Where Is The Real News?

What do we do now? It has gotten to the point when I avoid the news, I do a cursory run down of all the Internet reports courtesy of Slate, OpEdNews, Huffington Post, New York Times, and Washington Post stories. I don't read the entire story, I just don't have the stomach for it anymore in this new year. I read the headlines, I visit Jack and Jill Politics or The Root to get the real story from a non-corporate perspective. I turned off MSNBC (still love Rachel Maddow) and CNN (even though there are a few there I like). Perhaps it is burnout from the endless news or the fact that only a few stories get reported. Thinking Rod Blagojevich, Burris, Madoff,etc.

Take Nancy Grace. I could skip her show. I don't watch it. Every evening last December when I would finally have a moment to myself and decide to catch up on a little mindless television, I would flip through the channels and there she would be with her false outrage over little Caylee Anthony. Now don't get me wrong, any crime to any child is horrendous and even more so if it is committed by the mother, but come on Nancy. Little white girls are not the only ones news worthy, there are missing black women, brown women, black and brown children. Don't believe me? Check out the tremendous efforts of What About Our Daughters to bring these stories to the forefront. And then where was her outrage over the obvious police killing of Oscar Grant? And the fact that the Oakland BART is notorious for killing black men? Where is the outrage?

Mainstream, corporate media just tries to instill fear and get people riled up. They tried with President-elect Obama but guess what, Barack Hussein Obama will be taking the oath of office on Tuesday, January 20th anyway. People turned to the Internet, blogs, online magazines, citizen reporting, and other avenues to get the word out, find out the real deal, and make decisions. The same thing is happening, slowly, with the real truth of the bailout, the Bush years, and the depression we find ourselves navigating in 2009.

No, I decided that there is too much living and not enough time to get sucked into the corporate media news thing. I read the highlights this past week and even this morning, I want to be aware of what is happening out there, but I'm smart enough to draw my own conclusions, I don't need a pundit for that. Even my Sunday morning routine is different now. I caught David Gregory this past Sunday on Meet the Press, he is no Tim Russert, God rest his soul. I'm a little tired of Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussant and their talks about lower-income black people. I work with at-risk black teens and most of them are studying hard and just need access. I'll feel better about what he says when he also talks to upper income white people about their responsibility to open the doors of opportunity. That's for another article. Anyway, I just couldn't watch him this past Sunday, January 11th, and turned it off.

I'm hopeful for the day of real, investigative journalism, the likes my father enjoyed, until then, it will be the blogs and independent newspapers like the the St. Louis American and St. Louis Beacon. Looking for real news.