Journalism is a noble calling -- or at least that's what so many of us believed throughout our careers.
We were society's watchdogs, democracy's infantry, doing the dirty work of ferreting out the truth about what was really going on in our government, our society. We took no prisoners, threw our verbal bricks at windows on both sides of street.
Or so we thought.
Of course, that wasn't my experience for the most part. The watchdogs were our bosses, making sure we didn't go too far. Only the truly talented had the right to exercise the First Amendment to any real degree. The rest of us sneaked in the truth, if we could, between the lines the same way good journalists at Pravda did.
Some of us with an excess of passion also formed an underground. We pushed the rules of corporate journalism to the edges and took our chances. Sometimes we went too far, sometimes we succumbed to alcoholism, or gave up and joined the fraternity of public manipulators in the world of public relations experts, lobbyists and political staff.
The collapse of newspapers in particular and news media in general that's now under way has robbed even the most diehard journalists I know of all illusion. The game is up. At my former paper, four great journalists have quit in just a few weeks -- all for public relations where they will earn a much better living, have more fun and salve their wounds knowing there is life after your dream is over.
Soon, a friend said recently, there will be no journalists left for all the PR types to manipulate.
And that's the point of this: Manipulation of the media is far more sophisticated than the media and that's been true for a long, long time. It's a big reason our government at all levels is doing such a poor job of serving the people and such a good job of serving itself.
Look at the billions being poured into the presidential campaign and the billions more into local and state elections. Where does that money come from and where does it go?
The answers are obvious: From special interests, to a vast political apparatus of campaign consultants and operatives, many of whom are actually paid by taxpayers to work on the staffs of elected officials. Add in the armies of public information manipulators on the staff of every government agency and corporation and you begin to get the picture.
This is real government. It works full-time to beguile and mislead the public. It sets the agenda for 90 percent of the political and governmental coverage you see in newspapers and TV.
It's why we talk about health care and education and immigration policy and public safety but never really do anything about them. It's why we get distracted by abortion and gay marriage when no law will stop women from getting rid of unwanted fetuses or stop gays who truly love each other from sharing a committed relationship.
This is what I believe and have believed a long time even as I fought in some small way to shed light in the darkness. The internet is changing things. A lot of people are speaking up and beginning to be heard. In the next few years their voices in all their diversity will become louder and more important. The pieces are all in place and the incredible success of Google, Myspace, Flickr, Facebook, Youtube shows just how viral and virile the internet is.
We need to apply those technologies to the reinvention of news in a way that empowers us to be informed and think for ourselves despite the blitzkrieg of propaganda.
I've only been free from the daily grind of putting out a newspaper under extremely difficult circumstances for a month but I no longer see myself as a failed idealist doing all that he can to make a difference.
But I see the possibility of real change. And the power to bring that about belongs to all of us, to get over our defeatism, our apathy, our narrow definitions of what matters and see that 90 percent of us share similar values. We want a decent life for our families, opportunity for our kids, safety in our homes and on our streets...
I don't have to tell you what's really important...it's nothing more than to lead our lives as we see fit without hurting other people, to speak our minds freely and to find happiness.
If I sound like a kid again, it's because I feel like one. As I've gotten out in the community more, I'm meeting a lot of people who have been working hard at this and doing it for a long time. You can laugh all you want but I believe the time is right, the issues are right for a quiet revolution of the silenced majority to take back this country -- starting with this city.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
Ron Kaye:
I love you! I find your comments to be so stimulating and so inspiring. I agree with you that the time is right..it feels as though we are on the verge on a revolution where we will indeed take our city back. I would love to hear ideas of how we can create the "big tent" that Ron had written so eloquently about.
But I see the possibility of real change. And the power to bring that about belongs to all of us, to get over our defeatism, our apathy, our narrow definitions of what matters and see that 90 percent of us share similar values. We want a decent life for our families, opportunity for our kids, safety in our homes and on our streets...
I don't have to tell you what's really important...it's nothing more than to lead our lives as we see fit without hurting other people, to speak our minds freely and to find happiness.
