One
Grugell
The small desert world of Grugell orbited a large blue-white star, at about 1.3 Sol-system Astronomical Units – about 1.3 times the distance of Earth from Sol. Slightly smaller than Mars, Grugell was a light world. The planet was light in gravity, light in atmosphere, light in biosphere, and especially light in water. Even at 1.3 AU, the blue-white type A star blasted Grugell with a burning heat, resulting in a planet that was desiccated, shriveled, and hot. Only a fierce, competitive species could survive here, and the Grugell were nothing if not ferociously competitive.
Dominated by the endless desert, the small planet boasted only one small, salty ocean, taking up less than a fifth of the planet’s surface. Over most of the planet, a variety of small forbs and tough, grass like plants clung precariously to life in sheltered areas of the dunes, and tiny crawlers eked out a living by feeding on the plants and on each other.
On the shores of the ocean there were small, stubby trees and a richer variety of lower plants. Several species of herbivore fed on the plants, and precisely four species of predator hunted the herbivores. One of those species was closely related to the Grugell themselves and indeed was considered by some Grugell scholars to be much like the ancestral Grugell; the Gouge were semi-bipedal, savage, fanged creatures that hid among the stunted trees to leap screaming in ambush upon the unwary passerby, be they Grugell or beast. Young Grugell on their adulthood adventures often hunted the Gouge as a ritual challenge, and it was not infrequent that such ambitious young warriors did not return from these quests.
The city Gormapa, the capital of the Empire, had sprung up from the ancestral village of the first Emperor, Krickstask I. Gormapa lay forty kilometers north of the seashore, and in this modern era had sprawled out across the sands to house fifteen million Grugell. The base of the Imperium, the Emperor’s military command structure that ruled every aspect of Grugell society, was here; so also was the Emperor Himself.
Rising like a fang above the desert, the gleaming silver spire of the Imperial Palace stretched a good five kilometers from the dry, sandy surface of Grugell, from the very heart of Gormapa. This fortieth day of the Grugell month of K’kitik, at the height of the Grugell summer, the blue-white rays of the sun were seething on the polished silver exterior of the palace’s soaring spire and sizzling the walkways and gardens far below.
In the Imperial quarters, though, all was cool and dim, and the faint sound of water trickling through ornamental fountains and pools echoed through the high, arching stone and metal chambers. The ostentatious display of water was a sign of the Emperor’s wealth; on a planet critically short of water, only the Imperial palace had water to spare for such ornamental frippery.
And Emperor Ignostak XI wanted it known. Especially to lowly types like the two Imperial Navy officers that stood nervously before him now in the vast, cool, humid expanse of his audience chamber, escorted by his chief advisor Kaxatrisk II.
Yawning, the Emperor reached into a small silver canister next to his desk chair and extracted a small, wriggling animal. The legless crawler was native to the desert sands south of Grugell’s ocean, and was imported as one of the Emperor’s favorite delicacies. Inspecting the struggling creature dispassionately for a moment, Ignostak XI brought it to his mouth and bit its head off, chewed briefly and swallowed before speaking.
“Well?” he demanded. “What have you learned?”
“Your Majesty,” Kaxatrisk began, “Admiral Pokatak IX and Admiral Gilgakat XII have gathered all intelligence regarding the human activity in the few worlds they have settled. They have established patterns of shipping activity, and their armed ships have attacked and destroyed four human ships.”
“Only four?”
“Four, Your Majesty. We have concentrated our efforts on learning about their organization and social structure rather than engaging in direct warfare.”
The Emperor took another bite of the crawler, chewed, and wiped his mouth with a forearm. “Wise, that, after the debacle on Forest.”
“Indeed, Your Majesty. What we have discovered is intriguing.”
Ignostak XI merely raised his eyebrows.
Admiral Pokatak IX, Fleet Commander of the Grugell Imperial Armed Navy, stepped forward now. “Your Majesty, if I may speak?” The Emperor nodded. “We have analyzed the wreckage of four human ships. The four ships we have engaged were all unarmed, Your Majesty. They carried cargo and passengers but no weaponry. Further, and better still, they seem unable to cloak even their smaller ships, which only operate near planets. They have evidently not discovered the wave-bending technology.”
“Good.”
“We are not yet certain which of the human planets is their home world, but we expect to discover that within a year by analyzing travel patterns of their cargo ships. At present we have only eight armed ships, as you well know, Majesty, and only six of them are equipped with the wave-bending devices that allow them to pass undetected.”
