Support the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act

I want to use this post to acknowledge and thank Colorado's Rep. Ken Buck and Rhode Island's Rep. David Cicilline for sponsoring the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act. This piece of legislation is long overdue, and it is important and appreciated that the industry has bipartisan support for action that supports the free market and the Fourth Estate, while also standing against monopolistic and anti-competitive practices of a largely unrestrained, unregulated, and unaccountable tech industry.

“One of the bedrock values of our country is a free press, but we have seen thousands of news organizations crushed by the monopolistic power of Big Tech,” Ranking Member Buck said. “This bipartisan bill is an important start to remedying the results of Google, Facebook, and other’s anticompetitive conduct toward local news outlets, conservative media, and other news organizations.”

“A strong, diverse, free press is critical for any successful democracy. Access to trustworthy local journalism helps inform the public, hold powerful people accountable, and root out corruption,” Chairman Cicilline, who has introduced the bill in each of the last two Congresses, said. “This bill will give hardworking local reporters and publishers the helping hand they need right now, so they can continue to do their important work.”

News companies must have a free market to compete; tech companies who use & profit from print media must pay for it.

Billionaire Philanthropists Wanted: Buy a Newspaper

Print journalism, especially daily newspapers in major cities like Denver, continues to face financial pressures, and the industry needs a sugar-daddy, as opposed to the parasitic vampire hedge funds like Alden Capital that are currently buying up and gutting the Fourth Estate. As tech companies like Google and Facebook have exploited communications laws to make billions off a product they don't produce, and as print readers continue to decline, newspapers have struggled to maintain staff and resources. And at this point the billionaire philanthropist seems as good a savior as any.

Granted, some skeptics are critical of billionaires like Jeff Bezo buying the Washington Post, for they fear a compromises in journalistic integrity and interference in candid investigative reports on corporate America. While those concerns are certainly valid, the situation seems to be working well so far, and ownership of the WashPo by Bezos is definitely not worse than ownership of the Denver Post by Heath Freeman and his cronies at Alden. Regarding Bezos, I tend to view the situation more like Andrew Carnegie deciding to use his fortune to invest nationally in libraries. Perhaps he also wanted to control what people read and might have corrupted the process of which books to acquire and which to forbid, but there's no evidence of that, and the benefit of the libraries is undisputed.

And, of course, Jeff Bezos and WashPo is not the only story; billionaire Patrick Soon-shiong also saved a newspaper by buying and supporting the Los Angeles Times when it was facing insolvency and predatory interest from hedge funds. Someone with deep pockets and who doesn't have to worry about pinching pennies to turn a profit can free up a newspaper to do the important work of reporting and writing without the stress of financial spreadsheets (except those of companies and politicians who might not like the spotlight). Another model which frees papers from the conundrum of bottom-line profits is the non-profit model utilized by The Salt Lake Tribune. The non-profit approach was envisioned and ultimately implemented by wealthy owner Jon Huntsman, and to this point it has proved to be a viable business practice. Of course, strong support from the community has played a key role as well.

Print journalism is the life's blood of a democratic republic, and there are two important truths to the situation:  newspapers are in need of deep-pocket investors who will support and grow the business, and there are plenty of billionaires who could make a Carnegie-style philanthropic impact on a society in desperate need of authentic news coverage. So, if anyone could put me in touch with some billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Phil Knight, Ken Griffin, Philip Anschutz, or even some altruistic investment groups, then please let me know. We need a campaign to save journalism.

For more insight, check out this article on Stewart Bainum:

A resident of Chevy Chase, Md., just outside Washington, Mr. Bainum has had The Sun delivered to his home for years and began to worry about the paper as its print edition grew thinner over the years, said Jim Friedlich, the chief executive of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the nonprofit that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Friedlich added that he first discussed the newspaper business with Mr. Bainum in a Nov. 10 Zoom call.

A Few Thoughts for Tuesday

So, I have a few blog posts waiting for development, but there are a few things on my mind today that I think are worth sharing.

First of all is my uncertain thoughts about Colorado politics and the 2022 governor's race. Everyone in the state who pays attention to politics knows that Republican George Brauchler, former district attorney for the 18th district, is clearly running for governor, though he hasn't announced his candidacy. Instead he has been writing regular columns for the Denver Post criticizing the current Democratic governor Jared Polis. And I have to admit I'm a bit torn by Brauchler basically running for governor via the Denver Post Opinion page. Granted, I think Brauchler-Polis will be a great race, and it's true that Governor Polis has the pulpit now. But this commentary campaign is a bit unseemly, and from a journalistic view it seems ... inappropriate.