If I sound like a kid again, it's because I feel like one. As I've gotten out in the community more, I'm meeting a lot of people who have been working hard at this and doing it for a long time. You can laugh all you want but I believe the time is right, the issues are right for a quiet revolution of the silenced majority to take back this country -- starting with this city.
Yes, you have it right. LET'S GO FOR IT!!!!
ps: I love you, too. T
Society's watchdogs are being neutered. Large media will swallow up and muzzle the truth for the political benefit of the powerful. This is their intent. It is the only way for the current media model to work. Government and large companies will pay top dollar for propangada placed in the media. Large media will publish that info for the public to absorb. Only a thin veneer of truth will be published, as a claim to authenticity. It is the desire of government and large companies to control popular opinion. This is how they achieve it.
A new media model must be pursued. The Internet revolution has shown us the way. Social networking has shown us the way. Actually, iTunes has shown us the way. Also, something called the "long tail" has shown us the way. These concepts are available with the assistance of the Internet. It is now within reach.
A new, news reporting model would work almost as local frachises. Reporters would be experts in their local community, and paid by piece. Like the Obama campaign or NPR, the news organization would be supported by donations or fundraisers. Periodic, small subscriber payments would be also requested. Some will pay more, probably as impulse buying. Many blog aggregates are run in this manner. Local news media should be the same.
Also, local advertising can be solicited by locals as another revenue source. Innovative Internet aggregating at the local level has largely been ignored (although Google has attempted it). It will probably take locals to convince local merchants to participate. But, if done right it would be successful.
I don't think that local news/journalism is over. The monetizing model probably needs to change. People will "subscribe" and pay for "small information pieces" that they really want (and presented in a manner that is fun... sorry, but the LATimes and LA Daily News does not do this.). So, request payment in smaller pieces and also for important reasons. This is where monetizing of news should go.
In addition, don't look to "Media" to understand how best to apply the Internet. The utter failure of TimeWarner to successfully integrate the best of AOL is a true indicator. Look to a team of nerds, reporters, and artists.
If you want to see a good example of how to take back Los Angeles, then come to Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association meeting next Wednesday. Ron will be there too along with guest speaker, Wendy Greuel. Coalitions of residents' groups have formed in Council Districts 2 and 5 with the objective to endorse and support Council candidates to do (y)our bidding.
Here's an example of a really good social networking idea with a really bad implementation:
LA Daily News
How hot is it in your neighborhood?
Daily News
Article Last Updated: 05/16/2008 11:39:06 AM PDT
The Valley is supposed to be a sweltering miasma of heat this weekend. Temperatures could hit triple digits. We've created an interactive map that allows you to post the temperature in your neighborhood. All you have to do is click the 'Add' button located at the top right of the map. Under Title, enter the temperature, the time, date. Enter the address the temperature was recorded, click on the Detail tab to tell us how you're coping, then click Submit and you're done.
Today I met the TV reporter I will be interning for this summer. She's been in the business a long time and hasn't given up hope that objectivity, real research and adherence to the basic tenants will come back en vogue. But, she says, right now it's dismal (paraphrasing). I think it's a clear indication of your place among the best and most talented of the kinds of journalists I've always looked to for inspiration, Ron, in your claim that you were just one of "...the rest of us..." who tried to stick the truth in between the lines. I'd say you were part of the "truly talented" ones you reference in the previous line. Now, fortunately, we've got you on the Web every day. It looks like this blog is taking off, and I'm proud to be a regular reader.
12:24, That's an apt example of the intentional dumbing-down of the citizenry that the "new" Daily News is engaged in these days.
In fact, they've featured on the front-page a deliberately heart-tugging story about Richard Alarcon, one of the most radical MeCHAs on the City Council, who openly wants to use Calif. healthcare systems to treat for free all illegal immigrants from anywhere in Latin American, because "we're the capitol of Latinismo," and argued that those who want to impose borders aren't facing reality. (He made these comments and more at a huge mutli-national heatlhcare Conf. he hosted at City Hall a few months ago on Western Hemisphere Healthcare, conducted primarily in Spanish.)
