Where's The News?

Lately I've been having flashbacks to that 1980's 'Where's The Beef' commercial, only I'm wondering where all our News has gone. Try surfing through any TV channel, but especially the cable ones, and you'll be hard pressed to find anything resembling News more than superficially.

And don't even think about the internet options. For some reason, Yahoo! News, a service I had come to like and peruse daily, has lately changed to a slate of opinions and fluff pieces. I do access it mainly on an iPad now, so perhaps someone has pieced together info on me from that iOS data-hole and concluded I'm an air-head California Kid. (I must try to act my age on the internet).

It's not that I'm a masochist or anything. I don't desire to be depressed by all the bad News in the world; but I do want to be informed, and I want it as 'just the facts, please'. I'll supply the opinion, thank you very much.

Surprisingly, I did find some Real News recently; of all places in the newspaper. My opinion of our local rag, the Los Angeles Times, had fallen to the point it typically was shuffled from the front porch straight under the dog, without reading. The other day, though, I happened to glance at a few of the back pages, and - Whoa - I stopped in my tracks. Real News, and mainly the facts, in article after article. A veritable News Bonanza!

I'm hoping this is a new trend: newspapers, in their desperation, resorting to actual reportage of factual News, in an effort to differentiate from the increasingly mindless televised, posted, streamed, and tweeted mixed bag of fact, opinion, and near-fiction.

That one edition may have been a fluke, or this trend may not last. In the meantime, though, the dog will have to hold it in, or pee outside for a change.

Congressional Fakeout

It's always been my assumption that our Congress is slightly corrupt. This opinion has been mainly based on the circumstantial evidence that hardly any members who go in less than rich leave that way.

Slight corruption is not in itself a deal-stopper. After all, everyone in this great big rat-race of a modern world is tempted beyond their ability to resist at one time or another, for big or little reasons, and for less or more gain. From the policeman who accepts a cup of coffee gratis at the local donut shop to the Senator who takes 'key business leaders' along on a junket to Bangkok to explore foreign, uh, markets. Yes, markets.

But I have to draw the line. Tonight on 'The Daily Show', Jon Stewart revealed that our congressional 'servants' were immune to insider trading laws. They can legally invest for their own benefit using information not available to the public. In other words, they can do blithely what sent Martha Stewart (no relation) to the big house.

Worse still, former congressmen and aides have been funneling the same confidential information (for a fat fee) out to hedge funds and other stock traders. This sounds like something from Capone's Old Chicago, early Vegas, or Putin's Moscow, not Congress.

But there it is. Outright, unadulterated, corruption. Homegrown in the USA.

And all this time, Congress has been railing against insider trading and corruption in the financial markets. Hey, look over there at that mess, they've been telling us, hoping we don't look behind their curtains. A juke and head-fake, and the constitution and fairness are left in the dust.

This goes beyond the slight corruption I've accepted as inevitable; this is evil trickery on a scale equal to the worst abuses of Monarchs (and I don't mean butterflies), absent the beheadings and burnings at the stake.

It's a good thing there are shows like Stewart's to bring these issues to our attention. But, if I were Mr Stewart, or any good soul speaking out about this corruption, I might want to increase my medieval torture and execution insurance, and take the lowest deductible too.