The situation in America is, to a great extent, due to the elimination of investigative

[LittleApple81]

reporting.

Corporations own us, especially the media. We are never supposed to know what is going on while they take the country to the cleaners.

All this hullabaloo now is because a Democrat is coming into the presidency, and I bet they will blame him for anything that falls down the pike from before he even appeared in the scene. If McCain would have won, you would not hear anything.

[Horse with no Name]

1. I remember when REAL journalists used to sit in those big chairs at 6 and 10 pm

With REAL reporters on the streets bringing our news to us instead of the Barbie and Ken dolls that currently occupy the oxygen chamber.

I remember watching this unfold as a kid and remember being in such AWE that such a man existed out there. He was a hero. There is nobody else that does what these brave men and women used to it. The world is a more dangerous place without heroes like this in our midst.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bolles
Don Bolles (July 28, 1928 - June 13, 1976) was an American investigative reporter whose murder in a bombing is linked to the Mafia.

On June 2, 1976, Bolles left behind a short note in his office typewriter explaining he would meet with an informant, then go to a luncheon meeting, and be back about 1:30 p.m. He was responsible for covering a routine hearing at the State Capitol, and planned to attend a movie with second wife Rosalie Kasse that night in celebration of their eighth wedding anniversary. The source promised information on a land deal involving top state politicians and possibly the mob. A wait of several minutes in the lobby of the Hotel Clarendon (now known as the Clarendon Hotel) was concluded with a call for Bolles himself to the front desk, where the conversation lasted no more than two minutes. Bolles then exited the hotel, his car in the adjacent parking lot just south of the hotel on Fourth Avenue.

Apparently, Bolles started the car, even moving a few feet, before a remote detonated bomb consisting of six sticks of dynamite taped to the underside of the car beneath the driver's seat was detonated, the impact shattering his lower body, opening the driver's door, and leaving him mortally wounded while half outside the vehicle. Both legs and one arm were amputated over a ten day stay in St. Joseph's Hospital, the eleventh day was the reporter's last. However, his last words after being found in the parking lot the day of the bombing were: "They finally got me. The Mafia. Emprise. Find John (Harvey Adamson)."

The exact motive for the crime remains a mystery, but many speculate the Mafia holds responsibility, as a large concentration of Bolles' work involved organized crime, even going as far as to run a story naming over 200 known mafia members operating in the state of Arizona. Some suspected that Kemper Marley, a man who made millions in the liquor distribution business in Arizona in a partnershp with Cindy McCain's father and fraternal uncle, was behind the Bolles murder, but Phoenix police could find no evidence linking him with the crime, and he continued conducting business in Arizona until meeting his own death, cancer-related, on June 25, 1990 in La Jolla, California.

The incident sparked an investigation in the months that followed, known as the Arizona Project, with Bob Greene assuming the head and drawing nearly 40 reporters and editors from 23 newspapers including The Milwaukee Journal and Newsday. Note: The Bob Greene who led the Don Bolles investigation was not the Bob Greene from the Chicago Tribune. He was Robert W. Greene, of Newsday.

[KharmaTrain]

2. It's More Like Independent Journalism

Very little credit is given the folks at McClatchy News service who have broken a ton of stories over the past 8-years...a small company that hussles their asses off...compared to an AP who feels entitled to the front page and will put out there whatever they feel...especially material that sells to their clients. News tailored to the bottom line.

There are many good journalists out there...most have found their way to the internet since the corporate media has a big hold on both the control of information and what information we see/hear. It's easier for them to cover a gossip story...most of these people live on their phones and blackberrys...and they're more interested in their social status than ruffling feathers. If they play the game, they get to go to the top drinkie-drinkie parties and get the bylines and teevee face time. It's easier for them to do it with yet another look at the Clenis than it is to investigate the real corruption and crimes that have gone on...it just isn't sexy and you can't get people to bump their gums on those topics. But just mention "Clinton" and watch the feeding frenzy begin.

We've seen what the netroots did to the print media...I still hold hope that soon all that energy, creativity and money could go to reinventing what we see on the teevee and hear on the radio as well.