The Alarcon featured him as an angel scaring up money for a pediatric trauma center in Northridge (largely by increasing traffic fines) in the name of his son who died 20 years ago. BUT what makes this so biased and hypocritical, he led the angry charge against Mission Hills Hospitals' relatively minor but urgently needed expansion, urged to do so by construction and SEIU unions that hadn't wrested what they wanted from the hospital; AND yet he championed the 5000-home Las Lomas, for which the lobbyist was someone closely connected to his council office. BOTH times personally attacking Distict CM Greig Smith.
Why else is Alarcon so dangerous to the city? See as one example a story in today's DN, about how "(Dep. Police Chief Michel) Moore Wants an Injunction Against the San Fers," a gang which he's explained, has terrorized the Pacoima area for many years, dealing drugs, terror and extortion for LaEME/ MExican Mafia. What does Alarcon say about this? He conducted a community meeting to challenge Moore, arguing that "the community is a lot more afraid of lowered property values and the police" resulting from the injunction, "than they are of the gangs."
What a low-life!!!
Tony Cardenas, head of the Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Gangs (who's waged a months-long and unseemly campaign against Laura Chick to remain in charge of "gang prevention" funds, with Janice Hahn his sidekick on the committee) agrees.
Bravo, Ron!!! You are such an inspiration, and your optimism is contageous!
Indeed, all politics is local and we have to begin by taking back our city (easier said than done). How do we wrest the power away from Mexico...is my question. We are in the middle of a turf war...just as the drug cartels on either side of the southern border are involved in a battle for turf. Our battle is with the millions of illegals and their generals (Villar, Alarcon, Reyes, Nunez, Cardenas, Huizar and Cedillo) who have been quietly waiting for critical mass to occur. Now that we are outnumbered and the balance of power has shifted...what do we do??? What do we do about the gerrymandered districts? What do we do about voter fraud? What do we do about the corrupt City Council?
Worst case scenario...what do we do if 20M illegals are granted amnesty? I shudder to think about it!
The 'silenced majority' can no longer be silent. We need to form a citizens coalition and march in the streets! The internet is a great source for information, but we need to become vocal! Any thoughts on how to go about it??? How about Ron Kaye for Mayor!
Daily News reports that someone called Rick Roca is leaving them to become a press Deputy for Jose Huizar. Seeing as how far the DN has sunk how fast since Ron left, this can't be all bad -- but exemplifies what he's talking about, with staff leaving he low-paying MSM which with a few exceptions pays closer to beg. teachers.
12:34: Good luck with your staying the course on the good fight of an honest, unbiased reporter, but I think you meant "tenets" not "tenants." (And when I advocate for lack of bias, I mean all around: liberals can be more bigoted than conservatives, and even meaner; and some are so willing to tar ALL politicians with the same brush as criminals and crooks that they're as bad as those who might as well be paid shills. Mariel Garza had an editorial during the Trevails of Antonio to the latter effect... Who's left at the DN who's good? Sometimes Kerry K, Bridget Johnson in Opinion, Sometimes Orlov but he's been biased s/t too, e.g, by CM's whispering in his ear about colleagues they don't like, and him writing that up as fact, unprofessional... Some NEW ones are just awful like the guy who wrote that Alarcon article about Northridge Trauma Ctr., complete with talk about angels from the grave.)
Take a look at some of these comments. How can we be expected to start a revolution with the likes of these people?
There are literally thousands of us white people out here who are not all about ridding the city of illegal immigrants. It would appear to me that we aren't united enough to take back our city.
The Gov. of Missouri just decreed tougher policies to persuade illegal immigrants to leave his state, pointing to California as the nightmare scenario if they don't. That's what we are, the hell the rest of the country doesn't want to become. More and more cities and counties have been doing this, now a whole state. Negative impact for us: He said, "They can go to the sanctuary cities that invite them," like us and S. F. So without a national policy to do the same, OUR situation just worsens.