“So?” the Emperor looked mildly puzzled.
“Your Majesty,” Kaxatrisk interceded, “The Admirals feel that the proper strategy would be a strike directly at the human’s home world, before they can devise armed ships of their own or, if they should already have them, before they can discover the whereabouts of the bulk of our own population.”
“And I must point out, Majesty, that we will need at least two heavily armed Occupation forces and several more armed ships to carry out the task,” Pokatak added.
“The Occupation ships will be available within that time, Majesty,” Gilgakat said; as Commander of Occupation Forces, his life depended on accurate dispositions of the five Grugell Occupation ships. “We will, of course, need combat troops and crews.”
“These will, presumably, be made available?”
“Yes, Majesty. We have already begun conscription of the youngest crèche troop classes.”
“You favor this pre-emptive strike, Kaxatrisk?”
“I do, Majesty.”
“You two, you Admirals of my fleets, do you as well?”
Both Admirals nodded.
“Very well. Proceed as you have described. You have my authorization to begin ship construction as necessary. You are dismissed.”
“By your command, Majesty.” The three made to back slowly from the room, heads bowed as protocol demanded. “Kaxatrisk, you will remain,” the Emperor barked.
Kaxatrisk waited until he heard the Admirals leave before raising his head. The Emperor motioned him forward. “Come, my trusted advisor, sit here beside me. Have a crawler.”
“Thank you, Majesty.” Kaxatrisk seated himself carefully at his Emperor’s feet and selected a small crawler from the canister.
“There is more to this other space-going race you are not telling me, my old friend,” Ignostak IX observed.
“Nothing of consequence, Majesty.” More at ease with the Admirals gone, and comfortable with his role as the Emperor’s most valued personal advisor, Kaxatrisk relaxed visibly. “It is only that…”
“Yes?”
“Majesty, they differ from us in significant ways. The interrogations of the survivors of the failed Occupation troops revealed much.”
“Continue.”
“They do not seem to be organized, Majesty. They move freight, but with little central direction. They are armed, but lightly so, and there is no regularity to their uniforms, their armaments, or their tactics. And, Majesty, strange as it seems…”
“Strange as what seems?”
“On Forest, their females fought alongside the males.” Such a thing was unthinkable to the highly dimorphic and fiercely patriarchal Grugell. “And ferociously, it seems. It was a human female that was suspected of killing the acting Commander during the final battle in the human village. And as individuals, they are physically very formidable – I’m told that it is probable they originated on a planet with considerably heavier gravity than Grugell.”
“Then we must take them in space, where our armed ships give us the advantage.”
“As ever, Majesty, you see to the heart of the matter.”
Washington D.C., Earth
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States!”
A round of applause followed the announcement heralding the entry of President Anthony Ignacio Gomez. He strode to the podium to address the crowd gathered for the Inaugural, Vice President Hector Gutierrez at his side.
President Gomez was an impressive figure, less than two meters tall but a commanding presence in a gray suit, steel-blue tie, and his iron-gray hair combed carefully back. He looked over the throng with coal-black eyes, past a nose that was slightly hooked, giving him an almost raptorial appearance. The Secret Service had already given him the code-name EAGLE, which he jokingly corrected them to pronounce “Águila.” Unfortunately, the Secret Service agents assigned to protect the President were a somewhat humorless lot.
The President placed his work-hardened hands on the podium – he’d started his adult life as a contractor. He rocked back on his polished Italian shoes for a moment, looking out at the crowd, lost for a few seconds in the memories of all that had brought him to this moment. He had spent twenty years of building a nationally known chain of construction companies, including major contracts with Off-World Mining for the Peru Skyhook and the orbital graving dock. Following an offer for sale of the chain, he’d retired at 40 and, seeking an outlet for his restless, aggressive energy, he’d entered politics as a campaigner in the Libertarian Party, quickly rising to be Governor of Colorado at 48. With his childhood friend Hector Gutierrez as Lieutenant Governor, they’d served two terms, re-elected for the second in a landslide, then sought and won the nomination for the Presidency on the Libertarian ballot, winning that race by a wide margin. “A Common Man with Common Sense” was the wildly successful slogan, printed on posters showing Gomez as a twenty-five-year-old carpenter in overalls and tool belt next to the present-day Gomez, likewise in overalls.
Now, at 57, he’d achieved a goal he’d never contemplated until the year before.
