A New Entry into the Blogster Grand Prix

Well, so much for high hopes and even higher expectations.

I admit: From the beginning I planned to write regular entries on this blog in addition to maintaining my once-a-day posts on Rooted in Earth, Suspended from Sky (my daily T'ai Chi Chih practice blog). Then reality inched its way into my life. I simply didn't have the time or energy to maintain both blogs on a regular basis.

Under the Forest Canopy (UTFC) suffered the ramifications of this high hopes endeavor. Though I didn't exactly throw UTFC into the waste bin, it did languish, unattended, in the far reaches of my mind for--now--well over a year. Yes, I had occasional ideas for blog entries, and yes, I had Great Expectations that I'd eventually get back to writing posts here since these blogs reach a wider and more diverse audience than my entries about a specific form of moving meditation.

And then . . . I watched a documentary last night that revved my engines and got my (mental) wheels turning. My true loves are the arts (theater, dance, music, film, books, language, ideas, and information). Suddenly, I'm at the starting line of the Blogster Grand Prix and 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... I'm off!

It's shocking, really, to return to this blog and realize how much has changed in the past year: Frances and I no longer operate Same Spirit Healing Arts LLC; I now work part-time at the Bayfield Carnegie Library; our goose, Ander, died; we now have a chicken, Rosie, who keeps Lucy the Goosey company; we also had--and lost--two additional chickens; and Frances is currently running for a town board supervisor position.

Now back to last night's documentary.

For a former journalism student and wannabe reporter Page One: Inside The New York Times was a fascinating look at the tumultuous, fast-changing media landscape. It raised many compelling and difficult questions about the role of media in a democratic society (particularly if and when media owners are out to make megabucks while writers and editors are committed to tell well-researched, thoroughly-documented stories).

Page One's DVD case raised this question: "What will happen if the fast-moving future of media leaves behind the fact-based, original reporting that helps to define our society?" I'd rephrase: "What happens if the watchdogs of democracy are slain by the egotistical, hero-worshipping, star-chasing, and money-grubbing media mogels (and readers!?) of today?"

Is this new breed of publishers truly interested in enlightening and informing its readers or is its true intent to dumb down the American public with Wag the Dog (1997) showmanship and manufactured, misleading, and misappropriated blasts of glitz and shell game antics?

Wag the Dog, by the way, shined a light on the uncomfortable reality that it doesn't take much effort to distract the American public from what's really happening behind the scenes in politics. Simply orchestrate a war (in Wag the Dog the filmmakers staged a fictional war in the basement of the White House to distract the public from the president's sexual misadventures) and we're all off and running after the resultant traumatic reports of death and destruction.

A soon-to-be decade-old documentary about the media, Orwell Rolls in His Grave (2003), also portrayed the all-too-powerful role that the media hold in shaping our experiences, our worldviews, our opinions, and, ultimately, our lives. In this film we discover that media organizations are the largest lobbyists in Washington, DC, that politicians are beholden to the media empire in order to receive coverage during their campaigns, and that conservative media barons "choose" the news. Ultimately, Orwell reveals that we, the consumers, are consistently served up entertainment and propaganda disguised as information in our daily doses of newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and the internet.

I have seen the media landscape turned upside down in the 35 years since I graduated J-school. Thankfully, there are still reporters like David Carr who believe that strong democracy requires thoughtful questioning and in-depth reporting. Carr, The New York Times columnist for the Monday Business section who writes on media issues including print, digital, film, radio and television, also served as editor at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities Reader (1993-95) and was a former contributing writer for The Atlantic Monthly and New York Magazine. (I read some of Carr's Reader articles while I lived in the Twin Cities and highly valued his and other writers' out-of-the-box explorations of often unusual and contentious subjects.)

Page One tracks Carr as he investigates the Tribune Company, one of the largest media companies in the world. On April 2, 2007, Chicago-based investor Sam Zell bought out the the Tribune, which he turned private on December 20, 2007. Less than one year later, on December 8, 2008, faced with high debts related to the company going private, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the American media industry. See David Carr (October 5, 2010). "At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/business/media/06tribune.html.

In October 2010, Randy Michaels, who was made CEO after Zell's purchase of the company in 2007, was removed and replaced by an executive council. The New York Times had earlier reported about his "outlandish, often sexual behavior" that he also displayed in his previous job at Clear Channel Communications.

How do we, the readers and consumers of information, find out about these and other significant events? This is where high-quality investigative journalism comes into the picture. Good research and good writing take time, which is in short supply in the current culture of instant messages, chats, twitters, blogs, in-your-face radio shows, and the like.

As we have come to realize from the current state of politics, our economy, and the environment, there are no quick and easy answers to solving the world's problems, much less our own. It's our personal responsibility to be informed citizens. What might we gain from shutting off the talking heads and finding our own path to trusted, respected news organizations that include integrity as a part of their bottom line?

That's my rant.