To my mind, journalism's biggest improvement in the past 15 to 20 years has been the proliferation of "news interpretation" or "analysis" stories. Not only do they enable the reporter to evade the limitations of "objectivity," but they give him or her more words in which to cope with complex realities.
That said, it's often the brief report that brings me up short.
A week ago, for example, the Albuquerque Journal carried a Moscow item on the seizure of a government building in Moscow by Bolsheviks. They were described as a "radical, right wing" party.
Bolsheviks on the right? Think about that.
* A Journal story this morning, datelined Whiteland, Indiana, reported the death of a minister days after he'd been attacked on the altar. A man in custody told police, "I couldn't kill a human being. I was killing the devil."
Unusual in an individual act of violence, but exactly right, I think, where mass murder is involved. That is how humans make it easy to kill, by demonizing their victims. Osama bin Laden did that. So did George W. Bush. It's what leaders have done from time immemorial. And we do follow the leader.
A Los Angeles Times story said all these new reports about the dangers of painkillers are troubling doctors and patients.
Finally. progress.
Bill Richardson, reports Michael Coleman of the Journal, wants an "outside the Beltway moderate" for DNC chairman. Credit the Governor with forthrightness, but note that his comment is one more sign the Democratic Party will pursue power by moving to the right.
My horoscope today - I'm Aries - reads "The more money you make the better you feel - but is that right? Self-worth is not to be confused with net worth."
Sweet, but dated, I am sorry to say. In 2004, those "worths" are identical.