Some recognize the news media machine as another branch of the government because they can comment and criticize certain policies and influence the running of government. This may all seem nice and great on paper but how many times have you seen a government official being asked a tough question where the politician actually answers directly? You know what I mean: the reporter asks how the politician's plan will prevent job loss in sector A, the politician starts explaining that the plan is a great plan for the economy in sector B..... then the reporter moves on to the next question--> the result is that the question was not answered and the politician presented a polished prop to distract the public from the real issues. Another situation is when you see the politician walking down the hallway and several reporters are asking questions and the politician smiles, waves and continues on his walk without giving any answer.
Now I agree that many questions fielded by many reporters can be downright silly. I don't mean the kinds of questions like: "If you were a vegetable, which vegetable do you think you would be?".... these questions may seem silly on the surface but if you want to know a politician in a more personal sense to understand what kind of individual he or she may be.... well the vegetable question can be quite clever and revealing with a mixture of light-heartedness in the mix. No, the foolish question would be more along the lines of: "How many concessions are you willing to make during the negotiations with country X on the issue Y?" This would be along the lines of a foolish question.... and if you don't understand why, stay out of news gathering business until you can understand.
What I would like to see though is that the intelligent questions are answered in a quick fashion. The fun and clever question like the vegetable one can wait during more pleasant occasions. For the serious intelligent ones, they should not be dodged. After all, the current government is there at our request, they are in a manner of speaking our employees, they answer to us. Would the McDonald employee be allowed to ignore his boss when there is an intelligent question being asked about his performance? So why should the politician ignore his boss: the population? The news reporter should have the same access as a government auditor and do a little bit of auditing on whatever department suits his fancy. This means, the reporter can enter the board room of the political machinery while they discuss how to proceed on issue A or B, they can enter the politician's office and take notes. Naturally, the reporter should have this access as well in each of the previously mentioned branches of politics including the bureaucratic sphere.
Extreme? Only if you believe that the population is not educated enough to understand the issues. But I am presenting an extreme, because I would rather have us edge towards that direction to a better middle ground because I see how we are moving towards the opposite extreme, one where the reporter is irrelevant and only a puppet to the government. Where the government's public declarations replace the news investigator.
Notice where the budgets are being cut in the news gathering industries, notice the laziness of many journalists who won't verify the public affairs department's claims on any issue, notice the apathy of the people as they watch and accept politicians who refuse to answer a question except through sophistry and rhetoric.
Conclusion to this week is along the lines that if we wish to see a government divided in multiple branches so that power is not concentrated upon any one branch, we must find ways to strengthen the branches in their independance to each other while at the same time becoming more compliant to its democratic citizenry who feed it. What is going on in a very slow fashion is that the different branches are cross-polinating with each other and are getting ready to bite the hand that feeds them: us. Personally, I won't mind either scenario if I get a nice position within the government structure; but if we want to improve our democratic institutions, we must wake up.
Are you awake?
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