Performing Poodles Everywhere (World without Watchdogs)

by Damozel | Discussing the torture memoranda which the ACLU have procured (discussed here), Glenn Greenwald discusses the culture of secrecy that has evolved in the executive branch---and how the press, the opposition party (the Dems, alas), and the various congressional committees have failed us miserably by failing to expose the administration's wrongdoing. (Salon)

The upshot is that the work of investigating crucial issues---'real journalism'---has shifted to whistleblowers and public interests are doing the work that those who are really charged with the responsibility are too corrupt, lazy, or incompetent to do.   In other words, the official watchdogs of democracy are shifting the burden to (1) people who either have to put their jobs on the line to provide the information the media can't be bothered to dig up; or (2) organizations such as the ACLU with small budgets and limited resources.

Which makes it doubly horrifying to watch the watchdogs of the press self-referentially referring to their own lack of diligence..with no intention of changing it.  They've turned into self-therapy groups that sit and discuss their own egregious failings in objectivity and diligence on the apparent theory that just pointing up the problem and asking pointed questions is the same thing as solving the problem.  In the political realm, the equivalent is listening to Democratic politicians complaining that the Democrats are spineless and then being equally spineless about CALLING THEM OUT.

I don't know what the solution is.  Maybe there isn't one.  But they need to be called out and called out and called out, till they stop thinking that they're getting by with it.  It isn't even a question of 'Who will watch the watchers'? 

They're not worth watching.

I thank God for BBC World.  It's certainly better than any US news show. But what about people who don't get BBC America?

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