Sometimes words are more than words, aren’t they.

Daniel, very thoughtful. I like y our comment about The Galilean.

Casual Observer, also, very thoughtful. I like chicken and egg questions, otherwise known in my private lexicon as C&Es. Most often when people ask ‘Isn’t it a chicken or egg issue?’…depending on the issue, I often say, ‘Both,’ because the chicklette, and the hen each represent a point of view that can be valuable to consider together, rather than either/or.

Stollios, I like that phrase ‘jump street.’ When I teach journalists who are already professionals, the first scan I make of them is to see how and whether the creative fires in their spirits are still alive and leaping, or else banked and disheartened. Burn-out occurs in journalists when ‘meaning’ is not allowed to be the armature at the center of their work. They sag, and so do their stories. ‘Meaning’ is greatly diminished for a journalist when they decide to or are pressed to write/ investigate in shards, rather than in fullness.

Your point about the young is well taken. I see that many professors of great intelligence and heart teach in the journalism programs at universities. However, the ethic and craft well-taught there and the ‘job market ethic’ ‘out here’ are often two clashing forces. I think there ought be a class called something like Warrior Journalist Activism that has to do with reshaping the way news is gathered and delivered. It makes no sense to prepare our young for well-earned journalistic reach and then to crush them into a matchbox.

Kevin H, I think behind the scenes is one place where reasoned voices and input may be best heard. Some of those I know who read the news have pressed to be part of news story decisions, and have begun to speak up more in behind the scenes newsmeetings, asking, not just once, but repeatedly some version of “Where’s the meat in this?”

It is not easy, for some in management see them as ‘acting up;’ but others in management see their inputs as a form of participation and are rather surprised at their leadership. And some view those who speak up somewhere in between those two ends. I respect so much that those who work in the daily trenches of news try, in whatever ways they can –and dare–to chip away at the uninews model and instead bring back a depth and breadth. Hang in there.

dr e.

This situation isn’t and shouldn’t be about whether liberals or conservatives, this race or that race, hip hop or honky-tonk, one group or another, are more offensive and therefore more responsible for all that is wrong with America. I am not capable of judging the whole of Don Imus nor am I capable of crafting a recipe to fix all of America…and neither are the countless pundits and partisans who have sought to frame it so.

I’m not a religious person…but I often find kinship with the imagery surrounding the portrayal of one called Jesus and his teachings of understanding and forgiveness. For all the banter I hear about the Bible and Christian values, it certainly seems to me that we are fast abandoning what many view as the sacred “tablets” in favor of the sacrosanct tabloids. If I’m right, all I can say is heaven help us.

Read more about the dynamics that lead a situation to become larger than the sum of its parts…here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com

Why are the news readers reading it without throwing it aside and bellowing, “Excremento del toro! BS! I shall not read this dreck any longer. Meat! Give me real meat, I say!�

I have been throwing it aside, but there seems to be little way to bellow… You can’t talk about how bad a news story is without the same time drawing more attention to it.

Sorry if that’s been said already, I stopped reading =)

Wouldn’t it be nice if student journalists, (and heaven knows even the large corps of professional journalists patrolling the highways and byways of the news world) could understand the perspective you’ve given us here; the idea that despite the fact that starving people will settle for scraps, what so many of us really want, and indeed need, is a feast of riches. That would set the students right from jump street. And that’s a good street from which to start. It worked for the legendary old school reporters, it would work now.

And that feast of riches, especially in this day and age, would benefit us all. It would offer us more perspective, it would allow us to think at a more critical level, and it would enable us to, at least hopefully, break out of the too often myopic view of our society, and the world around us, which the uninews seems to so easily foster.

Yet somehow, we’re denied the feast because the uninews is more cost effective, it more readily dulls the senses of the populace, and it’s just easier to put out there.

But your powerful voice teaches us to be on guard, Dr. Estes. And to remember that we ought not settle for scraps.

These are such important lessons for all of us, I think. And I can’t thank you enough for taking your precious time to spread your ideas on these topics.

I can only hope that many, many, people hear you.

Truly, that would be good for all of us.

People screwing up or acting bizzare seems to be where this happens most…..not only Imus and Anna Nichole, but Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, OJ Simpson, Rosie O’Donnell, or anybody else that has become month-long topics for Greta Van Sustren or Larry King.

Secondly, the lack of depth (and breadth) of coverage…….just the soundbites and most disturbing/shocking/controversial headline item and then move along.

But all this leads me to a chicken vs. egg issue………is the media just delivering to what they believe the readers/viewers want? Do we prefer to simply be observers of everyone elses “trainwrecks” to put our own lack of personal accomplishment/morality in a better light by comparison?

By the way, anybody else having issues with the site’s server response today?