Confessions of an old journalist

 Sam Smith – You may not have noticed but my contributions to Undernews have significantly declined since Donald Trump took office. I’ve noticed this but didn’t want to mention it because it was a sign of deterioration on my part, hardly something to write about.

But lately I’ve been reflecting upon the fact that I’m not alone in my failures. My whole trade is dramatically underperforming, and without significant signs of awareness or embarrassment.

So I thought I would take a look at my problems from a journalistic  perspective and see whether this opened any new windows. I do so with the full realization that I’m just one of many who have not yet figured out what to do in a way that produces positive change in today’s America. Here then are some factors that come to mind:

My age: I’m still 10 years younger than Walter Bingham, who according to Jerusalem Post is at 97 the oldest journalist still practicing these days. Broadcaster Barbara Walters, who died at 93,  lived six more years than I have so far.  But on the other hand, the average age of journalists around the world is about 39.

While there’s a strong argument here that I’ve gone beyond my time, it is also true that I am, for example, more comfortable dealing with history as well as just what happened in the past few days. Without history, there’s no way of telling how much has changed and how much our reaction to it has changed as well.

For example, there is a stunning lack of reaction to the moral madness of the Trump regime, part of which due to a lack of historical memory and how different we once were. And there are other factors:

Facts and Logic -  One of the traditional roles of journalists is to convert myths and lies into reality. After a while, doing this  becomes more of an intellectual challenge and less a moral matter, placing facts over emotion. Facts, however, no longer play the major role in our  discussions that they once did.

The weakness of Democrats – I can’t think of a time when the Democratic Party has been so quiet and ineffective in the face of evil as during the Trump era.  The Democratic Party is weaker than any time I can recall, and my memory includes the thoughts of my father who worked for Franklin Roosevelt and goes back 75 years to my own introduction to politics as a 12-year old envelope stuffer in a Philadelphia campaign that ended 69 years of Republican rule.

Where are the young? I grew up and was active through periods that brought us things like civil rights, concern for the environment, and women’s equality. During those years was a broad assumption that older Americans were part of the problem, but not the young. Now, age no longer seems to be as big a factor. From a political standpoint this makes a lot of difference. Where are the young pushing us?

The problem of getting anything done – Under the Trump regime not only is there major evil,  there is little discussion of alternatives. Trump et al not only take up all our time but our visions and hopes as well.

The media as part of the problem – The media has basically let the Trump regime define reality. While a media version of reality can have plenty of faults it was far better in the past than during the current disaster.

Basically,  we are increasingly accepting the gravely distorted myth of the Trump world over our former favorite and competitive sources of tangled reality such as media, business and religion. Even false reality is no longer what it once was.

I apologize for not coming up with better answers but we live in a time when even good solutions have little clout.

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