Yes, the developing Connell story had gone under my radar. Like most of America, I was focused on the economic scenario.
This underlines a major issue I have with the American system, which is the disappearance of effective investigation.
With the aggregation of the media into the hands of a few large corporates, news programming has become entertainment, and has completely lost its investigative edge. Many of the "old school" investigative reporters are now unemployed, relying on freelancing to pay the bills. This means they have moved from steady employment with news organizations who would publish their investigations as part of their routine, to spending most of their time selling their articles to publications, and writing their articles with a particular slant for a particular publication.
With the disappearance of investigative journalism, Government Commissions, like the 911 Commission, manned by political appointees, are all that remains.
So if a sensitive political topic that criminally implicates those currently in power arises, there are no investigative journalists to follow up, and no Commission will be set up to investigate.
It is worth revisiting the 911 Commission as an example of the quality of the kind of results US Government Commissions achieve anyway. I did not feel the 911 Commission effectively investigated the events of 9/11 at all well. They held their hearings behind closed doors for no good reason, and excluded the testimony of some 450 New York firefighters, and other employees in the Towers before the planes hit. Many of these people reported explosions preceding the planes striking the WTC, and hundreds of firefighters corroborated the stories of explosions that would raise the issues of planned demolition by implosion. I was hoping that the investigation would raise these issues, and resolve them. Instead, they were not even addressed.
Now I am not a conspiracy theorist. I do not want to rant about what was possible. I want to see much better investigation, not standards of other people's beliefs.
It is time to look around the world for how other countries resolve these kinds of investigations. I would suggest that you look closely at the British Ombudsman system, and the Royal Commission process, as models for making the change. Get the investigation process out of the political arena into the Justice branch, and let the cards fall where they may.
Yes, the developing Connell story had gone under my radar. Like most of America, I was focused on the economic scenario.
ReplyDeleteThis underlines a major issue I have with the American system, which is the disappearance of effective investigation.
With the aggregation of the media into the hands of a few large corporates, news programming has become entertainment, and has completely lost its investigative edge. Many of the "old school" investigative reporters are now unemployed, relying on freelancing to pay the bills. This means they have moved from steady employment with news organizations who would publish their investigations as part of their routine, to spending most of their time selling their articles to publications, and writing their articles with a particular slant for a particular publication.
With the disappearance of investigative journalism, Government Commissions, like the 911 Commission, manned by political appointees, are all that remains.
So if a sensitive political topic that criminally implicates those currently in power arises, there are no investigative journalists to follow up, and no Commission will be set up to investigate.
It is worth revisiting the 911 Commission as an example of the quality of the kind of results US Government Commissions achieve anyway. I did not feel the 911 Commission effectively investigated the events of 9/11 at all well. They held their hearings behind closed doors for no good reason, and excluded the testimony of some 450 New York firefighters, and other employees in the Towers before the planes hit. Many of these people reported explosions preceding the planes striking the WTC, and hundreds of firefighters corroborated the stories of explosions that would raise the issues of planned demolition by implosion. I was hoping that the investigation would raise these issues, and resolve them. Instead, they were not even addressed.
Now I am not a conspiracy theorist. I do not want to rant about what was possible. I want to see much better investigation, not standards of other people's beliefs.
It is time to look around the world for how other countries resolve these kinds of investigations. I would suggest that you look closely at the British Ombudsman system, and the Royal Commission process, as models for making the change. Get the investigation process out of the political arena into the Justice branch, and let the cards fall where they may.
Stop believing. Start investigating.