2020 A Year in Review

08/26/20

    This year has certainly been the strangest, if not the most difficult. There have been many occasions where good journalism did, or could have brought important facts to the forefront or rediscovered details previously missed. The coverage on the coronavirus was even handed and tried to avoid hysteria. The media, if one can paint with a very broad brush, is leaning more and more to the left side of the political spectrum. Moderates are more and more painted as villains unwilling to pick a side, or take a risk. Those who compromise or debate an issue with the opposition are labeled as traitors or worse. This trend is not exclusively Leftist, the Right too refuses to hear anything they don’t agree with. Leaders everywhere are “circlin’ the waggons” and defending their patch of intellectual ground to the political death.

                    The Political Broadcast media, shows like NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, and even Fox News Sunday, are more or less party platforms where talking heads and pundits can sit around and agree with each other. Granted, there is a usually one dissenting voice, but it’s always of the ‘watered down’ variety and mostly for show. The gravest offense committed by the political press is the lack of deep, revealing questions, or letting subjects “off the hook” too easy. Instead subjects should be made to answer or need to state “No, I refuse to answer that question because ...” on the record. The time for platitudes is over, journalists need to hold these folks accountable. It is critical that citizens stop elected officials from weaseling out of tough situations and journalists need to stop smiling and thanking them as they do it.

                     As a person who has sunk many hours into studying classical Greece, Athens democratic framework, and the interplay of city-states, there are many similarities that help to elucidate on what nations are likely to encounter as formerly solid institutions become compromised completely. Americans ought to be outraged that the US Constitution is daily being flaunted and ignored by both parties, sometimes simultaneously. The political class in Washington has decided to put on a show for the rest of us but really, it’s an all one team. Left and Right, it’s all one…Them versus US, this small group of less than 1000 citizens decides the fate of the rest. And while it is true that the show can sometimes be entertaining, when some senators rise out of their plush chair in the marbled halls of congress, to belt indignation at his opponent’s measures. Later those same two senators find themselves having dinner and discussing what financial loophole to exploit in an upcoming bill.

                   There are many great stories that have been covered this year, especially in relation to business. The coronavirus occupied much of the headlines and for good reason. Not since the Great Depression has anyone seen markets fall so drastically and with such speed. Wall Street isn’t alone in its agony as Main Street shares in the pain with massive lay-offs and closures for many small to medium sized businesses. Unfortunately, the virus did not occur in a vacuum, and other impactful stories are not in short supply. One piece that resonated across the world was the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. The total lack of foresight and complete recklessness on the part of, not only port officials but top Lebanese Government leaders is bewildering in its sadness.

                      A throng of investigative journalists is descending on Beirut trying to discover just what, and more importantly now, who is responsible for that preventable tragedy. There exists no higher calling for the profession than providing justice for those with no voice. The stories that stick in your mind ask provocative questions, demonstrate how or why, viewers or readers should care about a particular issue. Many of those same stories include visual aids of some kind, usually a timeline or chronology, even tables or ‘trees’ to show affiliations, subordination, and just how far an individual ‘branch’ went and what it exactly touched. All the ‘bells and whistles’ in the world won’t turn a misprint into a good story; accuracy remains paramount to all good reporting.



                        As America is coming to grips with the new reality that life after the coronavirus will be very different than life before. What will happen to every venue, commercial or otherwise, that has seating closer than six feet? What will become of millions of livelihoods as the federal government does what it knows how to do best, print money? And print money has, to the tune of some 10 trillion dollars some estimates say. The "stimulus" or C.A.R.E.S. packages may get as high. The label of "stimulus" is misleading, as this is not money in excess that people may spend in order to stimulate the economy. Instead the money is only adding to a national debt that is already at apocalyptic levels. So much of human life has and will remain fixated on money. If you follow the money to enough of its final recipients, you will see that the next election may have just been purchased by President Trump. After all he signed the checks…