Work From Home Couple

Journalists aren’t always at their best on election night. Remember the disaster that was election coverage in 2000, when the media kept announcing winners and then recanting?

And this year? Why on earth did CNN think we needed holograms. And why did CNN think we needed a hologram of the guy from the Black Eyed Peas? Did the powers that be think the guy who helped come up with My Humps had some amazing political insight to share with the world?

Working from home gives my wife and I time to catch a bit more of the cable news shows than is probably healthy. And when your 1-year-old son is up at 5 a.m., you can’t help but flip on the TV for a bit. I’m sorry to say, there are several “journalists” out there who are an embarrassment to the profession.

Let’s start with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who recently said that part of his job was to help make sure that Barack Obama has a successful presidency. Now, I voted for Obama. I even have my Obama sign still stuck proudly in my front lawn. But it’s no journalist’s job to make sure Obama has a successful presidency. A journalist’s job is to ask the tough questions, no matter who is in office.

Then there’s Fox News, of course, the biggest pile of junk on TV. This morning (And, yes, I watch even though I hate the channel. I don’t know why, either.) Fox & Friends’ anchor Steve Doocy was moderating a panel of four distinguished pundits, a panel that included an incredibly lame comedian whose name I’ve already forgotten and Chicago’s own Jerry Springer. That Springer was the voice of reason is a bit frightening. Anyway, during the discussion, Doocy compared Barack Obama accidentally referring to the 57 states of the United States to Sarah Palin thinking that Africa was a country. Doocy said the two were basically the same, and that Palin has received far more criticism.

This is, of course, ridiculous, even for Fox News. Obama misspoke. He certainly knows that we have 50 states. (Although, we could probably stand to lose a few of them.) Palin, on the other hand, actually thought that Africa was a country. News flash: It’s a continent. That’s not a slip of the tongue. That’s a slip of the brain, far worse.

Sometimes when I watch the TV news shows, or even our own local news, which, here in Chicago, is dumber than dumb, I’m ashamed to say that I, too, am a reporter.

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