Something Is Not Right With Me

I've had it.

I’m angry.

I am thoroughly pissed off.

Q: What could possibly have me so riled up? A: The subjects of David Carr’s article from Sunday, “Journalists, Provocateurs, Maybe Both” and Brian Stelter’s “When Race is the Issue, Misleading Coverage Sets Off an Uproar.”

I try as best as I can to avoid cable news, partisan media and bloggers who push an agenda. It’s not my cup of tea and, generally, I’m not missing out on any actual news by refusing to engage with these outlets. However, the agendas, inaccuracies, hate and stupidity peddled by these people and organizations have crept so far into my daily news digest that they can no longer be ignored, and that is infuriating.

Jon Stewart did a nice takedown last night on the knee-jerk reactions of politicians and reporters in regards to the Shirley Sherrod story. He summarized Robert Gibbs’ statement as: “This administration is so sorry that you people suck so bad.”

Here is what makes me angry: The job of reporters is to provide facts. It is NOT the job of reporters to publicize whatever videos or opinions come their way. To air an edited video is wrong. To air an edited video from a person who openly pushes an agenda is inexcusable.

In Carr’s piece, he writes in regards to “tradition-bound journalists,” “Why, after all, would someone spend their professional life enmeshed in the civic conversation unless they had a stake in it somewhere? But what is emerging is more of a permanent crusade, where information is not only power, but a means to a specific end.”

Everyone has a stake in the civic conversation. Civic issues include everything from educating children to taxation to caring for the ill to trimming the trees. Civic issues keep this great country going, and a reporter who covers politics or government is chronicling events because it is his job.

As for the people who have the time and attention to edit videos and destroy lives, careers and organizations as a “means to a specific end,” here is a list of 10 things they could do that would actually help their country and community, which they claim to have such concern and regard for:

1. Donate blood
2. Tutor a child
3. Serve the homeless at a soup kitchen
4. Pick up trash on the sidewalk, beach or along the highway
5. Donate school supplies and Christmas gifts to a children’s charity
6. Coach Little League (or lead the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts)
7. Join a civic group
8. Go outside and run 5 miles
9. Plant a garden
10. Read a book

Any one of those things would help a heck of a lot more than getting the Georgia State Director of Rural Development fired. How on earth does that help the American people?

Journalists have a duty to move the conversation away from this crap. I said it – this is all a bunch of crap that keeps us from discussing anything of substance. OK, an example of how we can move away from the swamp of crap that fills cable news and the Internet:

Before she was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor would often say in her speeches:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion.”

This makes her a racist, right? She must hate white people. That quickly became the narrative of the story until she clarified her remarks and promised to take the phrase out of her speeches. (I know the greater issue was whether a judge’s personal experiences do or should influence her interpretation of the law.)

An incredible opportunity was missed here by reporters, who could have used the occasion to actually look at the experiences young Latinas have in this country. I had recently ended a 16 month-tutoring relationship with a young Latina when Sotomayor was nominated. My student’s home life was unstable, chaotic and violent. Her family had no expectations for her. Her first day of school was interrupted by a gun scare. Her living room was a revolving door of drug dealers and gang members. Yet, she would beg her mother to drive her to the downtown library (the one without the fistfights and yelling). She spent hours sketching. Her face lit up the first time I brought her brochures on art school and community college.

You cannot tell me that those experiences won’t give her a completely different world view than you or me. Let’s talk about that, as journalists. Let’s tell those stories.

In the future, when reporters find themselves getting all hot and bothered over a crap-filled issue that will unnecessarily rile up viewers, may I suggest they take a cue from survival guides: Sit down. Have a smoke. Take a deep breath.