Secondly, according to political writer Laura Bassett, "HuffPost employees, after a year of working through a pandemic that isn't over, were invited to a meeting today with the password "spring is here," where they were told 47 of them would be laid off. They would only know if they still had a job if they didn't receive an email by 1." And, while I agree with Bassett that the HuffPost's action was "cruel, psychotic, and ridiculous," I will go farther and say "The Huffington Post is an insult to journalism for the way it has exploited writers and obscenely profited from free labor and by using them to produce clickbait. I’ve long refused to read or support that organization." Arianna Huffington should be ashamed of herself and the machine she created. Truly, no writers should condone, read, work for, or acknowledge such a crass group.

Finally, for some positive news, CNN's new show "Searching for Italy" with Stanley Tucci is a wonderful production that I highly recommend. Of all my travels, Italy is the one place I would and will return to again and again. This travel-food show is a truly decadent pleasure. And Stanley Tucci could entertain me by just reading the side of cereal box.

The Dept of Energy, or the Risk of Rick Perry Republicanism

Back in 1980, when presidential candidate Ronald Reagan quipped "The nine most dangerous words in the English language are: I'm here from the government, and I'm here to help," it was a clever campaign sound bite designed to set him and the GOP apart from a Democratic Party that had practically run the government since the time of FDR. Not even the Gipper could imagine how a stump speech soundbite would ultimately have such a dangerous and deleterious effect on the republic and the shining city on the hill he had envisioned for America in the late days of the twentieth century.

Yet, the disrespect, even contempt, for the institutions of society and systems of government that stabilize our society have become so extreme that the culminating election of an unqualified and incredibly naive man to the office of the Presidency have put infrastructure, stability, law and order, and public health at great risk. Michael Lewis, the wise and insightful author of books like Moneyball and The Big Short terms it The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy. A key player in the disaster story Lewis tells of just how badly the Trump administration fumbled their transition to the privilege of managing the federal government is none other than former Texas governor Rick Perry. No-Nothing-Do-Nothing Perry was the GOP candidate who embarrassed himself in the 2016 Republican primary debates by forgetting one of cabinet positions and departments he intended to dismantle if elected. In a purely absurdist tale, Donald Trump made him the cabinet secretary of that pivotal arm of the federal government, The Department of Energy.

“My past statements made over five years ago about abolishing the Department of Energy do not reflect my current thinking,” Perry said in his opening statement to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “In fact, after being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination.” -Rick Perry, 2017

This sort of inept political grandstanding and irresponsible commentary is exactly the nonsense that conservative satirist P.J. O'Rourke was referencing when he said, "Republicans are the party that says government can't work, and then they get elected and prove it." And that inept management of the institutions and systems that keep America safe, stable, and supplied with a treasure trove of information about the weather is the focus of Lewis' recent book, which should be required reading for anyone who ever runs for office or works in public service. Granted, while there is much to criticize about the size and cost and questionable decisions of "the guvmint," the focus on important, hard-working, dedicated, brilliant, and generally un-partisan civil service workers at places like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an important education for American voters and taxpayers.

Ferlinghetti -- No longer awaiting a rebirth of wonder

 "And I am awaiting, perpetually and forever, a renaissance of wonder."

Like many young people in the 70s and 80s I discovered the words of Lawrence Ferlinghetti sometime during my adolescence. Certainly it was linked to my learning of the Beats and reading Ginsburg's Howl for the first time and realizing there was a whole world of poetry and literature I'd never fathomed. And it was the kind of writing that could be found in and published by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. And when I first read Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the Mind, I realized poetry could sound like the wonderfully strange meanderings of my mind, and that was pretty cool.

The poem "Sometime During Eternity" blew the mind of this young Catholic boy, and it is the first poem I memorized and performed publicly (beyond, of course, basic class requirements). Ferlinghetti had a way of being reverent and irreverent at the same time. Later, while in college studying to be a teacher, one of my professors used a few lines from "I Am Waiting" to talk about using the magic of childlike wonder as as a foundation for learning and teaching. Years later the poem would be something I regularly used to open the school year in my classes, and it became the inspiration for one of my first published pieces of commentary in the Denver Post, "Awaiting - still - a Renaissance of Wonder."

Rest in peace, dear poet. Godspeed.

From Boredom to Beginner

 Maybe it's not that you're bored. It could just be that you're boring.

The pandemic has certainly found us all spending a lot more time with ourselves, and as a result many adults are uttering or feeling something they haven't since they were kids with their mobility and options limited -- "I'm bored."

Plenty of time to do nothing, and plenty of nothing to do. That's how we're feeling. And it has led to some interesting changes and choices for people, everything from sourdough starters to knitting to walking their own neighborhoods that they've never really experienced from the sidewalk. And it's also affected the economy and our finances as "tedium shapes what people buy and how productive we are." In a piece for the New York Times, Sydney Ember reports on "The Boredom Economy" and people like Mark Hawkins who spend a lot of time intentionally doing nothing.

When you have nothing to do, you actually have anything and everything to do, and that can be a pretty neat place to be. Reading about the boredom economy got me thinking about Tom Vanderbilt's book Beginners: The Joy & Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning, which I recently finished and truly enjoyed. Vanderbilt chronicles his novice attempts to acquire new skills and talents including chess, singing, and surfing, but he also provides a vast amount of material and resources about how we learn and why learning new skills is worth our time ... especially if we're bored.

