The above question was raised in print for the Bryant Park Projecct, June 27, 2008, by Media critic, Jack Shafer. (www.npr.org)

In a Slate column, titled “The Canonization of Saint Russert,” Shafer wrote that he thought the media had given excessive coverage to the death of NBC’s host of “Meet the Press.”

He poses these questions: “Is it because Russert was so powerful? In a city of political power brokers more influential than a senator? I would not agree he was all that powerful. Everybody in Washington can be replaced. He was very good at what he does.”

Shafer says, “There was no news there, unless the heartache experienced by the correspondents and the various talk show personalities who appeared on Russert’s show is considered news.

“We saw no reporting,” said Schafer. “ It was all catharsis; it was all tears.”

But that’s the whole point, Schafer. The red, hot tears were the news, not even the tears of correspondents and Russert’s talk show guests, the journalists across the country, across the world. It was the tears of ordinary people who kept those Nielsen ratings up, the coverage going.

And the movers and shakers should get down on their knees in gratitude for those tears of the little people, which, before all else, declared to the country their passionate sorrow and hunger for leadership. From such tears, we can hope for a rising up of a people determined to take their nation back from descent into anarchy and Fascism. When democracy collapses for want of respect for government, with its law and order safeguards, what alternative remains but military dictatorship?

Last year, Lee Iacocca,with Catherine Whitney, wrote a book, called Where Have All the Leaders Gone? If anyone really wants to know what all those tears were about, and are still being shed today, this will provide solid answers.

The auto executive asks the tough questions that American leaders must address:

The first paragraph sets the tone for the entire book:

Am I the only guy in the country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is the outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane, much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

When it comes to management, the writer offers this advice: “Pick good people and set the right priorities.”

Lord, help our leaders to listen carefully, to hear the inarticulated words among the weeping, frightened people, and not dismiss their fears and worries as beyond consideration.

In one fashion or another, each of us is a leader. We ask for humility to listen carefully to those who have been shedding those tears, courage to act wisely, and sufficient love and energy to avoid the cliff right before our gaze. Amen.

Home

Archives