Newsworthy!

Hello again!

Monday we had a great experience. We had the privilege of meeting the host of Face the Nation and a man who has been the face of journalism for CBS for years; Bob Schieffer.

Schieffer spoke to our class for about an hour including questions. He began his talk by saying something that I have believed for so long. He told us that whatever it is we want to do in life as a career, we'd better find it fun, because if not, we'd have a pretty boring life. He emphasized, with symbolism no less (quite a speaker he is, by the way, which is only natural given his experience in journalism), the fact that we only have one ticket on this planet and there's no time to waste it!

I, personally, have always felt this way about politics. When people tell me they could spend their lives doing computer program, I just don't understand it. That's not at all to say that if that's your calling, it's any less of a calling because it certainly isn't, but it's not my passion. I realized a few nights ago that being passionate about something means being able to operate on a schedule comparable to that of a campaign manager for a presidential candidate and have the drive to do that for your whole life. That's certainly the life of many here in D.C. and I do honestly hope that some day I have the honor of living that life.

However, back to Bob! He had a great number of stories which I'll touch on later but what he cited as being wrong with the current media system is a symptom of the 24 hour news cycle. At present, anyone can publish anything to the internet and there's no fact checking. At CBS, where Bob works, there is a fairly large staff of people ready to fact check everything that goes out on their news broadcasts. I am, right now, for example writing something that very soon will become masthead which can be read by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. This is a huge change from the past when there were, first, only newspapers and then only three news stations for TV. This means that the credibility of news is deteriorating and that, in turn, can be damaging to all news sources.

He also spoke for a while about the fact that Democrats and Republicans just can't seem to get along in any capacity any more. In the good old days the two parties could work together on some legislation and they would even meet together socially on occasion. Now, they don't even want to share a dressing room before a segment of Face the Nation, according to a story Schieffer told. This goes along with everything that Congressman have been telling our class recently. Both James McGovern (D - MA) and Paul Ryan (R - WI) said that the level of civility (they both actually used that same word) in Congress has gone down significantly and is at its lowest point since either of them first took office.

Overall, Bob Schieffer's talk was a great experience and an awesome opportunity to meet one of the biggest names in journalism. He offered some pointed insight and provided a nice new point of view to go along with all of the legislators and government officials we've talked to. In the end, his observations lined up with most of those other actors have been saying which begs the question, "What's going on in our country when both sides (all sides for that matter) feel as if there's a fatal disconnect and no one is willing to do anything about it?"

We're living in interesting times and I'm curious to see where this coming election takes us along with the results of the 2012 election. As Paul Ryan said, "Our country is at a crossroads, we can become [one kind of country] or [another] but something has to happen." The final question for the night is, what will it be??

See you next time!