Several posts last week touched on campaigns, campaigning and journalism's role. I recommend to you a piece by Jay Rosen, called "The Beast without a Brain." It was published in tomdispatch a couple of weeks ago.
I know we won't have a chance to discuss it in class this week, but perhaps it will engender some conversation here. Be sure to read it two ways: for the content, of course, but also for the writing.
The opening graf:
"Just so you know, 'the media' has no mind. It cannot make decisions. Which means it does not 'get behind' candidates. It does not decide to oppose your guy... or gal. Nor does it "buy" this line or 'swallow' that one. It is a beast without a brain. Most of the time, it doesn't know what it's doing."
Look at those sentences again. The longest is 10 words. There's not a single adjective. Rosen uses a simple subject-verb-object construction. Now notice the power of the intro. That's writing, folks, regardless of your views of his opinion.
http://tomdispatch.com/post/174883/
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