Weapons of Mass Persuasion

Go back, my dear friends at MSNBC, and rewatch your initial reporting from yesterday on the death of Ken Lay. At least for the first 15-minute "breaking news" segment I saw early in the day, it was close to hagiogrophy. (The news reader/ anchor kept uncritically reporting various praise for Lay by the minister of his church and others, droning on about his charitable giving when we all know the courts recently convicted him of acts that have ruined the lives and savings of countless people, "acts of charity" I don't think Jesus would approve of.)

If I had lost my retirement savings or my job because of this man, I'm not sure I could have stomached the MSNBC coverage. (I didn't even bother flipping to Fox.)

Speaking of hitting the rewind buttons, here's a fun "thing to do when there's nothing to do" for employees at all the major news networks: replay (for the entire newsroom) two or three hours of your coverage of the War in Iraq from several years ago.

Let's just throw out, totally at random, 7 to 10 p.m. March 22, 2003, as the time to rewatch. Did your talking head pundits uncritically accept the Republican talkings points about the war? Were you more like cheerleaders, or like reporters? Are you still wearing your American flag lapel pins? Are you embarrassed about some of the scrolling graphics, and your drama-infused "beating the drums of war" theme jingles?

... Not that there's anything wrong with American flag lapel pins.