The Photographs Today... Somebody spilled paint in the parking lot where I live.

MAKING TRACKS

...So now President Obama is coming in for criticism for not being inclusive, for intervals/intermissions in his schedule to which members of the press aren’t invited... no one from Fox News, or MSNBC, not Matt Lauer, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, or my favorite Kyra Phillips. Not one of them was asked to join the President and Tiger Wood at a posh Florida Country Club. Somebody was there with a camera, but I don’t know who let the interloper in... There were no interviews, no questions. I’m glad.

Here’s my beef... It’s not with President Obama or this time even with the dysfunctional Congress. It’s who we Americans have allowed ourselves to become, what we have allowed news/journalism to make of us. In the morning both liberal and conservative folks must search to find broadcast journalists whose primary interest is in gathering and delivering the news. Most owners and managers and directors of broadcast news networks obviously require their hired journalists to entertain us.  Once-upon-a-time I regularly watched NBC’s Morning Show; but when it’s primary raison d'être shifted from news to show business entertainment, I shifted to other resources to find out daily what’s happening in my country and in the world. Matt Lauer doesn't do it for me any more.

I like Kyra Phillips’ new program, Raising America, in the morning on HLN (9 a.m., channel 28 in San Diego).  The program doesn’t pretend to be breaking news.  Kyra is a wife and mom and a journalist. Her purpose is clearly not to entertain us but to inform us, acknowledging that she and we are regular Americans with regular responsibilities who want to consider important issues from our ordinary perspectives.  She is not interspersing Lady Gaga or whoever is the latest hip hop sensation throughout her reports and interviews.