Shattered Glass

It's amazing how appropriate people's names are sometimes. Glass, a young reporter for the New Republic, was caught cooking at least 27 of his 41 published features. He "shattered" the myth of objective, factual journalism when he knowingly tells a class, "you can check against objective facts, but not against the word of the writer". Although any reputable magazine or paper does check facts, to protect themselves against libel or invasion of privacy, there are some things, obviously lots of things, that cannot be checked. In fact, the New Republic was fastidious, running each story through dozens of fact checkers and editors. So, what about the NY Times? The Washington Post? NBC? AP? What makes them any different?
When Hillary Clinton spoke about "the vast right-wing conspiracy" everyone laughed at the notion of smoky rooms and Skull & Bones handshakes (which I'm sure did take place). What she really referred to is the unspoken agenda of a huge block of people who act in concert without any central plan. These trends definitely occur in the press and now, even hard facts and austere publications are up for grabs. In these days, when the most revered of our institutions, like the Catholic church, and the self proclaimed Prince of Pop are lambasted.... what do we turn to? Oh yes, the internet.... no wonder things are crumbling even faster... word's out.
But, we still need lots of improvement. Although my twelve year old son gets most of his news from the international press over the internet, most adults I know are still in the dark ages, drinking up what the major news organizations are offering up. I watch it just so I can understand why most of the country is so backwards and stupid.