6/08/2018

Goodbye Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain Peabody 2014b

I'm really saddened this morning about the news of the death of Anthony Bourdain.  I am amazed at Bourdain's precise descriptions, his phrases and his storytelling.  He was a first-class writer. And he did it with a rock and roll attitude.

In many ways his life story was similar to mine. I also worked in restaurant kitchens in the 1970s and 1980s. We were both creatures of our times and like him, I also enjoyed experimenting with mind-altering substances.

From Bourdain's writing I learned that there are no boring subjects, just boring descriptions. He could make a simple sandwich sound significant.

If you watched any of his shows and listened to his dialog you could tell those were his words. He agonized over them. He nurtured them. He had a great writing style that I'd love to emulate.

Thanks for taking us along to all those parts unknown. Goodbye Anthony Bourdain.
Photo credit: Peabody Awards / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

6/07/2018

Reporters Acting as Stenographers

I'm sick of White House reporters acting as stenographers and simply repeating the administration's lies verbatim. Instead, they should take every statement, prove or disprove it before reporting on it. If it's true and verifiable then great. If not, then report the lie, not the statement. Actually, this should be common practice for every journalist covering any government official.

The first duty of a reporter is to the citizens of our country. You don't serve citizens by letting the ludicrous lies of Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Sanders and all the Trumps go unchallenged.

The people of this administration are criminals. In the past, reporters could simply report what the administration said. Reporters could be relatively sure the White House wasn't lying with the goal of perpetrating a fraud on the American people.  Not any more.

Part of the problem is the competition that drives every reporter to be first, without regard for the truth. This behavior has to stop.  It's more important to be right, then be first. Real, good journalists have a lot of work to do to regain public trust.  They can begin by not telling us the administration's lies but by telling us about the lies.