Press Venting

Well,
As incompetent and biased I thought the MSM was before, I have now lost almost complete hope. Back in the day, when the MSM had the monopoly on news distribution, it was generally a matter of public record that journalists were noble, passionate individuals who would give you the facts, and leave you to decide.

The current sorry state of the MSM completely destroys whatever confidence I used to have in the press. Eventually, as predicted by some, the advent of the blogosphere will lead to a dwindling number of intellectually lightweight journalists. If we can have brilliant attorney's reporting and questioning lawmakers, or genius economists analyzing and reporting on trade policies, why in the world would we have some lame journalist with a degree in English literature try to tell us how or whether the NSA program does or does not violate FISA.

All one has to do is look at the recent actions of the white house press corps. It's insane. They're just a bunch of political hacks trying to get a cheap shot. Ninety percent of the time they are asking questions on topics about which they have ZERO personal knowledge about. Whether it is the legality of the Plame leak case, or the finer points of quail hunting, reporters who know nothing about the topic don't know enough to ask the proper questions.

What inevitably happens is that the reporters fall into the trap of accepting the spin that confirms there own predispositions on a topic. Its called confirmation bias. (ie. Cheney is evil, therefore instead of asking relevant or useful questions they ask, how come we weren't the first to know, or has the Vice President tendered his resignation?)

I am sick and tired of simpletons, posing questions to simpletons.
I am sick and tired of a single layer of analysis, a 20 second soundbite, and an empty skirt behind the camera surrounded by talking heads screaming at each other.