HAPPY TRIALS

HAPPY TRIALS: We’ve never been much for “belief,” rather subscribing to the “half of what you see and none of what you hear” philosophy.

But our skepticism regarding a certain intrepid, red-suited, north pole denizen got a challenge with the news that the local newspaper’s courts and police reporter, Paul Curtis, is apparently no longer in their employ.

Assuming it was an involuntary separation- something we have it on fairly decent authority is the case, especially since his name has been purged from the staff page- it would be the third such termination for the Billy Martin of local reportage.

Although our celebration of the departure of government beat reporter Leo Azambuja was premature, we’ll proceed as if once burned, twice shy doesn’t apply here.

Last time Curtis was canned it was for causing then Business Editor Andy Gross to quit when Curtis tried to squelch Gross’ investigation of some of the shenanigans at the Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC).

Curtis had been given his first job in reporting at the now seemingly defunct Kaua`i Times (despite a consent decree in a lawsuit forcing the local newspaper to continue to publish it) by Gregg Gardiner, who later pushed through the sale of Kaua`i Electric at an exorbitant price that continues to saddle rate payers with the highest rates in the country.

Though rumors of kickbacks were rampant, nothing was ever proven.

But with Curtis’ departure it’s time for the paper to regain the professionalism it exhibited during the recent and brief golden age when current editor Nathan Eagle and the now departed Mike Levine provided hold no punches coverage of island news.

That’s going to take one of two things.

The first and least likely is to see one of the myriad professionals recently let go in the contraction of Honolulu newspapers being lured to Kaua`i despite the starvation wages the paper notoriously pays.

The best scenario is to see Publisher Randy Kozerski loosen the purse strings and spring for a living wage so as to lure one of them- or even one of the local professionals- to do the job.

We’re not expecting a miracle. Just another little present from a gift-giving fat man.


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Speaking of most likely, unless something forces us to sit in front of this screen, we’re gonna take a long weekend.

PATERNALIST PET:

PATERNALIST PET: The chattering classes today have their panties in a bunch today over the new cover of The New Yorker.

By Wolf Blitzer’s tone today you’d think the whole election now hinges on the New Yorker magazine cover lampooning, er, ... well maybe that’s the problem- what is being lampooned may depend on anything from one’s political affiliation to what they ate for breakfast.

But today’s political orthodoxy maintains that it feeds false allegations about Barack Obama that unfortunately some people believe. And is therefore anything from in bad taste to a despicable reinforcement of the closely held beliefs of the uninformed.

And not just nation-wide but locally the blogs are a-twitter too with a provocative posts like the elocutiously eclectic Joltin’ Joan Conrow’s regarding the NYer cover and on-line “citizen-journalism” which has tangentially evolved into a discussion of whether journalists should be licensed.

Another post at Disappeared News today reports on Disappeared humor and cites Undernews’ Sam Smith’s poking a little fun at the “outrage” of posters at some humorless liberal web sites like Huffington Post, while Joan reports on the fear and loathing at the sycophantic Daily Kos and other Democratic Party pissing parties.

But in every single comment on TV and every story in the newspapers, from the political blogs to the Obama and McCain campaign sites, whether from pundit or news consumers’ comments, they all agrees on one thing - “some people” will not see the cartoon as satire but as depicting the truth because they are “not as smart as us”

So just where are all these dumb people and why haven’t we heard from them? If you listen to the pontificating press you’d think that half the country believes that Barack Obama is an anti-American, Muslim terrorist because their brother-in-law sent them an email. Yet no one has bothered to dig one of those people up to interview him or her and prove their hypothesis.

It’s the same complaint used to bemoan the lack of accuracy and the resulting misinformation supposedly spread by on-line pseudo-journalists who aren’t “qualified” to tell us what the news is, which may be at the unintended heart of Joan’s piece today.

The thinking apparently goes something like this: People are too dumb to do critical reading and are just believing anything they read. But while there must be someone out there that is so stupid they absorb bullcrap like a sponge, most read through the filter of their own beliefs and experiences no matter what others report.

Now we’ll grant and in fact promote the concept that unbending unquestioned “belief” in place of knowledge is a semi-moronic endeavor. But those filters and the results of the filtering is not what we keep hearing about these “other people”.

Somehow they all quite obviously have a mental image of this guy:

“Hi- I’m Cletus. I’m a toothless knuckle-dragging, slack-jaw and I seed that thar NYer pi’ture and I says to mah Mable Sue I says ‘see I tol’ ya all that stuff was true. Why now even them liberals in New York City admit that Obomber is a flag bunin’ a-rab and his wife is a black panther-lovin’, afro-wearing Angela Davis.’”

That’s got to be the meat and potatoes of what those who can’t seem to remember where they left their sense of humor- a malady effecting many millions more than the one afflicting our depicted every-cave-man- are saying about the cartoon as well as other depictions and characterizations.... “I know better but what will others who aren’t as smart as me think?”

Everyone seems to think there are people “out there”- not me, mind you- who can’t tell fact from fiction and they are being manipulated by others who are now out-of-control with the ubiquitousness of the internet.

Never mind the fact that these brain dead squawkers at the corporate news networks and print dailies create their own echo chamber filled with utter crap that’s bought and paid for by their advertisers and pals in government. They and only they have the paternalistic right to protect people from what they might find out from friends and neighbors because only we professionals have the psychic ability to tell when we are being scammed.

For every “Obama is a secret Muslim” email there are 10 exposing the corruption of the press- the lowering of our standards and the corporate control that has caused investigative journalism and fighting corporate and governmental corruption to be a figment of past imaginations.

But what’s a little discarded baby when there’s so much bathwater to toss?

Joan makes the point that reporting is not as easy as it seems. Research and the search for the facts can be trying and difficult. Daily ethical dilemmas are part of the territory. It takes a great deal of experience and more than a basic knowledge of communications and story telling.

But it also takes a lot of those abilities to read- and it always has. The only difference with the internet and bloggers is that there are a lot more to chose from for the critical reader.

Sounds like what we’re hearing from many is that perhaps we should license not just newswriting but news reading too. Then we’ll all have one way of disseminating and receiving information and there will be no room for that awful “interpretation” stuff.

Will the real idiot please step forward? Or will one of you great informed, never-misled, “professional” journalists out there who never tire of pointing out the uninformed and misinformed nature of the “great unwashed”- those getting their news from someone other than you and your corporate masters- seek out one of these “dumb guys” for an interview? Perhaps you can start in the Situation Room.