“Ladies and Gentlemen. Good afternoon,” he began. He still spoke directly, in short, barked sentences, as though he was issuing orders to a gang of workmen.
“In our campaign, Vice President Gutierrez and I promised you all several things. A reduction in the Federal bureaucracy. A half percent decrease in the Federal sales tax rate. And, most important of all, a planetary defense against the hostile Grugell Empire.”
A few catcalls followed the last remark. The hostility of the Grugell had been a contentious issue during the campaign. Gomez’ Republican opponent had made some political mileage with his stated intent to “seek common ground” with the Grugell.
Gomez fixed the crowd with his raptorial glare. “I know what some of you are thinking. Why does America have to protect the globe? Why does America have to baby-sit the rest of the planet?” There were a few shouts of agreement.
“I ask you,” he continued. “If not America, then who?”
He surprised the Secret Service by walking around to the side of the podium, abandoning the armored poly-steel box and the all-but-invisible force field that shielded his upper body. He strode to the edge of the platform, looking down now into the crowd. “Who?” he demanded. His presence was more commanding than ever, standing over the front rows. The Secret Service fanned out nervously, scanning the crowd for any signs of trouble, but the people had gone quiet, still, their attention captured.
“I’ll tell you who. Nobody. Nobody else can.” Trailing a pair of Service agents, he walked across the front of the stage, gesturing with one hand as he spoke. “Who else will do this? The European Union, still struggling out of depression? The nations of Africa, decimated by plague and war? China, still recovering from their own Civil War? Brazil? Argentina? Peru? Who, if not America?” He invoked a phrase out of history, borrowed from another President who had presided over another crisis, over a century before: “If not us, who? If not now, when?” He paused for a moment, apparently thinking about what to say next.
“I don’t know that much about politics, really. I don’t know much about diplomacy. I know about running a business. I know about meeting deadlines. I know about cutting the fat from an operation. But you know what’s more important than that? I know about the importance of helping a brother or sister who needs a hand up. Not a hand out, a hand up.” He pointed at the sky. “Twenty years ago, up there somewhere on a planet called Forest, humanity met the Grugell Empire for the first time. We met them, because we were on that planet, and the Grugell intended to take it from us. Not to share in its resources, not to establish their own colonies and live with us as neighbors. They intended to kill all of the people on that planet and take it for themselves. Well, you know what? We didn’t let them. The colonists of Forest fought off a heavily armed alien invasion with hunting rifles, and with farming and mining equipment.”
He walked to the center of the platform now, eyes constantly roving over the crowd. “But I’ll tell you something. Since that time, we’ve seen and heard more of the Grugell. We know their ships are operating in our space, the space we’ve already colonized. There has been very limited contact, but that will change, I assure you.”
“Eventually we’ll have to have some kind of relations with them, but for now there are no embassies, no diplomatic relations. We must make no mistake – the Grugell are hostile. They are an armed, totalitarian, militaristic society, and they know where humanity’s home planet is. They probably know where eighty-five percent of humanity still lives. And, unlike humanity, they have armed ships to enforce their policy of expansion.”
“We can’t protect the colonies. But we can protect Earth.”
The speech drew cheers, but the crowd seemed subdued. The new President had just offered support for what the national media was calling a massive, expensive planetary defense of dubious effectiveness.
The Vice President was the first on the platform to stand as the President concluded, and as he stepped forward to shake the President’s hand, Gutierrez leaned in to whisper sotto voce: “You had ‘em, eśe, but you lost ‘em. Should have waited for that one.”
“Better that they know up front,” Gomez said. “You got the same briefing I did.”
“Yeah, but shit, Tony, you laid it right out…”
“I’m not a politician, miĵo, and I’m not going to start acting like one now. First step of a job is letting the people know what they’re supposed to be working on.”
“You say so. Come on, time to meet the media.”
Gomez let out a groan. “Tell me again how I let myself get talked into this.”
“I seem to remember you saying something about, ‘if you want the job done right,’ bro.” President Gomez threw back his head and laughed, drawing a stare from the Secret Service agents.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
I just bought both books so Im not reading it here. Im quite sure it will be a fun read.
Any more nova Roma in the future?
Any more nova Roma in the future?
I hope so, I’m on part 2 and would love a part 3.
Working on it. I’m keeping a lot of balls in the air at the moment. I’ve officially retired from the medical device business, so that’s helping some.
You know how I know this is fiction?
