There are 20 more at least, but I'll leave them for you.
As a member of the press, this is an area I have some expertise. However, one disclosure: my days of working for hard news media are few and far between. I've joined the money train. Yup, that's right: most of my work centers on photos taken for groups interracting on Capitol Hill with membes of the government. Is that a fancy way of saying I work for a bunch of lobbyists, and it's my job to make them and our leaders look good for the photos. Yup. And I make a fine good living doing it, so bug off. In fact, let's pause a moment and give thanks to God for lobbyists. All lobbyists. I work for democratic lobbyists, and republican lobbyists. I work for cancer lobbyist, and smoking lobbyist. I work for pro-choice lobbyist and pro-life lobbyist. I even work for other government groups that are putting a good spin on things for the public. I've done official state portraits of some of our "finest " government leaders. And swearing in ceremonies? Hah! You'll look like you are not about to puke on the Bible, I guarantee it. Walk into any Federal Office building across our fine nation and you'll see a portrait of a major government official. I did that! and (a hint) she looks GOOD.
I digress. I don't pretend to work for hard news agencies. I don't even pretend to work for soft news agencies. I work for the spin machine. I love it. I can afford what I want.
But CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time: who the hell do they work for?
I'd argue they do the same job I do, but that's not their mission.
During the Republican and Democratic Conventions last election, my mom called me and said, "Can you believe CNN has the nerve to have a stage right up front like that? I wonder what political favors they traded for that." I thought she had read one to many blogs. I was wrong.
Access in Washington means soft balling. Get too hard and you are blacklisted. Work for a publication that writes articles not in favor of who your trying to see, you are banned. No access means no news.
I speak from experience. Even in the soft world of news I cover, I sometimes work for a hard news publication. In this case, I was covering the (now X) president of Poland (a communist) meeting with Bush. The publication was an anti-communist daily out of Warsaw. With a gaggle of reporters, I was on my way into the Oval Office for the staged shot in the two chairs. As I headed down the hall..."We're sorry, we're out of room, you have to stay in the press office". The gaggle was smaller than average. There was plenty of room.
So, here's my list of what I hate about major news media:
1. Where the **** are the hard questions?
2. Who gives a damned about OJ or for that matter what Dog the Bounty Hunter said to his son in a private family convesation?
3. Why do reporters give equal weight to both sides of a debate, even when one side is nutty (ie, global warming).
4. Does shouting questions at the curve as people go by ever work?
5. Why do reporters find out good stuff, and then publish it in a book rather than the publications they are working for? Fewer people read their long, long, long books.
6. I don't need my news in a pie chart in pretty colors.
7. I don't want you to interview other reporters and their take on things. That's not news, that's filling the 24/7 cycle.
8. Not everything goes back to illegal immigration.
9. The well rehearsed response in a debate (or to a question) does not equal good debating skills or smarts. (She knew you going to ask the dumb question because you're to stupid to ask something fresh.)
10: a statement to the press is the beginning of a news story, not the news itself.
11. Trying to resond to criticism about not covering enough feel good Iraq stories is stupid. When a situation is crap, report that. Show us.
12. If you can't report outside the green zone because it's too dangerous, maybe that should tell you something.
13. Let families in peace when they are in the middle of the worse moment of their lives. I don't want to see someone interviewed who just lost their best friend. I know how they feel. Get the mic out of their face and **** off.
14. International news is not boring. Tell us what other countries think and are going through, please. The US isn't the center of the universe.
15. When a demonstration forms in a third world country, shouting "Death to Americans", perhaps it is not that spontaneous? Perhaps it is because the cameras are rolling? Perhaps that needs reported? Perhaps the entire demonstration is STAGED!?
16. I don't really care if demonstrators say it was 1 million people and police say it was 900,000 people. I care it was big, medium or small and who organized it and why. I care signs in an Iraqi demonstration are written in English?
17. It's cool to get into see the President. When you do, report that the questions were submitted in advance and that you could only ask what was submitted. I think that's important.
18. Submit questions that don't include, "what is your favorite room in the White House?" If you have 20 minutes to ask questions, he'll spend 18 answering that one.
19. "EEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!" is not news. Forgetting your name during a debate is.
20. Perhaps we could have known Bush was taking his foreign affairs lesson from a Saudi ambassador before the year 2006?
please feel free to ad to the list. I never, ever delete a thing. Be as mean as you want. Oh, and I forgot 21: Kids hanging nooses isn't front page material. It's kids hanging nooses. At the moment, I could use a good noose and a door knob, except I'm too damned tall.