The End of an Era in Journalism

As I stroll through all the various channels of stations that are news channels or claim to be, it distresses me. I see the anchors we have now, ones that don't even seem to attempt to hide their own political views. Ones that clearly have agendas most on the right but even some on the left. That as Americans we are almost forced to pick who to listen to, not based on who gives us the facts but who we agree with.

It wasn't always that way.

The passing of Walter Cronkite makes me yearn for an era where there was an anchor that Americans trusted regardless of our political views. We knew he would present the news of the day that was important and would communicate it to us in a factual way.

We as citizens are much worse off then we were in that era. Despite the fact there is are exponentially more sources and hours of news. It is almost impossible to find simply the facts. Those of us that make the effort have to filter through many sources and use our own skills to weed through all the information factual and not to determine the truth.

Unfortunately most Americans don't put that much effort into it. They just take in the misinformation and distortions and choose to believe them. Politics has become not a promotion of ideas and visions but more of a attempt to find sound bites that voters will believe, regardless of the truth.

Perhaps the election of Barack Obama despite all the distortions and misinformation and smears that were thrown against him, are a sign that Americans are sick of being lied to and are putting much more effort into finding the truth. Yet every day I hear people still repeat Faux Newsisms and Rushisms as fact.

I will miss Walter Cronkite. Perhaps his passing will cause many to look back and reflect on what journalism was and should be again. That's all I can hope for.

God's Speed Walter.

And that's that way it is.