Below the Fold

The State of the News Media: True or False?

So here’s where we stand in the world of journalism:

• A fake news organization sends a fake reporter to cover a real war

• A real local television station in Texas hires a fake anchorwoman as part of a reality TV show

• A real American newspaper is bought by an Australian media magnate, who also owns a real American TV news network that reports fake news, as well as a real American newspaper --  though only in the sense that the newspaper is printed on actual paper, and is distributed in America

• That same media magnate also owns another American TV network which broadcasts the aforementioned reality TV show about the fake anchorwoman

• The Canadian Broadcasting Company doesn’t allow it’s real reporters to post real information about themselves on a social networking site

• Google News allows subjects of news stories who feel their quotes were faked to post real corrections, though the corrections are not independently verified as true or false

And people think bloggers are the ones who can’t be trusted?

Coming to Terms with the Empty Page

It happens more often than I like, this last time being the worst in recent memory.

In the old days – you know, back in the 1990s – we called it writer’s block. Today it’s “blog fade.” But whatever the terminology the effect is the same: deep feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and failure.

For a writer pages are never blank. Pages are full of expectation and excitement. They stare back at you with the longing of a stray puppy looking for a home, begging to be embraced, fed and cared for. Blank pages aren’t empty, but rather filled with words and ideas yet to be discovered.

So how hard can it be to bring out what’s already there? That’s easier said than typed. Ideas are at odds with the blank page, they resent it. Ideas have their own sense of time and urgency. So the page waits as the ideas move at their deliberate and often unnerving pace.

I could blame my work schedule for the lack of blog posts. However, that would not only be an excuse, but pretty sad as I work for a company that embraces new media. The boss isn’t keeping me down, my brain is.

I could blame the news, but again, that would be inane. If you can’t think of anything to say after Rupert Murdoch buys the Wall Street Journal, you’ve got a serious problem.

And I could blame my personal life, but that would be difficult seeing as I don’t really have one. I admit my new plasma TV has been a distraction, but the high definition service doesn’t get installed until later this month, so again, this excuse falls as flat as my new screen.

All that’s left is to do this: write a post about how I can’t write a post. They say to write what you know, and lately what I know is I can’t muster the energy to write.

But I have decided one thing. I’ve decided not to blame anything or anyone, including myself. Blame doesn’t get you anywhere but back where you started. I’ll write when I can, when I have something to say, when the blank page reveals itself and the ideas flow. There is too much going on in the new world of journalism and media in general, and once in a while my voice will rise and, hopefully, add to the common discourse.

Today is not that day. Tomorrow may not be, either. But you will hear from me again – the blank page is calling.