The Silence of a Nation of Sheep

A potential motto the Press Clubs in America?

Accessories are important for a photographer's ensemble

A phalanx of OPD officers walks behind Occupy Oakland's Move-In Day March

"A Nation of Sheep," written by William J. Lederer has been on our literary radar screen for many years just because of the catchy title.   When we were presented with the chance to buy a used copy in BU (Brilliant Uncirculated) condition recently, at a bargain price, we snapped it up quickly.   Among the usual suspects list of places in Berkeley CA where a thrifty fellow can buy desirable additions for one's personal library at prices that won't destroy a tight budget, the number of available books that criticize American Journalism seems astoundingly high, until a proper assessment of the phenomenon is made.   The University located in Berkeley has a School of Journalism, so there is going to be a goodly number of teachers and students reading up on that subject.   There is also a number of folks who work in and around the San Francisco Bay area Journalism community who live in Berkeley.   There are also a few people still living in Berkeley who can tell stories about the golden age of underground newspapers because they worked for the Berkeley Barb and the Berkeley Tribe.

That, in turn, reminded us of the fact that the World's Laziest Journalist has intended for some time to write a column about the fact that Berkeley has no Press Club.   If some enterprising coffee shop owner (apparently the Berkeley Barb was started by a coffee shop owner who wanted a small "poopsheet" to hand out to his regular customers) wanted to fill his place on an "off" evening, he could set aside one night a week to make a special effort to attract "newsies" and start a de facto Press Club, where a herd of the boys could gather around and talk shop.

[We can use the sexist word "boys" because we heard a recent report about a new book on KCBS that reports that there is a paucity of women in the clique of reporters covering this year's Presidential Campaign.]

Recently Police officials have been making decisions based on the fact that they don't consider some reporters for Internets based publications to be eligible for Press Pass status at news events.   That could be a lively topic for discussion at the aforementioned hypothetical gathering just mentioned.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the big topic among journalists for the past week, was not the Romney victory in the Florida primary, but the detention of reporters in Oakland.   Some of the detained journalists had valid Press Passes issued by the San Francisco Police Department.   Maybe, if well informed voters are a legitimate goal, it is time to include web-journalists on the list of those eligible to apply for Police issued Press Passes?

Citizens and media owners seem eerily silent about this latest trend in journalism; could it be that they don't care about the health and welfare of America's free press?

It would be a bit easier to write a weekend-update column, if a fellow could compare notes at an impromptu Press Club.   Macy's may not tell Gimbel's what's going to go on sale next week, but journalist do talk to each other on an "this is off the record" basis and swap some information which can help determine the newsworthyness of some topics.

For instance, what if an online columnist noted that during the past week there had been some headlines online that indicated that a nuclear facility in Illinois had a bit of trouble with their hardware, the San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California had a radioactive leak, and a big shot in Washington had announced that the next terrorist attack on the USA might come in the form of a hack attack.  

Wasn't there a story recently alleging that somebody had used computers to sabotage and slow down Iran's program to develop nuclear weapons?  

If there was an informal Press Club in Berkeley, a columnist could do a bit of a mini-opinion poll about the feasibility of seeing a connecting thread for those bits of information?   Could the nuclear malfunctions be an example of "paybacks are hell"?

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