The other night on I watched a really excellent PBS Frontline investigative report on the dangerously under-funded state of affairs in our medical examiner offices across the country. The implications for justice are huge: with inexperienced, underfunded, often elected coroners filling this role in most counties in this nation, not only are some criminals going free, but many innocent people are being accused of crimes that may not have been crimes to begin with. The investigation was a joint venture from NPR, Frontline (which is a PBS program) and ProPublica.
Most of our television news programs are dominated by fluff pieces, celebrity gossip, and the latest political talking points regurgitated in endless cycles over the 24/7 cable networks. Loud, opinionated pundits make exagerrated and politicized claims, rarely bothering with pesky facts or any sort of investigation. Very few put out the kind of quality work that Frontline does on a regular basis. And Frontline would not be possible without PBS, a ‘public’ broadcasting network that relies partially on government funding to do its work, though also on donors and sponsors. Glenn Beck pretends to investigate progressives and the ‘liberal agenda’ of his political opponents, but most of the time he’s just spinning conspiracies. He rarely stands up to any fact-checking these days. CNN may have had a few good weeks with wall to wall coverage of events in the Middle East, but when things cool down we are still left with Parker/ Spitzer.
