Concerned and Vacuous

I’m with Vicki McKenna on this issue. The Wisconsin State Journal has become vacuous – completely devoid of significance or point. This editorial would be cheesy copy for a high school paper and is undeserving to be published in a paper of record. Allow me to highlight the conclusion.

Search for peace must go on: The stunning continuation of horrific acts aimed at undermining people's best instincts must stop. Such acts demonstrate how little the murderers value human life. Yet the rest of the world must not become immune to the almost daily reports of chilling bloodshed. The world must defiantly hold the value of life high and continue its difficult and so far illusive search for peace.

In the perceptive words of Edie Brickell – “choke me in the shallow water before I get too deep”. Or to go retro colloquial – “gag me with a spoon”. Our morning daily discovers people are killing people in Muslim countries and the world really needs to teach them that life has value and murder is not nice. This level of insight into reality may be why professional journalists are loosing the public trust. It may also be the reason they can’t figure out why.

The news media meltdown: And if all that were not enough, the American public shows little interest in or sympathy for the press. Worse, the press is losing the public’s trust. The latest survey by the Pew Research Center shows a sharp decline in trust for even the news organizations ranked highest by respondents who were asked if they believed all or most of what the news organizations reported. From 1998 to 2006, The Wall Street Journal dropped 15 points (41% to 26%). In television news, CNN dropped 14 points (42% to 28%). Local print and TV news suffered similar declines in confidence.

So yes, the search for peace must go on and it would help if the American press would stop the relentless criticism of any and all imperfection in the courageous efforts to stop the people with guns, explosives and complete contempt of American values.