I have yet to see the L party do anything that would make me think of them as a serious party.
It is virtually impossible for a third party to do anything serious given U.S. electoral system unless it had tens of millions of $$$ on its side.
The best path for a third party to gain power is to co-opt one of the major parties, like the Communists/socialists did with the Democrats.
It also needs to stop with the lunge for the top jobs. To win national offices you need to have rallied a base by a marh through the smaller local offices, this encourages the establishment of a ground game among actual voters and the experience in reaching them that will be needed at each successive level.
Pretty much every third party has one of two forms – fringe ideologues who can’t think stretigically and tacticall, or the creations of a single motivated individual who wants to strike quick and ends up limited to their one or so bids for the presidency that at best act as a spoiler.
It’s a long march nobody wants to walk.
@WTF – that wouldn’t be a third party, by definition.
Dollars are votes, however the L’s could make some headway if they had a serious candidate.
In any case it doesnt matter as the majority of humans find liberty and self-ownership repulsive.
You of course mean, “Anyone outside the uniparty…”
Dollars are votes
No, they aren’t. If they were Trump wouldn’t have been 45 and we would’ve had two terms of Herself.
And remind me again of how much $$$ Harris blew through in order to lose to Trump.
“The best path for a third party to gain power is to co-opt one of the major parties, like the Communists/socialists did with the Democrats.”
This. There are only two forces in politics: those who want to change things, and those who want to stop change. There really aren’t third parties, but the two we have are good proximate forces for those two groups. Any change to this necessarily needs to co-opt one of the parties to move in precisely the direction they want it to move. If they cannot, then by definition there is not enough votes to move in that direction. And this includes Libertarianism, Green, and any other non-dominant philosophy.
Those ideas are better looked at as vectors, and not as actual governing parties.
Vectors…
a vector is an organism that transmits pathogens, such as a mosquito carrying malaria.
So yes.
LOL, yep.
Since Milei won, it isn’t quite as fantastic as it otherwise would be.
Woefully ignorant of its enemy Japan set sail for Pearl Harbor……
Although Japan did actually realize they couldn’t win a sustained war against the US, they just screwed up in thinking if they crippled the Pacific fleet that America would have no stomach for a prolonged war and would agree to terms leaving Japan in possession of everything past the Aleutians and Hawaii.
Oops.
Go ahead, kick us and see what happens, same for the CCP.
Yup.. they had the wrong lesson from Tsushima soaked down to their bones.
Of course — when you devolve your foreign policy decisions to “What won’t make hotheaded lieutenants in the Army want to assassinate us?” it never will go well for you as a country, frankly.
Go ahead, kick us and see what happens, same for the CCP.
We’ll sue!
Notice the Nipponese lost in court at Hiroshima,
“The ostentatious display of water was a sign of the Emperor’s wealth; on a planet critically short of water, only the Imperial palace had water to spare for such ornamental frippery.
And Emperor Ignostak XI wanted it known.”
Sounds very familiar.
Chinese style hydraulic society/totalitarianism.
That gold toilet will, apparently, flush itself.
Were I a novelist, I’d make sure all future POTUSs were named “Camacho.”
Why?
After the POTUS who is prophesized to save the US.
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho
Terrible reason.
“Sit your monkey-ass down!”
“Shit.”
“I know shit’s bad right now, with all that starving bullshit!”
Brawndo, it got electrolytes, that’s why.
You don’t hate lawyers and the government enough:
Long Island business owners slapped with $6 million lawsuit over law they didn’t know they were breaking
They were paying their employees bi-weekly, instead of weekly.
Nope, I’m going to hate the NY State Legislature first and foremost for the stupid law.
Who do you think actually wrote the law? Hint: it wasn’t the legislature…
The legislature isn’t the government?
I suppose I could have gone with the NY voters.
Understood. NY voters are awful people.
The people who actually wrote the law were the legal and labor interests who benefit from it. The legislature just put their seal of approval on it (and cashed their checks).
So it always is with democracy…
NY voters are awful people.
Not really worse than PA I think.
My experiences with Pennsylvanians is skewed towards a fraternity brother and members of the Greater Pittsburgh Gun Club. So they seem like decent people to me.
True story: one of the (lady-type) people I shoot with does not go to matches at the Scotia club because they refused her membership because she was a lady-type person. I knew there were some really backwards people up here, but that blew my mind.
