The Spider And The Fly

I was happy to see Biden announce rural broad­band fun­ding in Pennsylvania.

It is inex­cu­sa­ble that some in this country do not have access to the great equa­li­zer of high speed inter­net, if for no other rea­sons than all should be able to read the gar­bage put out by media who sell con­nec­tions to their jour­na­lists for $25,000 to $250,000. Access to tain­ted jour­na­lism for all I say.

I don’t care about WAPO gene­rally, but it’s disap­poin­ting nonethe­less, and this cer­tainly isn’t going to help WAPO’s dwind­ling cre­di­bi­lity ratings. More dishear­te­ning is the fact that a lobb­yist was the first to won­der publicly at the ethics of it all. I know media sha­pes the news. I also also know the best in class do so by omis­sion, not commission.

So, is someone going to tell me who among the mass of con­gress peo­ple, and who at the exe­cu­tive palace, if anyone, and my fin­gers are cros­sed here, agreed to be part of this?

I guess the ques­tion, one that has been asked before, and will fore­ver be asked, being such an insi­dious old root in our his­tory, is what did they know (who), and when did they know it.

Will you walk into my par­lour?” said the Spi­der to the Fly,
’Tis the pret­tiest little par­lour that ever you did spy;
The way into my par­lour is up a win­ding stair,
And I’ve a many curious things to shew when you are there.“
Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your win­ding stair can ne’er come down again.”

Excerpt from The Spi­der and The Fly by Mary Howiit

Share This
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • SphereIt
  • Mixx
  • FriendFeed

17 Comments

  • It begs the ques­tion, with the recent firings and hiring of newer colum­nists, were they going with the more mallea­ble jour­na­lists? The youn­ger, less sea­so­ned?
    jacob´s last blog ..Con­gres­sio­nal Wee­kend

    • They have let some of their bet­ter peo­ple go and have hired some youn­ger — your right pos­sibly more malleable — columnists.

  • Phe­no­me­nal post. Another rea­son WaPo is in trou­ble is that you’re not on their pay­roll.
    Doug´s last blog ..LAOCOÖN

  • Spot on, and writ­ten so well I’m con­vin­ced this theme has mys­ti­cal powers.
    johnm´s last blog ..Not Much

  • Do you think some peo­ple are so disi­llu­sio­ned they expect this? I don’t expect it from what is sup­po­sed to be real media but I am not sur­pri­sed. The whole thing smells like bad cheese, and the “what did they know and when did they know it is a ques­tion” I’d like ans­we­red too.

    Couldn’t be a more con­cise and true post. That poem is a nice touch.

    A scary rhyme for a kid even though they wouldn’t unders­tand the rea­lity of it.
    casey´s last blog ..Gold­man Sachs – “The Great Ame­ri­can Bub­ble Machine”

  • Sucks all the inno­cence right out of me — these revelations.

    I read this ear­lier and you had me with the “best in class” line.
    G´s last blog ..Must Reads

  • Agree with Doug. And Kathe­rine Wey­mouth, well I would like to think her grand­mother wouldn’t ever think of selling her conections

    When I bought my house, the cable com­pany had to change all the cable around here as I was the first digi­tal high speed cus­to­mer on blocks. It con­fu­sed me as I thought all cable was digi­tal. I lear­ned that cable com­pa­nies are only as good as customer’s demands and expec­ta­tions. Not that I ever thought anything good about Time Warner

    And on a per­so­nal note – I got a boo­gie board :)
    pia´s last blog ..Happy Birth­day Ame­rica!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Coop…

    I’m glad, if for no other rea­son it will be a wake-up call to a gene­ra­tion (yours) that (pre­sent com­pany exc­lu­ded) has grown up in an envi­ron­ment where only Repu­bli­cans are repug­nant, and Democ­rats do no wrong.

    Ten years ago, I was war­ning peo­ple about the reverse: set up the Clin­tons as a bunch of lying cheats, and you create a “White Knight” syn­drome where the GOP can come in on the shi­ning horse and be saviors.

    No poli­ti­cian will ever be your savior. And the more faith and power you invest in them, the more they will disap­point you.

    Yes, this is the WaPo, not the Obama admi­nis­tra­tion. Oops, wait! It IS the Obama admi­nis­traion, key mem­bers of which were going to be avai­la­ble for paid-for shmooze-fests!

    Let’s all get off the binary train, and quit rel­ying on slo­gans and par­ties to save us.
    Ike´s last blog ..Noise can­ce­lla­tion

    • It doesn’t stop me from choo­sing a can­di­date based on pre­sen­ted ideo­logy, and I doubt it ever will, but I am aware that belief in goblins does not a goblin make…or wha­te­ver that say ing is. ;)

  • Pay to Play, not just for break­fast anymore.

  • That sucks. I read something just yes­ter­day of a simi­lar thing, can’t remem­ber where. Is it more about news­pa­pers going belly up and trying to find funds? It doesn’t make it right, and it put real jour­na­lism at risk, but might that be part of it?
    kait´s last blog ..Goodbye MJ