40% of Colorado Teachers Might Quit

This year has been tough all over professionally, and no one is feeling great. The challenges in education have been particularly acute, as individuals, communities, and the nation at large struggle over the issue of how to safely conduct school in the midst of a pandemic. Remote school and hybrid learning are nobody's idea of an effective learning community, and there seems to be no easy answer. While there's light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, at least concerning next year, the stress of school is taking a toll. 

And it might be a generation altering shift, as many teachers are considering whether they can continue to do the job. A recent poll of licensed teachers in Colorado indicated as many as "40% of teachers are considering" leaving the profession. Low pay, safety issues, unmanageable workloads, and lack of support are some key reasons that many teachers are feeling they have no choice left but to walk away.

State Testing Can Wait -- Learning Takes Priority

 As the spring approaches and anxiety about state standardized testing kicks into high gear while school boards object and the state drags its feet, my column for this week in The Villager unpacks the issue:

If you want kids to learn reading, writing, and math, then you regularly test to assess their knowledge and skills in those areas. That rationale came from President George W. Bush, following his partnership with Senator Ted Kennedy to pass the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. NCLB established a nationwide mandate of annual standardized testing for kids from third grade through high school. Annual state testing is now the norm, and we have come to accept it as a standard part of public education. However, the past year has been anything but normal, and the state of Colorado should suspend CMAS testing this spring.

In the midst of a health crisis ....

Flopping, an Embarrassing Part of Lebron's Legacy

Until someone shows me a video montage of flops by Michael Jordan, I’m not having any discussion of the NBA GOAT and Lebron James. Lebron is an incredible baller, truly a generational force, but the practice of flopping is cheating, and LeBron James has taken this twenty-first century form of athletic cheating to an embarrassing level. Lebron's flop-apalooza took center stage the other night in a game against the Memphis Grizzlies when his animated fall was called out vociferously by the Memphis broadcasting crew.

"Are you serious? Are you kidding me, man?... That is awful, horrible, whatever other words you can come up with that are synonyms with those. That's what that was."

Granted, many people will argue the game has simply changed, and it's not wrong for any player to take whatever advantage he can to succeed. But, come on, man! That change to the game and the deliberate choice by Lebron to take advantage is beyond the pale. As Kevin Garnett says in his new memoir "Can you imagine not being able to hand-check Jordan?" That's the new game with no hand-checking, and that's the reason people like Barkley and Rodman turn their noses up at talk of "the greatest" in today's game. But the flopping is a different kind of cheating to me. It's just an embarrassing part of his game, a trick that was not part of Magic's or Bird's or MJ's, and it's a stain on "King James," his legacy, and any claim of being the GOAT.

LB is such a talented, gifted athlete who is also a class act as a human being off the court. He has done so much for the game, for his teammates, and for vast numbers of people in need. He truly is blessed by the gods in terms of his prowess, and he absolutely works as hard as anyone in the league ever has. He is truly a genius in his vision on the court. And that is what makes the flopping all the more egregious. He simply doesn't need to do it. Ever. Yet he has embraced that tactic to a level nearly no other player in the league does. Everyone knows that King James is King of the flop. No one is criticized more for it, and that's why Barkley just shrugs and laughs at him, and then apologizes for the handicapped defenders. In a league that has established hands-off rules on defense, opposing teams literally have no ability to reign him in near the hoop. He doesn't ever need to flop or take an extra step. 

Admittedly, this sounds like a bit of griping to the younger gen to "get off my lawn," (and I definitely have an inclination to be a grumpy old man), but I am just so disappointed in him and embarrassed for what he has done in that area. It's just a shame, and he alone can fix it. He is truly legendary, but I'd like the NBA to start hitting him with regular technical fouls as a warning to get back to the game of basketball.

The President Should be the Best Among Us

The Presidency is kind of like being head cheerleader, tasked with inspiring us to believe in ourselves and win the big game. The best presidents have always lifted us up reminding us that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” as we “Ask not what our country can do for you but what you can do for your country” because “It’s morning again in America” and no matter what challenges confront us, we know that “Yes, we can.”

"Oops" & the F-word

I tend to measure my day and well-being according to the "Mazenko F-index" -- how many times I react by using the f-word. And, I'm realizing that if I ever get to the point where I naturally and instinctively say "oops," instead of "aw, f--k," then I will be making real progress as a human being.

Look for the Pony

My dad was the eternal optimist. 

One of his favorite stories was about two brothers - a pessimist and an optimist - who were tasked with cleaning up a huge pile of horse manure. As the pessimist whined and complained about the work and the mess, the other brother just started digging through the pile. When the first brother asked what he was doing, the optimist looked up to say, “With all this horsesh-t around, there has to be a pony in here somewhere.” 

Look for the pony, my friends. Always look for the pony.