The Sad State of News Today

I read this today, and it made me a little sad.  Not for necessarily for the obvious reasons, either.  As one of my friends said, "Every president, and many other elected officials, do the same thing. Sad, but true." His grim resignation to a corrupt polity aside, the Politico article was mostly a waste of time, effort, and space in the political dialogue.  The conclusions reached:  Obama has appointed a bunch of people into government positions who were major campaign contributors.  Just when they had me convinced of the insidious nature of this habit of his, it turns out that many of the people appointed were long time friends who were actually well-qualified for the jobs to which they were appointed.  Some of the appointments were for things like ambassador to Canada (not the most demanding post), director of Presidential Commission of White House Fellows, or executive director of the President's Commission on the Arts and Humanities.  


Personally, I think that it makes sense for the President to appoint a long-time friend who actively and substantially supported his candidacy to a position for which that friend is well-qualifed.  It certainly makes more sense than putting Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank.  The only really troublesome allegation was that campaign contributions influenced the award of stimulus money, but consider this, courtesy of Joseph Stiglitz:

Forty-one companies (including General Electric, Microsoft, and Disney), which invested--"contributed"--$150 million to political parties and campaigns for U.S. federal candidates between 1991 and 2001, enjoyed $55 billion in tax breaks in three tax years alone.  Pharmaceutical companies spent $759 million to influence 1,400 congressional bills between 1998 and 2004...under the new Medicare drug benefit the government is proscribed from bargaining for lower prices--a provision worth billions of dollars just by itself.  

Stiglitz is referring to Medicare prior Obamacare.  Under Obamacare, pharmaceutical companies are awarded substantial rebates, presumably with similar effects.  


Essentially, the article describes the tiniest tip of a massive iceberg of legalized corruption, and describes what appears to be a relative benign piece of the whole.  It should be noted that the government actually owed GE several billion dollars in tax refunds for fiscal year 2010, even after GE paid a total sum of $0 in taxes.  


Presumably a piece insinuating nepotism within the Obama administration is marketable.  Some things that are less marketable:  an explanation of Obamacare, refutation of the profligate lies told by politicians of all stripes, an examination of the broader role campaign contributions play in legislation, an explanation of regulations that apply to the financial sector and the estimated costs and benefits, coverage of the financial crisis in the Eurozone, coverage of naval tensions between China and Vietnam, significant coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, the rest of South and Central America, the rest of Central Asia, most of Eastern Europe, and Russia.  There's little coverage of domestic policy, especially regarding economics and education, the discussion of foreign policy is minimal, and even when things are covered, there is almost no serious analysis.  


The role of journalism should be to hold politicians and other civil servants accountable for their actions and to educate the population about the things that are currently happening.  Instead, journalism panders to the baser impulses of the masses  and chases profits by blaring the same four or five stories on repeat.  We all know that Osama bin Laden was killed, but how many people knew that there was a raid on the Pakistani naval base in Lahore by insurgents who destroyed three American aircraft?  Did you know that Pakistan successfully tested ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads at a range of over 300 miles?  What can you tell me about the bailout of Greece?  What about the economies of Portugal, Ireland, and Spain?  And does it seem like these things might be important?