Sunday, September 11, 2011

E.J. Dionne and Cynthia Tucker: Journalists With Facts

There are many journalists today who unfortunately loose sight of their role of informing the people of what takes place in the news today. Fortunately, there are two journalists who know the facts of the subject matter they report on and as a result enrich the American people. Those two journalists are E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Cynthia Tucker, Editorial page editor of the Atlantic Constitution. They take time to separate hype and talking points from facts and tell an accurate story of the subject matter at hand.

Both are good at pointing out the real story behind the news and are up to date on the issues. When one reads or listens to their reports it is like night and day compared to other journalists. All of a sudden their reports propel you to reality and allow one to recall how this or that issue is totally different than other reports.

Mr. Dionne had a recent commentary concerning why the nation should move on since the 9/11 attack and Ms. Tucker had a recent editorial concerning "A perspective on taxes." Both appeared in the Times Picayune of September 8 and are timely, easy to understand and makes the case concerning two issues that have an affect on our current events.

The American people would be better informed if we had more journalists like Mr. Dionne and Ms. Tucker. Keep up the good work.

The Presidential Debates: A Flawed and Manipulated System

The latest Republican Presidential debate on 9/7 at the Reagan Center in California illustrates how the debates have become a media show at the expense of the people. Those candidates who do not reach a certain poll number are excluded from the debates. They are deemed not to have enough support to be part of the debate.

The eight Republicans that appeared had the right poll numbers and were deemed qualified to be there. However, the moderators of the debate gave two or three of the candidates most of the air time and questions and ignored the rest. In other words the news media moderators decided which candidates the American people would hear. Not very democratic and once again illustrates how the news media uses its power to push certain candidates and their views. When candidates are found qualified to debate they should all be given equal time.

Former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer was not invited because his poll numbers did not measure up. He is out spoken about how campaign contributions from PAC's and lobbyist have poisoned our elected officials with their wealth and how elected officials are beholden to them instead of the people. The moderators, whose networks make money from political ads did not bother to talk about the subject matter at the debates. In fact the two or three candidates at the debate who got most of the questions are the candidates that are raising the most money to take out those ads.

The combination of wealth, the news media and elected officials who are beholden to the wealthy are toxic for America and its people. And that really says it all.