It's Not What You Know, It's Who...

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

NBC announced this weekend that they have hired Jenna Bush Hager, one of George W's twin daughters,to do news stories for the Today Show. Apparently the 27-year-old school teacher from Baltimore will do one or two news stories a month, most probably with a focus on education.

And why not? She's young, attractive, and supposedly can string sentences together in a coherent manner - a skill that continuously evaded her father. Of course, Ms. Bush Hager didn't go to journalism school and has nothing that distinguishes her from more than one million other American teachers, many of whom have been working in the field far longer and have a broader understanding of the challenges and issues facing education in this day of shrinking state budgets.

But I say good for Jenna. She reportedly did not go begging for this prestigious gig, but was approached by NBC. Officials with the network were almost too quick to point out that this job was not offered with the prospect of lining up a future interview with her father. The network also said that she will not be doing any political stories - at least for the time being.

Jenna is not the first political child to swing into the limelight on daddy's coattails. Margaret Truman launched a singing career from the White House, and years later used her famous name to get started as a mystery writer. Elliott Roosevelt took a page from Margaret Truman Daniel and wrote a series of mysteries in which his First Lady mother, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the detective. Fun stuff all - except possibly for Margaret's singing!

When Elvis died in 1977, Rolling Stone dispatched a singularly unqualified 19-year-old Caroline Kennedy to Memphis to cover the funeral - and she issued a very professional account of the event. Caroline's cousin, Maria Shriver, took a slower and more professional approach to becoming a journalist. She earned her chops in the broadcast news business by beginning at a local television station in Philadelphia, and then worked her way through the system and eventually became a national correspondent for NBC.

Jenna, do your best and enjoy the privileges that life has heaped upon you. Hiring you was a corporate decision by nameless men and women in business suits who know what is good for America. Don't give a second thought to all of the qualified and talented journalism students who can't find work, or all of the experienced teachers who have a much broader and deeper understanding of education in America than you could possibly comprehend with your rarefied background. It's not your fault that you got a job that should have, by rights, gone to any one of the other thousands of better qualified candidates.

Your new job at NBC speaks well for you - and it says volumes about NBC!

A Good Exit

by Pa Rock
Obituariest

Tim Russert died yesterday. The NBC newsman was fifty-eight, two years younger than me. Any time death comes to someone younger than me, it sets me ruminating on the meaning of life and the importance of recognizing happiness when it is swirling all around.

NBC and MSNBC are the outlets where I get all of my television news (well, 90% - BBC also enters into the mix), and Russert's presence, especially during this election year, was downright ubiquitous. When my radio news outlet, PBS, told me yesterday that Russert had died, I felt a very real loss.

NBC Nightly News last night was a wall-to-wall tribute to Tim Russert, with no other news even being mentioned. MSNBC also dedicated the entire evening to remembrances of him. They talked about his wife and son (Maureen and Luke), and his father - Big Russ of Tim's best selling book, Big Russ and Me. Tom Brokaw told of Russert putting Big Russ in an assisted living home just nine days prior, and the emotional impact that had on Tim. There was video of the flags in Tim's hometown of Buffalo, New York, flying at half-staff. They aired condolence statements from political formidables like President Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, and even Ethel Kennedy.

There were three things that stood out about Tim Russert in all of the stirring remembrances: his love of family, his unwavering Catholic faith, and his love of politics. His last days, it seems, were a beautiful conflux of all three. Tim's son, Luke, had just graduated from Boston College and his parents took him on a trip to Ireland and Italy as a graduation gift. While in Rome, two days prior to Russert's death, they had an audience with the Pope. Russert left his family in Rome and rushed back to the United States to prepare for Sunday's broadcast of Meet the Press. He was working on voice-overs for the Sunday show when he collapsed in his office. Several speakers remarked that Russert's love of politics was so intense, that he often said to co-workers, "Can you believe they're paying us to do this!"

Tim Russert was a busy and happy man when he died. I can only hope that is the way that death will find me.

The News Marketplace

A friend of mine recently suggested in response to one of my blog entries that my political views were developed from watching the three major networks. I readily admit to being an avid news consumer, but hardly any of the news that I take in comes from ABC, NBC, or CBS.

My primary source of news is NPR – National Public Radio. The radios in my apartment, car, and office are all tuned to the Phoenix NPR Affiliate, KJZZ. I like public radio because their newscasts cover a wide variety of topics that are given an in-depth analysis by the correspondents. The big three networks spend a very limited time on any news story, and those stories are filtered through the interests and prerogatives of corporate America. National Public Radio gives a much clearer perspective on what is happening in the world around us. And I am a good consumer of Public Radio – I donate.

When I do turn to the television for news, I have a strong preference for the newscasts on BBC America. BBC News is also carried on some National Public Radio Stations. Comparing same day news on BBC America with the news of a major American network is somewhat surreal. BBC will do in-depth journalism on stories with a worldwide impact (droughts, famines, and genocide) while their American cousins focus on crime, politics, and human interest pabulum.

My third choice for news is the Internet. No matter what a person’s preferences are in the news marketplace, the Internet has a site for everyone. I like Google News, Yahoo News, The Huffington Post, and the New York Times. And if I want to check out the action back in Missouri where my Dad lives, their newspapers are on-line also. News on the Internet is immediate, and it is easy to track a story from a variety of sources.

While my presidential choice, Barack Obama, may appear to be a bit mainstream to my friend, I didn’t arrive at that selection through listening to the corporate bullhorns of ABC, NBC, and CBS. The big boys in the corporate newsrooms don’t have the captive audiences that they once had. America is moving toward being able to truly choose among candidates, because we can now truly choose how we learn about them. The news monopoly is quickly going the way of the dinosaur and eight-track tapes.