Remember newspapers? Those morning and evening delights that told us about our world, near and far? I do. I also remember when the there was a Journal AND a Sentinel. I wailed at the folly of one paper owning both and correctly surmised (anyone and everyone could have predicted it) they would morph into one and eventually self destruct without the competetiveness of two reporting staffs. What I didn't expect was the wholesale gutting of competent writing in an effort to cut costs and increase ad sales. And worse, because the very same company that owns the local paper also owns the major television station and several radio stations in the city, access to real reporting is severly limited to what the current owners and editor consider the "news." Where is this going, you ask?

Becasue I travel a fair amount I get to compare "news" from a few disparate sources both within the US and Overseas. I felt as though I could never get a decent world view from the second hand re-prints that show up in the Journal-Sentinel two days after I've read them in another paper, but I looked forward to filling in the local blanks whenever I returned to MKE. This past trip I have seen the consolidation of local urban and suburban news (and I am using that term in this sentence facetiously) deteriorate into a series of paragraphs usually describing inane events, i.e. bake sales, purse snatching, bike thefts, while issues affecting the life of residents goes un-reported, un-noticed and apparently un-missed. It depresses me to think residents do not care enough to complain to this 1984-ish entity about their responsibility to the community as a whole and the residents of the varied segments within our metropolitan area.

In another depressing turn of events, I remember a friend telling me of the sudden retirement of the only local TV newsman I had any faith in, Mr. Gousha (?) I also remember the guessing game popular last year as to the "real" reason for his retirement. After watching the WTMJ 10 PM news the past two weeks, it has become painfully evident as to the whys of his departure. The "new direction" of the news was simply to forego news and air bombastic non-news fillers, calling them "the news." I am impressed that Mr. Gousha had the integrity to leave. I wish him well and hope he realizes there are a few of us who will miss his steady delivery and accurate priority assessments and story positioning. The current programing makes me nauseous. One might as well watch Entertainment Tonight. The truly depressing fact is that a huge segment of the audience does watch both and are entertained by both. Thank you, but I can find my own forms of entertainment and do not want it on a news program. Inform me, don't try to scare, titillate, or make me cry over (or allow me to feel superior to) someone else's bad luck, "just the facts please, Ma'am." But I know it is not going to happen. The rest of the world is right... we deserve the government we have elected... local and national. Sad.