News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

Read the comments on any news story involving a violent crime or follow any active news feed, and you will see comment after comment lamenting the state of the world and talking about how fearful we have to be of, well, pretty much everyone. If the comments at your local news site are anything to go by, you could be the victim of a home invasion at any moment. Your children are in danger of being snatched up 24 hours a day. That guy in your neighborhood taking a walk is probably a rapist. And so on. The problem with…
Why journalists hate their life

Why journalists hate their life

It's no secret that the world of journalism is in flux. I spent over a decade in the world of newspapers, those fussy, papery things created by ink-stained wretches, and while I can't say I don't have an extreme fondness for those old relics -- I think they're wonderful, actually -- I can say that I don't have an extreme fondness for the visionless people who so often run news organizations. My friends still in the news business don't disagree. A good friend who is an investigative journalist with a fairly large regional daily has seen his office withering under…