An Institution Dies

Copyright © 2008 TexasDarlin. All Rights Reserved.

Edited on 11/25/08 5am and 5:20 am ET

Now? The reporters are now lining up to confess failure? How pathetic. If they know now, they knew then. I’m not sure what is more pathetic: the indisputable fact of their failure, or their admission after the fact. As if writing a faux-intellectual Monday-morning critique of their industry’s gross negligence somehow excuses it, now that it’s water under society’s bridge.

We tried. We blasted out the word from our little anonymous corners of the blogosphere, over and over again. We tried to tell the world how irresponsibly biased the Mainstream Media were in covering the presidential candidates. We were laughed down, ignored, scolded for being bad sports.

We, the nobody bloggers, worked our fingers to the bone, many of us sacrificing whole chunks of our lives, because the paid professional journalists — en masse — refused to be independent. They committed voluntary malpractice, regurgitating faxed or emailed campaign talking points as “news” instead of checking essential facts, much less pursuing actual stories. They puffed up Obama and his family as if they all worked for Readers Digest, flatly refused to vet him, and did exactly the opposite for Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin.

History might mark the death of journalism as Americans knew it in the year 2008, who knows. Certainly it should. But I do know that had these hacks performed merely 25% of what they should have, the outcome of this election would likely have been quite different. Likely we would have had our first female president, or our first female vice-president. Had the sloths who call themselves “reporters” and their corporate employers given a damn about their role in a democratic election, the candidate named Obama who has accomplished nothing but a series of personality-based milestones in his life would have been stopped at the door for lack of either a real resume or a real birth certificate. [And please, don't accuse me of clinging to the birth certificate issue. I refer to it figuratively, for all the missing records and documents of Obama's life.]

And still, they — the Mainstream Media — don’t have the grit or integrity to fulfill their duty.

Still, they don’t.

Because as I write this, the United States Supreme Court has granted a full conference to a regular citizen named Leo Donofrio, on the issue of Barack Obama’s status as a natural-born citizen. I’m told that the US Supreme Court has not granted such a full conference for any matter in 3 decades.

Mind you, this is the US Supreme Court. Not an insignificant district court of the first instance. But the U.S. Supreme Court, charged with interpreting our nation’s Constitution, charged with explaining the meaning of “natural born citizen.” The buck stops with this Court and its authority. Regardless of whether they decide to let Mr. Donofrio’s case proceed — the very fact that a full conference has been granted — is newsworthy. Right? Even downright historic. Yes, it is, which is why we the bloggers are unsurprised that no one in the Mainstream Media, not one reputable journalist or organization, has reported the story.

I mourn the death of American Journalism, an institution I once proudly embraced.

I asked permision on TD's web site to publish this excellent article. If for any reason, she is not comrotable with this, I will remove it upon her request.