The Punning Pundit wonders why we can't have a more intelligent media in this day and age. While I fundamenally agree with him, I gotta say that as a person who works in the media, I try to me more informative and challenging in that mildly NPR-ish way on my public affairs show.
However…
The media game in the news/public affairs realm is a tough one when you're competing with our culture's seemingly insatiable appetite for mindless crap. Sorry to be such an "American Idol" hater, but if roughly 60 million people are more concerned over the outcome of a singing competition enough to hit redial on their phones for 3 hours to vote for their favorites, then who wants to see the next Edward R. Murrow cooly dismantle the smoke and mirrors of the current presidental administration on TV?
But…
The folks at the Daily Show and The Colbert Report have figured out how to ask those challenging questions and inform the public while masking what they do as "fake news." It's not Murrow, but it's the best we've got in our TV Nation.
It's telling and very sad when Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News is giving props to The Daily Show for finding a recycled phrase the president used a couple of years ago to describe a current situation. But it just goes to show you that the mainstream media hasn't quite figured out how to speak to the non-news consuming public without help from the "fake news" guys and gals.
–Py Korry