Newsroom

I was late to the party.

In a casual conversation about politics a buddy of mine told me that I had to watch the old series, Newsroom with Jeff Daniels.

I’m a huge Jeff Daniels fan and I had seen the famous clip of the show where he answers the question on what makes America the greatest nation in the world.

I was a tad worried about how political that either Kathy or I would go to be entertained, but man, we tore through the series.

It was great - Sorkin is a great writer and Daniels is a terrific actor. 

All of it was brilliant...

...but there was a huge moment when I grew sad.

I went to school to be one of the journalists in that room, and while things worked out well, I loved the idea of truth, justice and the American way when I was an idealistic kid.

I’m sad that the world didn’t turn out to be the place I thought it was.

The way that some people get their news is sad.

We have people out there, right now, who believe that there is a huge pedophile ring that runs through Hollywood and the Democratic Party, and that the reason for it is that they use the blood of the kids to satisfy, something... I don’t know what.

We have a group that believe that there was rampant voter fraud who can’t muster up a single example.

Misinformation is what might tear the whole damn Democracy down, and I kind of blame O.J. Simpson and the Reagan era people who figured out that information could be weaponized.

Before O.J. not everything was ‘Breaking News’.

Before that case, people watched shows. Reality television wasn’t a thing.

And of course, now it’s all social disinformation. You can’t tell when a photo is even real. There are thousands of ‘journalists’ who write fake stories, on purpose.

Anyone who wants to post a picture of their ass crack can do so in a click in an effort to entertain a total stranger and get retweets.

I enjoy aspects of social media.

I read news and stories there. I write this blog. I joke with friends, old and new.

Yet, I understand the difference between entertainment and information and I hate that life has been dumbed down to the point that...

...it’s way too dumb.

In any regard, I highly recommend ‘Newsroom’. 

It was highly entertaining and it made me care about that what distresses me.

And someday, in an alternate universe, I would like to work in a journalistic setting.

It still looks like great fun...

...but hey, I had to save lives in the construction world.

A guy can only be in so many places.