1. In 1996, Bill Clinton, signed into Law, The Telecommunications Bill , with the stated objective , to provide for a pro competitive, de – regulatory environment, opening information technologies and services to all Americans. In actuality, it opened the airwaves, printed content and video, to major corporate players; Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch & GE, to name a few. This giveaway was the beginning of ” printing and airing all the news the media executives deemed acceptable for public consumption”. We entered an era of declining investigative reporting and news became entertainment.
2. NY TIMES. 12/29/12 A Newspaper on Cape Cod Apologizes for Veteran Reporter’s Fabrications. Karen Jeffrey had been a reporter at THE CAPE COD TIMES SINCE 1981. After the last article she wrote , Editors became suspicious about the people detailed in her articles. They checked social media, only to discover that dozens of articles included references to people who did not exist. Karen Jeffrey , though coming from a small town, is not an isolated case. REMEMBER JUDITH MILLER @ The New York Times! HER STORIES OF SADDAM HUSSEIN’S BIO CHEMICAL WEAPONS WERE inaccurate or simply false.
3. To increase the likelihood of ” good investigative reporting” scan the graduates of THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL: THE STABILE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM. Under the guidance of Prof. Walt Bogdanich, in 2008 a group of his students worked for 15 weeks, investigating the retiree benefits at the LIRR. The NY TIMES, published a front page article, revealing that 97% of LIRR retirees receive disability benefits. THE ENSUING SCANDAL GOT MAJOR ATTENTION. Ongoing investigations continue.
4. Taking a page from the NY Times, year end reflection: From Adrienne Rich 1983,” DREAMS BEFOR WAKING” , What would it mean to live in a city whose people were changing despair into Hope? You yourself must change it. What would it feel like to know your Country was changing? You yourself must change it. Though your life may be arduous new and unmapped and strange, what would it feel like to stand on the first page of THE END OF DESPAIR? HAPPY NEW YEAR!