I'm not usually one for writing Letters to the Editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer. To me, it seems pointless, because while they occasionally run a more liberal viewpoint, they are big-time cheerleaders for Bushco. And Cincinnati seems to have more than its share of right wingnut, "moral-values" foamers who are busy attempting to blame the sad state of modern life on the sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's (it was an LTE about three weeks back, so no, I don't have a link online anymore. Suffice it to say that the writer blamed Medicaid costs, Social Security problems, and probably the weather on the fact that sex feels good).
But the continued silence of Gannon/GuckertGate is really starting to bother me, when coupled with the lukewarm, "eh, so what" reaction to the Administration's use of fake news propaganda, and its own unapologetic response. So I set out to write an LTE. But I think I passed the 300-word limit. I'm posting it here for feedback and commentary.
As an informed American, I'd like to know when the media lost its standards. Back when I studied Journalism in college, we were required to take an ethics test to enroll in our second semester of study. It was one of the most basic of concepts in the curriculum. Not to mention the long list of courses on good writing. And yet I learn that a hooker who took a fifty-dollar weekend seminar and wrote for an online fake news source has been in the third row of the White House press room--a knife-throw away from the President--under a fake name for two whole years, publishing nothing more than White House press releases lifted whole-cloth as "news." And just yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Republican majority voted not to investigate this gross breach of homeland security.
I have heard many claim that the man in question's "private life" is not relevant. But the last time I checked, if you're peddling your rear end on the Internet for $200 an hour, then it's not private--it's business, and outside of Nevada, it's illegal. So the fact that an individual with a compromised and exploitable past sits ten feet from the President--the man whose finger is on the Big Red Button--every day for two years has me understandably concerned. Any terrorist group could have blackmailed that man into doing something devastating to our National Security.
And yet I'm hard-pressed to find any sort of mainstream media uproar about this. I had to discover it--CNN had to discover it--via the political blogs (weblogs) on the internet. And it still seems to be under the radar for most professional journalists. Why, I wonder? Why are the investigative reporters, the beat journalists, not up in arms at the White House for this slap in the face? My mercifully late grandfather would be spinning in his grave like a high-speed lathe were he to hear about this. To learn that the journalism degree he worked and sacrificed and scrimped and saved to earn after WWII is now considered on par with a man-ho who took a weekend seminar?
I sometimes wonder what my career would be like if I hadn't switched majors from Journalism to Medieval Lit in college. Recently, however, I think I made the better choice. I'm so glad I didn't waste all that money. To you hardworking real reporters and journalists at the Enquirer and indeed everywhere in American media, you have my sincere and heartfelt condolences at having had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on advanced degrees from accredited universities, job training and time in the field and on the beat, to earn the same prestige and respect that a hooker with fifty bucks and a free weekend not servicing Johns gets from the White House Press Office.