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Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
- H. L. Mencken

Americans love spectacles.

We love NASCAR, slasher movies, corrupt politicians. We especially find it irresistible when our stars fall from grace. Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Elizabeth Taylor, we love ‘em all. But of all the bad girls who party down, crash their cars, abuse photographers, make porno videos, and saunter about with little or no clothing (particularly under-garments) we can’t help our admittedly sick obsession with Britney Spears.

Adult Stuff Link Warning: Click here to see a review of Paris’ porno from AVN.

Wasn’t it only a few years ago when Britney appeared on the MTV Awards swapping spit with Madonna? Wasn’t it only a few years ago that she was the most successful young pop tart/singer/hottie/ even eclipsing Christina Aguilera and the great Tiffany?

Britney’s fall is particularly startling involving so many components of personal and professional failure, and now even involves daily drug testing and being a bad mom. Britney is the new Joan Crawford - only this time there aren’t any clothes hangers involved. A bad performance (horrible) at the MTV Video music awards is one thing, but neglecting her children is quite another.

And what is the horrible result of all the limelight, all the paparazzi and all the media’s attentions focused so closely on Britney’s lack of knickers? Other than the danger of being over-exposed, the most terrible result at least according to Carl Bernstein is that over coverage of Britney’s lack of under coverage has destroyed American journalism!

An “Idiot Culture”?

Bernstein says that what we’ve got is an “idiot culture”.

An “idiot culture” that gorges itself on coverage of Britney and her “artist” colleagues. The extensive coverage of celebrities has taken resources (journalists) away from covering more important things, things like actual news and analysis of important events. So, in addition to having a broken home and broken career, Britney now is supposed to be responsible for breaking American journalism?? No way! Stop!!

No. Britney Spears is great fun. A beautiful train wreck that most folks hope can get herself back on track, off the drugs and booze and back to her version of “art”. Any suggestion that the failure of American journalism can be laid at her feet is utterly absurd.

Carl Bernstein says:

The problems we have in news and journalism are about us not doing our job well enough. The ideal of providing the best available version of the truth is being affected by the dominance of a journalistic culture that has less and less to do with reality and context.

Yes, that’s it. He’s right. Journalists don’t do their jobs very well. Real investigative journalism, real objective reporting is almost a thing of the past now it’s so rare. Most “Journalists” are editorialists in disguise - they can’t help but give their opinions (subtle or obvious) to try to sway the reader towards a specific conclusion.

In the mainstream press, the specific sway is toward the left. The bias in media is painfully obvious and it’s there because journalists are biased, and so are editors. Journalists are people too, after all. But they are expected to leave bias out of their stories - they don’t in the main. There is a good reason why the editorial pages are separated from the news pages in traditional newspapers. It’s because just like Church and State in our American government, the two are not supposed to overlap at all. In American journalism editorializing and news reporting go hand-in-hand - but they shouldn’t.

Who is responsible for the failure of journalism? Britney Spears? Hogwash.

The schools of journalism and the newspapers of this country are to blame.

Bernstein mentions reality and context. Journalism should provide American society with solid news content not mixed obviously or obliquely with opinion. Journalism schools exist to train writers how to keep the two separate! They don’t. Journalism should provide context and teach readers background and context so that they can form solid opinions about events of the day based upon facts provided by journalists.

The core problem in journalism today is that so many journalists think of themselves as opinion makers rather than teachers.

The apparent popular opposition to the war in Iraq is directly related to the lack of context and historical understanding that those in opposition lack. They have little understanding of Iraq’s past, Islam’s past, and American history. Why?

Because they are too busy watching Britney Spears coverage and not being taught the facts by journalists who are too obsessed with molding opinion!

Let Britney take responsibility for her own failings, and let the journalists of America step up and reform their failed profession. Teach the people! should be the mantra of journalists not Shape Public Opinion!

Britney Spears is a professional! She gets lots of press and people love watching her- heck, folks pay lots of money to watch her. In her “field” this is professionalism.

For journalists ethics and objectivity are the watchwords, fallen so silently of late amidst the hubbub and demands of molding public thinking with editorializing ersatz “news” stories. Lack of standards, lack of oversight, lack of professional purpose are why journalism as a profession has failed.

Britney, on the other hand, having few standards, a confused morality, and certainly little or no oversight - in her chosen field this makes her a professional - is a leader.

The more she falls the higher she climbs. Journalists have no such luxury. The more journalism fails the more confused and out of touch the American people become. Journalists have a moral and ethical responsibility to American society which they’ve of late failed to deliver.