Alternative facts, lying and outright creating “false news” is becoming a theme of this administration. 

I’ll accept that there was some confusion on Ms Conway’s part as the two bad guys were nicknamed The Bowling Green Terrorists or something like that. But there was no massacre. 

Considering the White House Spokesman is demanding accountabilty and responsibility for reporting facts, there had better be some comment from Ms Conway correcting her error. 

I’m not sure why this question popped into my head this morning as I was walking the dog.  I usually get up between 5:00 and 5:15 and go right out into the morning for Bruno’s 1 mile walk.  It takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how many fun things Bruno finds to smell.

In any event, yesterday morning, as I passed by the end of the bed, I hit my right knee on a bench that rests along the bed’s footer.  It reminded me of a file cabinet I used to have in my bedroom when I lived at my parent’s house.  It was one of those two drawer units you could buy at K-Mart (we didn’t have Office Max back then).  You remember, the one with the lock in the upper right hand corner that you pushed in with your thumb and the key that you would proudly put on your key chain because now you had a place to “secure” all your secret papers.

After a while, that thing would get really packed.  Years of tax returns and their supporting documents, insurance policies, union papers, auto loan books, years of monthly checking account statements and the cancelled checks, etc etc.  And, if you weren’t careful and loaded the bottom draw with as much garbage as in the top drawer, it would tip over when you opened the top drawer.

Now, I have a HUGE file cabinet.  It holds all the stuff above PLUS.  But, it’s not real.  It’s virtual.  In the cloud.  And it holds EVERYTHING: photos, videos, emails, owners manuals pulled off the web, employment packages, bank statements, cell phone records – essentially, anything you can scan / digitize and upload.

As I looked around the house today I realized we don’t have one file cabinet.  We do have two of those smaller, hand carried, file storage tubs.  You know, the ones you can carry out to the kitchen table and then push back up onto the shelf in the back of the closet.  But, those are really for documents that are used on a more or less “daily” (well, monthly) basis.

Here is when we return to my original thought.  Are file cabinets now obsolete and going the way of the compact disc player??

People in Washington are protest marching with a partial anthem that includes, “I disagree with the outcome of the election”.  What???  What is the disagreement?  One side won, the other side lost.  Just because you don’t like the outcome, and just because you say you aren’t going to sit there quietly, doesn’t mean the election results aren’t what they are.  Am I missing something?

Nothing better than cool weather, lots of rain and a sharp lawnmower blade to make your Saturday morning. 

There has become a rather large misnomer about “the media”. The members of this industry are alleged to be liars, cheats, ultra-left wing radical liberals, etc. etc., spreading all types of false stories, false news, unsupported allegations, etc. about the target of their story piece.

Certainly, there can be an argument that “the media” has slanted views and its reporting is biased towards supporting whatever view it holds. It would be cliché to suggest all you must do is watch CNN and Fox News and you get a clear idea of what bias is in “the media”. How easy is it to see Sean Hannity is totally a Trump person while Rachel Maddox is so far in the other corner? (By the way, I remember when CNN and Fox were actually news channels. Now they appear to be tabloid shows. I miss those 24 worldwide news broadcasts’ when one could almost be like the CIA and know what was going on around the world at any time.)

We seem to have lost our understanding of exactly what “the media” is supposed to do. And, perhaps we also misunderstand the difference between “the media” and journalists. We also seem to have forgotten there is a big difference between a reporter and someone who simply reads the news at dinner time from a teleprompter. I would dare say, a journalist is someone like Anderson Cooper, a guy who gets out in the field and does his reporting and moderates panels for in studio discussion, while a media person is someone like Megan Kelly (both of whom I thoroughly enjoy watching and of whom, I think, bring a great amount of respectability to their field) who, more or less, host panels and picks apart particular topics arising during the day.

I am hoping the large news organizations acknowledge that we have, for the most part, lost faith in their ability to bring us the facts. “Fair and balanced” means you are presenting a “side” of the story. I don’t want a “side”. I want the facts unaltered by the media’s interpretation of what those facts mean.

Accountability needs to be restored. Hear the argument, check the facts, report accordingly and hold those who spread “false news” and non-fact checked articles or broadcasts accountable for their actions. Self-police yourself, news folks. Or, we might just not watch / listen to you any longer.

I think we are all hoping that these large news organizations look inwards and seek to determine what it is they need to do to regain our respect and regain their credibility. Perhaps a lot of “just the facts, mam” reporting is what we all really yearn for.

Totally “de-decorated” yesterday. It seems like we just out the stuff up. The house looked so dark this morning, both inside and out, when I took Bruno for his walk.  Major bummer having to go back to work today. Thank goodness it’s a short week. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/opinion/dont-let-trump-speak-for-workers.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share