I've Been Tired

I am tired of this slouching, smirking journalism. It is the bastard child of "gonzo journalism" and "post-modernism" and it is entirely unwelcome. Instead of being involved in an event while reporting on it, one is terminally uninvolved and disconnected from the event while reporting on oneself. This journalism refuses to offer context or compassion. Instead, it exists to talk about the journalist rather than the event. The journalist shows the reader in a series of unsubtle asides that they are "above" whatever the subject is. Every article is marred by juvenile distain or a helpless shrugging of shoulders. The article oozes with ignorance and self-importance. "My" and "I" come up with greater frequency than any other words, and the reader walks away having learned nothing other than the trite 'hipness' of the journalist.

Everyone has to be clever. Everyone has to be cool. Enthusiasm and curiosity are decidely 'un-cool'. Everything that is even remotely related to the subject is added, bulking up the already contentless piece to still more ridiculous proportions. Research is entirely foreign to them, and the persons they deign to talk to are unlikely to be quoted correctly if they are quoted at all. After all, they are only the backdrop to real attraction: the one journalist show. It is post-modern in that there is no plot and no theme. There is no information to be had and no lesson to be learned. There is only a droning on about the self, a forced sharing of boring childhood stories, and constant mentions of the excitement that is the day-to-day life of the journalist who is obviously too busy to to devote more than a pittance to the alleged topic.


I complain, but my heart is filled with sympathy, not hatred. These lost souls have nothing to bring to the table. They have no eyes or ears, but they do have a mouth. And so the mouth talks about the only thing it knows, the only thing it can know, the only thing it will ever know. Itself.