Chuck Todd and the demise of journalism in America

The Committee to Protect Journalists released their annual report today, and it's nothing but good news! Well, maybe not for journalists, but at least for Americans!

Seems the countries most likely to jail journalists are the evil communist regime of China, followed by American allies Egypt and Turkey.

As you well know, and as the Committee to Protect Journalists will confirm, America does not toss journos in the slammer!

That is because America is a bastion of free speech!

And nobody embodies that commitment to free speech more than Meet the Press host, veteran journalist Chuck Todd.

Did you know that Chuck was once considered one of the most influential journalists in America?

I would not have guessed it either, but I ran across that factoid while researching for this blog post.

There's absolutely no danger that Chuck Todd will ever be imprisoned for espousing unpleasant points of view from his bully pulpit at Meet the Press. I watched his phone interview with Trump yesterday, and in terms of the imaginary ethics that journalists are imbued with at J-school, it was utterly pathetic.

On the other hand, in terms of what we expect from shills for the two-headed ruling class in America,(two heads, one owner)  it was utterly predictable.

Chuck stuck to the mainstream talking points quite fastidiously. How could Trump possibly engage in a civil back-and-forth with Putin? How could he allow himself to become a poster-boy for Islamic State recruiters? How could he possibly alienate twelve million illegal immigrants? How could he diss every Muslim on the planet with his blatantly racist plan to deny entry to America to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims?

And so on.

Chuck was absolutely bereft of authentic lines of inquiry but chock full of establishment talking points.

I bear no brief for Donald Trump.

But he is the only candidate broadcasting the fact that America's political system is broken.

The Chuck Todds and all the rest of them are desperately fighting a rear-guard action in defense of an establishment that has long lost any claim to democratic legitimacy.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be journalists

So Junior wants to go off to Carleton or Ryerson or Columbia for a few years to study up for a career in journalism?

Just say no!

First of all, a journalism degree is a ticket into the precariat. After four or five years Junior will be lucky to find him or herself in an unpaid internship.

Even "real" journalists who get paid find themselves recycling corporate press releases and passing them off as "news."

For example, Christina Blizzard had a great article across the Sunmedia (soon to be a division of Postmedia, because two stinkers make a rose...) chain on Feb. 12 about how we can save a lot of money on policing. Good solid journalism, eh? She even talked to Stephan Cretier, boss of one of the worlds biggest private security outfits, Garda. Her keen investigative journalism reveals that we can replace a lot of $100,000/yr cops with $40,000/private security guards.

Dig around a little, and you'll soon discover that all she's done is recycle this Jan. 29 Garda press release!

That's what passes for "journalism" today.

Journalism was once an honourable profession.

And PS, the only mall cop making 40k is some poor shmuck with no life working three or four double shifts every week.