Yesterday I let loose about the state of commentary on political blogs and news stories. Today I’ll say a thing or two about some of the “journalists” out there.

This is a subject I know more than a little about, having grown up with a newspaper reporter/columnist father who had a wall full of journalism awards, including the Ernie Pyle Award. What I saw of journalism and journalists in my younger years was a dedication to finding out the truth and making it public, regardless of whatever personal consequences might result. Dad wrote about civil rights long before it was popular or safe, when public water fountains were still designated “White” or “Colored,” and when public opposition to segregation resulted in death threats that were relayed like clockwork. In the days and weeks when Watergate was first breaking open and every time one turned around there was another person of note mired in the corruption, one story lead suggested that Billy Graham might have been part of it as well. My (only somewhat backslid, otherwise devout) Methodist father spent days digging on that story.  If Billy Graham had participated in any way in the Watergate mess, Dad was going to find it out.

Far from coddling a favorite public figure, or “spinning” his involvement (if any) to attempt to minimize or even justify unethical behavior, Dad and reporters like him dug all the more to expose the truth about people who were held in the highest public regard, even if they counted themselves among their admirers. They didn’t dig to find dirt in order to sensationalize it. They dug because of their belief that democracy could not exist without a free and responsible press.

The same was true then of broadcast journalists. Yours truly had a first career in broadcasting, after getting a bachelor’s in Radio, TV, and Motion Pictures from UNC-Chapel Hill. That was where Dr. Wesley Wallace taught his history and law of broadcasting only at 8:00 a.m., and I lived in the dorm furthest from Swain Hall where the department was headquartered. Never the morning person, I believe that’s when Dr. Wallace got his first inkling that I was not going to be the shining star he’d hoped, but more than a little of what he taught seeped into my sleepy brain nonetheless.

Oh, how I miss the days of the Fairness Doctrine.

Once the Fairness Doctrine went the way of the dodo, broadcast news organizations were free to generate high ratings numbers as cheaply as possible. Good investigative journalism required paying good investigative journalists. A little flash-and-skin sensationalism could catch viewers for a lot less money.

So now we have these talking heads who are all rah-rah for the right or the left and who have turned the words “fair” and “balanced” into limping, oozing parodies of themselves. Blog Land often doesn’t show itself to be a lot better, but there are some wonderful, real journalists who pop up from time to time.

I came across one of those tonight, who goes by the name of Skylewalker on DailyKos. This 26-year-old law student posted a fine piece of reporting on Nebraska politics today. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to believe that we still have the minds and hearts among us to prevail over the ubiquitous knee-jerking vitriol I wrote about yesterday.

Peace.

Deborah Alicen