LifeIsNotAFloridaSunshineBooHooTrain
NationalAfairsSuiteVille
Look.
It was good, hard-nosed investigative digging by Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor that brought the full extent and systematic nature of the Robo/Real Call story out into the open for everyone to see, consider, and think about.
And I, for one hope there is a whole lot more of it.
That kind of really fine straight up ‘objective’ investigative journalism, I mean
And I hope that editors and publishers are right now, at this very minute, scrambling to rearrange schedules and rosters as well as reallocate resources to give good reporters like Maher and McGregor the room time to do it so they don’t get beaten like a gong come Monday morning (and beyond).
But.
As the good Docktor once said about a very different regime that also lived (and, of course, ultimately expired) on Dirty Tricks….
In the end, objective journalism is just not enough:
“Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective journalism – which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful.”
Hunter S. Thompson, 1994.
‘He Was A Crook’ In: Better Than Sex, Random House, pg 243.
‘He Was A Crook’ In: Better Than Sex, Random House, pg 243.
Now.
I’m not saying anybody has to ‘find’ evidence of ibogaine smeared into the lip balm and/or colchicine swirled into the coffee or anything.
But.
I am staying is that it is time for the pundits to stop squinting at the individual pixels. Instead, they need to step back and have a look at the really big picture.
And no more of this ‘he said/she said’ and/or ‘both sides do it’ codswallop.
Because now is the time when we need to see things clearly.
And if a ‘shock of recognition’ is what results, so be it.
OK?
.
