Friday, March 29, 2024

Mediocre journalists slant news with their headlines

Local, state and federal officials dedicated Highway 14, from Dodge Center into Steele County, at a 10 a.m. ceremony last Tuesday on a stretch of the newly sculpted four-lane at Dodge County 3.

A gathering of Minnesota State Patrol, Minnesota Highway Department officials, the Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, our own State Sen. Dave Senjem, State Rep. Duane Quam, Claremont Mayor Tasha Dahl and a host of officials too numerous to single out.

As everyone was gathering prior to the start of the speeches, a television station’s cameraman was overheard saying: “ This isn’t open to the public is it?”

Wait, what? Just a minute, did I hear him correctly? I did. And before I could check my words, I blurted out, “Why would it not (be open to the public) they’re paying for it.”

It’s this kind of arrogance that drives many to avoid the prima donnas who perceive their audience as non-enlightened as they presume to be.

It’s one thing to have this kind of nose-in-the- air attitude from elected officials, but to hear it coming from a small market media type is quite another matter.

Perhaps these local news outlets are taking their arrogant lead from the big boys and girls at the TV networks, who are really actors reading a script placed in front of them, rather than the front line news gatherers who do the leg work.

Think about it, most female newscasters are gorgeous, flawless beauties.

Most male readers of the world’s news are handsome, outgoing character actors. What they possess in looks is often overshadowed by their lack of knowledge of the issues they are citing. Simply stated, they (media actors) lack credibility.

If there is a time that, we the people of the United States of America, needs the truth from those in the media, whether national, state or locally, it’s now.

The United States is moving into all-too-familiar economic territory, something we experienced in the 1970s under then President Jimmy Carter. It ultimately evolved into the “Misery Index.” A measurement of how depressed the economy was at the time and the negative impact it had on a person’s psyche.

Today, our economy is driven by hyperinflation, when we have shortages at the grocery store, car dealerships, outrageous gas prices, inflation is putting crimp on how families will survive a cold winter with soaring natural gas prices and the fuel oil costs as they continue to skyrocket.

I had hoped to just attend the ceremonial opening of U.S. Hwy.14, gather a few photos and leave, but this encounter with a supposed elite caused me to take a step back and evaluate my own point of view and the way I share things with you, the reader.

It is my hope that you’ll call me on any perceived pomposity written in the Dodge County Independent to my attention.

WARNING TO THE WEST

“You know, that is one of the consequences of the weak sense of responsibility of the press. The press does not feel responsibility for its judgments. It makes judgments and attaches labels with the greatest of ease. Mediocre journalists simply make headlines of their conclusions, which suddenly become generally accepted.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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Dodge County Independent

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