relied on what the Administration chooses to report rather than to do good, investigative reports on their own. Most of the pundits I have observed on the major news channels are opinion makers, not investigators who do any mount of work to ferret out problems. Rather, they regurgitate what they have been told. You only have to do a bit of channel surfing to hear the exact same interpretation on each channel when something happens that the public is permitted to learn anything about.

It is important that we get better coverage on news channels of things that happen in the Congress and Senate. Committees should be better synthesized as to results rather than the limited amount of time people can spend covering C-SPANs by themselves. A most interesting bit has been provided in this video clip. We suspect these things go on but our suspicions cannot go very far without facts to which the average person has no access.

Yesterday, I was unable to get any major news other than the death of Tim Russert. While Mr. Russert deserves the highest praise, his death is not the most critical event while so many others are dying due to lack of funds for medicines and care, poor treatment to wounded veterans, the hardships of poverty for so many of our citizens who have lost homes, jobs, life savings, family bread winners in the war. The media moguls and producers need to look quickly into their mirrors. Comedians and YouTube are surpassing them in viewings because they are learning more from those sources than the main stream media provides.

WHAT HAPPENED TO DECENCY IN THE MEDIA

Apparently there are those who think that Howard Stern, the shock jock, is a model to emulate. They forget he is heard on a very protected venue. Do they not remember what Don Imus went through, nor the MSNBC guy, David Shuster, who is back on air again and who violated all decency with his remarks on Chelsea. I know that the Urban Dictionary allows a lot of things that John Q. Public would neither understand nor find acceptable, though some of us find it amusing. It would not be amusing at your grandmother's funeral, in church, grade school, or most state affairs. It seems that a few whose mouths are open on camera forget who is in their audience.

Randi Rhodes, an afternoon host for the progressive Air America radio network, was suspended Thursday after repeatedly insulting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at an event last month. Her network hadn't noticed until it was pointed out how badly she had behaved and what she had said. Then the network took action, probably in an effort to practice CYA, not because they found what had been said offensive. Michelle Obama's gaff got buried by the media, though the air is alive with tension over the negative feelings the media has for Senator Clinton and anything her spouse utters.

McCain has definitely been coddled by the media. Is it because some of them are nearing senior citizen status themselves? Bob Lobel might be a bellweather for those who are being asked to move over and make room for younger, lower paid 'stars'. "Tweety" and Russert, if you want to be remembered positively, start earning it again.