the slow death of journalism continues

Whilst I have been outspoken critic of the English-speaking media in the past, even with its rare dalliances with quality, this past week will serve as testament to the death of journalism.

Amongst a bevy of quality newsworthy items, including the curious story of U.S. President Barack Obama massive escalation of the Afghanistan initiative, an obvious failure to uphold the "potential" that saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, the media's attention has been fixated on the extra-marital affair of a professional athlete. While some consider such events as "compelling", if not simply "intriguing", it is both a sad statement of the moral depths society as sunk that it finds such a event "newsworthy" and affirmation of downward spiral of the media.

As traditional media outlets are rife with financial failure, "citizen journalism" has stormed the hill and corrupted everything in its wake. The era, now mindlessly absorbed with one-hundred-forty character bit slabs of "information" dished out in vapid acronyms as well as a polluted blogging world that lacks standards or common protocols, faces a daunting task with respects to educational standards.

Recalling the opening sequence of Director Серге́й Бондарчук "War and Peace" where the narrator notes, "My idea, in its entirety, is that if vile people unite and constitute a force, then decent people are obliged to do likewise; just that", I cannot help but question how far society must fall before action is taken to improve education. Failure to do so and generations from now people look back on a fallen society.