In response to Frank Rich's piece posted earlier:
Greg Austin, TX, USA April 25th, 2010 6:21 am
Thanks for mentioning the outstanding This American Life episode last week. My eyes welled up as I listened to it.One reason was the disgusting heist committed by those sociopaths, one that decimated the retirement funds of my father, the railroad man, and my Peace Corps volunteer/public school teacher mother. They are the collateral damage of this whole fiasco.
Adding insult to injury, they're the ones the Wall Street "masters of the universe" look down their noses at, regarding them as simpletons who could have also made money hand over fist if only they were as smart as they.
Free country, right? Equal opportunity and blah blah, but hey, the cream always rises to the top!
The only simple thing about them, however, is their moral code. As for brains, they too have it going on, and they passed it on to my climate scientist brother and medical school instructor sister. The only thing that differentiates them from the "masters" is their functioning consciences.
That and producing something of value to society.
Which brings me to the other reason I got so depressed listening to This American Life: NPR and ProPublica too have it going on, cerebrally and morally, but they are a dying breed. True journalism, the kind that drills down deep into a story and lays it all out on our doorstep, is withering.
A major cause, of course, is that Americans need it in a sound bite, if that (because they've already adopted a narrative anyway, one that doesn't need your interference, thank you very much). So there's not a lot of advertising money to be had around a half-hour-long investigative piece. The negative feedback loop escalates and, next thing you know, it's nothing but Rick Sanchez or Fox & Friends blabbering on about concocted crap while Rome burns.
Yes, Ira Glass and everyone at NPR, along with the ProPublica reporters, are the real heroes of our society -- congrats to ProPublica for their Pulitzer! -- simply because they are the last to not get tilled under by the giant combine of neutered homogenization driven by corporate profits. Alas, if they finally succumb to the forces arrayed against them, maybe they can switch to investment banking. They're sure smart enough, and God knows I'd rather have Ira Glass managing my portfolio than Lloyd Blankfein any day.
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