[Peter Libra]

I was interested to read the statement by David Westin on ABC News about the forthcoming cuts in staff. A memo stated "But all of us are good reporters. We can see that our society is in the midst of change". He sounded very up beat on the ability of the media to get in ahead of this change.

In the early hours I picked up a radio station and it was fading somewhat. An author was talking of his book regarding the triangle in the presidential election. He had it that Hilary Clinton and John McCain were aghast at a complete newcomer, without much of a record of service. This was Barack Obama, suddenly gaining an immense coverage. The author claimed the McCain camp were apprehensive of McCain turning on Obama with such vitriol, it would turn off the electorate. Now came this telling statement.

McCain had been the "media darling," now the new "media darling," was Barack Obama.

I asked myself, "is this journalism? ". Surely the massive war rooms of the candidates were there for that. Surely the meetings of supporters and gatherings are there for that. I concluded that the media, or much of it, seems to be like a skittish adolescent. Waiting to be titillated by some flight of fancy, it is a free country to do that.

The most vital thing was completely missed by them. That being "who really is Barack Obama?" They told us enough about the then Governor Sarah Palin. No more needs to be said by me.

[BigEdLB]

ABC News has begun the process of eliminating 300 to 400 positions at the news division by asking employees to participate in a buyout of their services.


OR : "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"