expecting more from journalism

We watched Gwen Ifill tonight (we usually do) and it wasn't all that bad, but . . . We've watched Washington Week in Review for the better part of 20 years and more . . . changing chairs and changing journalists but mostly consistent as one of the better programs available on non-pay television (i.e. cable and satellite) . . .but even so, I find myself aggravated by some of the simplistic non-journalistic bits of shit from the participants.

Obligatory notice: I majored in mass communications (a few years back) and take a certain pride in the notion of journalistic independence . . . however (harrumph), when the phrase most often repeated during the course of a 30 minute (actually somewhat less with all the non-commercials) show is "I personally think that" . . . I really don't care what they personally think (or if I did, I'd watch an opinion show -- maybe like Colbert but I don't pay for cable) about the news, I expect them to report the news to the best of their (obviously crippled) abilities . . .

Sigh . . . look, I know this is tedium to some of us . . . not so much to me . . . but these journalists are (supposedly) the ones with the training to actually tramp through the bull-shit and present us with some facts, give us a wrap-up of the week . . . I know . . . facts are hard to come by . . . it's mostly a matter of opinion . . . bullshit! a journalist should present what was seen and heard, not what they surmise it all means. . . okay, okay past my bedtime . . . and I still (mostly) like Gwen Ifill as moderator.