Friday, October 17, 2008

Joe the Plumber

There is something vicious about being a reporter. Something vulture-like that reminds me of the scene from "Deep Blue Sea" when the shark smells her blood and is lured right to her. And the he rips her to shreds, quite literally.
It's a terrible movie and I don't recommend it, but LL Cool J is in it and he has a parrot and it's slightly humerous.
At any rate, my point is this: when a reporter smells blood, look out.
So Joe the Plumber stepped forward and put himself in a public lime light that I'm sure he's regretting now. He stepped forward to challenge Obama, asking, "What are you SERIOUSLY going to do for us here below?" And now Joe has been subjected to all kinds of scrutiny, from his single-parenthood to his tax history.
What is it about this story that reporters have latched into? What is different about Joe's question than the questions posed on the YouTube debates not a year ago? And what is it about Americans that has launched newspaper reporting into this level of vulture-ness?
I feel bad for Joe because like many people, he's learned the hard way that public is the new private. When it comes to reporters and politics, no one is safe. The message being sent here is: You can challenge the President and ask him questions and try to get straight answers out of him, but it's at the risk of your own personal space. It's at the risk of having reporters camp out on your lawn to find out what kind of cleaner you use on your toilet.
This is the level journalism has been taken to, folks, and I'm not sorry I got out of it. When it comes to politics, and if there's blood in the water, forget about it. Reporters will be all over it.

And just so you know, I'm not entirely knocking the journalism profession. I think there is a call for news, especially in such an uncertain economy. But does CNN really have to continuously put pictures of sad stock brokers up on its home page? We don't hear any good news anymore. Is it because good news doesn't exist? What changed in journalism?

Another post for another day. Perhaps later.

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