The News Is Next

Over the course of the most recent election, Morning Edition completely lost me as a listener. My alarm clock is still tuned to WBourgeoisie, of course, but I snooze through as much as possible. Mostly, Cokie Roberts has let me down too many times. But today the top news story was Bush’s signing of the intelligence overhaul bill. What is notable about the story, for me, was that the story was pretty much this: “Today, President Bush is expected to sign into law a bill that will create the largest overhaul in intelligence since the Cold War. The bill is based on recommendations by the 9/11 Commission.” Fine. But then they add a line featuring a quote from Bush about what the bill will hopefully accomplish. Who the hell cares what Bush has to say about this bill? Who even thinks that he understands it? I realised this morning that the perfunctory quote from the president after signing a bill is such propagandistic fluff that it’s journalistically irresponsible to include it.