Sometimes...Purveyors Of Humbug

I don't like it when commentators in the media...make claim to some lofty principle...
in order to justify their interest...or their company's interest...in getting people
to watch their television shows...or sell their newspapers. I always remember when...
day after day...so much of the media...were blaring out stories about Bill Clinton...
and the prospect of his impeachment...some claiming..."the public has the right to
know"...when their coverage of that scandal of the day...was way over the top. It made
me write in my journal...what I thought was really under their invoking of this
principle...which was the lofty ideal that..."the public had the right to be titillated"...[the better to sell programs and newspapers]. Today...in some televison
program circles...the principle being invoked was...the new president promised
transparency...so why weren't our television cameras allowed in...to record the
second swearing in. Talk about much ado about nothing...and about people with their
noses out of joint...because they weren't on top of this piece of "news"...with their
cameras. Melodramatizing everything...the better to make programs they think people
will stay with...to see "the action"...I know is their stock in trade...but sometimes
they really do overlap into being purveyors of humbug...rather than the "tellers of
how it actually is"...they claim to be. Fortunately these days...for all its flaws...
we have the blogosphere..................Quester.