Friday, April 11, 2008

Newseum Opens in D.C.

An enlightening article by Ralph Peters:
Tells you a lot about the vanity and priorities of today's governing
and informational "elite," doesn't it? Ignore the blood, enshrine the
ink. A Pulitzer Prize outranks a Congressional Medal of Honor.

I don't really begrudge journalists their we-love-us monument.
Massive egos need a massive building (total of 643,000 sq. ft.,
including a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant). But isn't something
fundamentally wrong when there's plenty of donor funding available
for a museum glorifying those who cover our wars, but not a cent
to tell the stories of those who fight them?

Having served in our Army for more than two decades, followed
by a decade's adjunct membership in the media, I have to tell my
new colleagues to get a grip: You are not the story.

Let's be honest: Journalists are parasites. Whether war correspondents
or metro-desk editor, we live off the deeds and misdeeds of others. They
do, we tell. Without the soldiers, cops and firemen (or the politicians,
terrorists and criminals), there ain't no stories.

1 comment:

Sean Hackbarth said...

And with no one to write there aren't any stories. It's called symbiosis.