Eventually one photo op for pictures of protesters getting
arrested looks like the next and so some weeks the columnist with a Nikon Coolpix
may have to settle for getting one image that includes kink, pop culture, and a
shopping destination for tourists. Is
the pop culture scene being shortchanged by journalism because the smaller news
staffs are often overworked?
We have written a column about walking around the ATT ballpark in San Francisco while a World Series Game was being played. Would a report on the hi-jinks going on inside the press room at a World Series Game provide some juicy reading for both the regulars and new arrivals in the audience? Maybe we should start to apply for a press pass for any AT&T Park World Series games this year?
Should we self-subsidize the expenses that would occur if we
apply for and get a press credential to go back to the Oscars - ?
Most Americans (both Liberal and Conservative) don't want to read about the implications about the quality of the results that the electronic voting machines produce. No one seems concerned about the possibility that "they" might steal another election. If, as some people assert, "they" stole two, why the heck would they want to do it again?
The Conservatives don't want to see or hear any reports that
cast aspersions on Republican candidates or even on Ayn Rand.
The Liberals want to make a concerted effort to get out the vote and not be distracted by the possibility that the electronic voting machines may render their efforts ineffective.
Apparently the slim number of people concerned with the
question of whether the Euthanasia Coaster or the Electronic Voting Machines
has a better reliability rating means that those topics are only worth a quick
mention. If the Euthanasia Coaster and
the Electronic Voting Machines were important topics wouldn't either one or
both be mentioned on the Jon Stewart Show?
Do people in other areas of the world want to read about the debate in Berkeley this fall over a proposed sit-lie ordinance? Probably not.
Do citizens want to read a column about a new book that reports that the FBI got very involved in investigating the anti-war protesters at the University of California Berkeley campus in the Sixties? In the era of Homeland Security are over zealous security measures from fifty years ago important? Maybe not. (Google News Search hints:
"Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's
Rise to Power" and "Seth Rosenfeld")
Recently we noticed that the Mediterranium Cafà © in Berkeley offers a beer float. Not a root beer float, but a regular brewski with a scoop of ice cream in it. We checked online and found a few mentions of the concept so we figure it is worth a mention.
That made us wonder about the news items about beer being
brewed by the Obamas. How much does one
bottle cost? Who gets the proceeds? Do any profits go to the daughters' college
fund? Are bottles sold at outrageously
high prices to campaign donors? Does the
Democratic Party profit? Are the
answers to these questions available in print or electronic media or is quality
journalism deteriorating that badly?
What topics are left for a columnist who puts a high priority on the "just for the fun of it" factor of fact finding and material gathering? That is the recurring challenge.
In a country that seems to be on the brink of electing
Bishop Romney President, perhaps a series of columns about the general
atmosphere in the USA
in the fall of 2012 will be of interest to future historians who want material
that wasn't part of the wolf pack journalism produced at the two Political
Conventions.
Samuel Johnson wrote: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." We have a suggestion for those ads for a certain credit card company because an "all access" backstage pass to a Rolling Stones concert would be (let's all say it together) Priceless.
Now the disk jockey will play the Inconcevables song "Hamburger Patti," The Daddy O's "Got a match?," and Hayley Mills' "Johnny Jingo." We have to check to see what effect sit-lie ordinances are having in San Francisco and Santa Monica. Have a "hurray for our side" type week.
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