Last night, we witnessed the television journalism equivalent to FEMA's response to the Katrina disaster. And the faster we realize that's what happened, the faster we'll be able to save the socioeconomic fabric of our society.
The Katrina-level storm that is rocking America has only just started to come ashore. And saving the voting public - and, by extension, the rest of America - from drowning in a sea of irrelevant and, at times, false information is going to require that America's journalists be heroic in their efforts.
Regrettably, last night we did not see two heroic journalists in action. We saw two buffoons. The voting public was not served. It was played with. The National Enquirer meets the presidential election process. The insane concept of "policy discussion as food fight" - that Jon Stewart so memorably challenged with his "You are hurting America" comments to the hosts of Crossfire in October of 2004 - formed the central core in the minds of one of America's marquee news anchors and of the host of a major Sunday morning news show.
Yes, indeed. You did a heck of a job last night, Charlie and George.
Economically, we're now past the scenario in which people are losing their homes. As The New York Times reported on Tuesday, chains such as Zayles jewelry, Foot Locker, Ann Taylor and others are closing 100 or more stores in malls across the country. Sharper Image, Fortunoff, and Lillian Vernon are just three big businesses that have filed for bankruptcy. When you go to the mall, it's going to look very different in the months to come.
Gee, you'd have thought that - given they were broadcasting from The National Constitution Center - either Charlie Gibson or George Stephanopoulos would have raised the subject of restoring the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches.
When Charlie couldn't even get the name of where he was right, that should have clued us in to the quality of what we were about to hear.
Taken separately, each of these topics could have been the subject of an entire debate. But combined into an overlapping and interrelated whole, they make up the macro, "perfect storm" topic of the dangerous place in which America finds itself as it approaches one of the most critical elections ever.
But what came up instead was what was on Charlie and George's "Enquiring minds". Not what was on the minds of the voters.
The Rev. Wright, non-existing Bosnian snipers, "bittergate", will Barack and Hillary take Mario Cuomo's advice and run as a joint ticket... and let's not forget what Charlie Gibson thinks is "all over the internet": whether Barack Obama wears an American flag lapel pin! And then there was George Stephanopoulos's specific "right wing" moment: Asking Barack if - essentially - the fact that he has some sort of social contact with a former Weatherman (and now respected member of the Chicago civic community) somehow disqualifies him from being president.
By their performances last night, you'd think Charlie and George don't know that 67 percent of all Americans believe "traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news."
Steve Brant is an independent researcher, theorist, and Corporate Social Responsibility brand-building consultant. His mission is to help the Corporate Social Responsibility movement transform the global sociopolitical economic system so that sustainable peace and prosperity for all becomes a reality. Through Trimtab Management Systems, Steve offers an innovation-based synthesis of the systemic redesign principles developed by Drs. Russell L. Ackoff, W. Edwards Deming, and R. Buckminster Fuller as the most powerful approach for achieving that global transformation. Key innovation leverage points for Steve are the CSR movement's potential capability to make war obsolete by advocating a "one world/one human family" political reality, and the entertainment industry's ability to communicate a hopeful vision of the future to the public at large. Such a vision is essential if humanity is to live together in peace. Steve has participated in The UN Global Compact since 2001 and is currently writing his first book, entitled "A World Beyond War In Our Lifetime".
