It should be made clear once and for all, no argument, that reporters interviewing each other is not news. It’s not good journalism. It’s not reporting. It’s not even good media. It is mostly cheap and easy. That’s why we see so much of it. Spoiled, lazy reporters don’t have to put out much effort to interview other spoiled, lazy reporters. Most of the “news interview ” shows now are either reporters interviewing each other, or reporters interviewing lawyers (or lawyers who think they’re reporters interviewing reporters, or other lawyers). What a mess!

This of course comes, in part, from the fact that less than ten big media companies own over 90 percent of the media outlets in the country. (That has been reported here before as The Media is Going to Hell.) There are a number of good reporters out there doing good reporting, but they’re hard to find amid the smarthy babble that is being passed off as reporting now.

Even most broadcasters would agree that to hear Nancy Grace whine and opine her way through another bottom-feeder, exploitive, heralding of proud ignorance session like she frequently conducts should be an embarrassment to everybody. Fact is, most all of the other mouth holes on television are doing the same thing. They are just doing it with not quite the same level of classless babble that Nancy exudes.

A perfect example is the recent Congressman Foley affair. Why wouldn’t we believe that the White House chose the lesser of two evils and dropped that little bombshell to take the heat off of the Bob Woodward book story. Woodward’s book threatened to call the entire country’s attention to the fact that the administration is a disheveled mess, that the war in Iraq was a big mistake, and that the Secretary of Defense is pretty much a pompous screw up. Why wouldn’t the White House rather sacrifice a gay, Congressman and even the Speaker of the House, rather than blast a hole in the entire GOP “Secure Our Nation”policy fence?

Reporters, of course, jumped at the opportunity. Never mind that about 20 young American boys, probably mostly aged 19 or in their 20’s, were violently killed in Iraq for not much reason while this was all being reported. A Congressman was having internet sex with a sixteen year old Page!

Don’t get us wrong. The Foley thing was a serious abuse of power, and of adulthood, and needed attention. The problem is that it got loads of media attention because it was cheap and easy sex talk. Most of the media could click their tongues over it for hours with little work on their part. The bigger problem is that it got almost ALL of the meaningful attention. It distracted from what would have been hours of examination of the charges in the Woodward book. That examination will not happen now, and the administration happily knows that.

In fact the liberal Air America Radio fell right into the trap. There was so much tongue clicking over there it sounded like one of those Irish tap dance teams. Meanwhile across the media, about the only ones talking about poor Bob Woodward were the usual parade of starchy boy, bow tie, blow dry, bull-builders that the GOP dispatches to attack the source of any criticism of the Bush administration.

Obviously sex sells more than international violence, misplaced power, chaotic war, and insane leadership.

We have previously reported on this site that good journalism is dead. There are some signs of life. Occasionally we get a breath of fresh air like Anderson Cooper. The thing is, he can do it because he is so rich and powerful his bosses don’t dare mess with him. He also doesn’t have to waste time like some other reporters trying to become rich and powerful. As a result he can spend some time trying to look out for the interest of the poor and disempowered in our world. ( He’s also not lazy.)

Right wing pontificators have frequently said that America is falling. They basically blame that on gays and the Clintons. If America falls it will be in part because of greedy, selfish, lazy reporting.

(A Note: Fritz is available for other reporters to interview. Fritz does print and radio for free, not television. It would take so much hairspray and cosmetics for Fritz to appear on television it would cost more than you can afford. Fritz also believes that television is so screwed up no one can save it.)