Puppet theater
Some of the activists detained while trying to reach Gaza by sea have returned to their home countries to describe mistreatment at the hands of Israeli guards, claims that Israel denies.
Some 450 activists were arrested as Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of 42 boats seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid to the famine-stricken territory. Those detained between Wednesday and Friday were brought to Israel, where many remain in prison.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it offered voluntary deportation to all of the activists and those that remain in detention chose to stay there in order to go through a legal deportation process.
On his return at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport late Saturday, Italian journalist Saverio Tommasi said Israeli soldiers withheld medicines and treated prisoners “like monkeys.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said the claims of mistreatment were “brazen lies.”
Terrible room service. Just like Dachau.
I had no idea Saverio Tommasi was such a racist.
His brother, Rollo, got away with it in the end.
Oooh, Bob, nice reference. Now ranked #3, is LA Confidential, in my film rankings. The ‘most serious’ in the Top Three.
I really fucking love that Perfect Movie. No line nor shot is wasted.
Symbolic aid – “We brought you a Snickers bar, but the little goblin ate it.”
Sorry.
“We also saw Greta Thunberg at the port, in that case with her arms tied and an Israeli flag next to her, just a mockery,” he said. “Let’s say the mockery was part of the verbal and psychological violence they always carried out, in order to demean, ridicule and laugh in situations where there is nothing to laugh about.”
Unspeakable cruelty.
If you make yourself into a joke, don’t complain when people laugh at you.
I have to admit I was chuckling the whole time I was reading through that. More like Muppet theater.
I am reminded of Greta being caught rehearsing her “How Dare you!!!” routine at an outdoor cafe and substituting “You stole my youth!” with “You stole my coke!” because the guy next to her sipped out of her drink.
Two-bit grifter that little shithead. It is all performance.
I place most of the blame on Greta’s asshole uber-proggie parents…
As you should.
verbal and psychological
MUH FEELZ!!!
They were laughing… when there was nothing to laugh about!
I lived most of my life not realizing that I was really Bobbo, not Bob. Now everyone accepts me who I am, a Bobbo.
/not a victim
“…there was nothing to laugh about!”
Award winning level comedy performance is nothing to laugh about?
verbal and psychological
You know who else used verbal and psychological torture/
The Spanish Inquisition?
Everyone’s exes?
The Vatican?
Kamala Harris’s speechwriters?
The small desert world of Grugell…
Postulate – intelligent life is more likely to evolve in an environment that supports abundant opportunity for that evolution and sufficient conflict to drive technological advancement. Therefore, the Grugell must be the product of a different creation myth.
Postulate – Intelligence as an adaptation is more evolutionarily advantageous when ecological niches shift faster than natural selection can make physical adaptations, and thus behavioral adaptations much suffice. An intelligent species is more capable of coming up with behvaioral adaptations. Thus, climate change leads to more intelligent species.
Now that’s an interesting twist – that intelligence and behavior aren’t physical, or in response to the physical environment.
You are either intentionally or unintentionally misunderstanding me. I’m going to be generous and assume a miscommunication.
I did not want to write an essay on how in stable, prosperous times the energy costs of higher cognition are a drag on the adaptational fitness. Where it proves an advantage in fitness is when changes are required faster than dramatic alterations to the overall form. Every species will be carrying a bell curve of cognitive ability. When conditions change faster than dramatic physical changes are possible, the dumbfucks die and those able to adjust their behvaior to cope survive, expecially if changes keep happening.
The more chaotic the change, the less pressure on a purely structual adaptation will exist while pressure towards improved cognition remains.
If the forest moves due to a shift in climactic conditions, the forest dwellers follow. If the forest up and disappears, the forest dwellers had better find a way to survive their new savannah or grassland home PDQ.
It looks like the Grugell planet has a very narrow habitable zone, also it’s fauna was very limited. I’m surprised that evolution could occur in such a system prior to stellar instability. A and B type stars are fast burning and short lived, so evolution and intelligent life had to have occurred quickly.
Looks like the phrasing has become ubiquitous amongst the journolismas these days….
Lexington man, my ass.
https://www.lex18.com/news/crime/lexington-man-accused-of-pointed-rifle-during-skate-competition-because-he-didnt-approve-of-groups-music?fbclid=IwdGRleANQ4TtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHnYrAaKH2LYqYYNJqBtAbb5no9Bv2dPNJ6d7Q1GooLDHArorVbI8Fyb1AkDt_aem_WGvwwd1OSqyeWzB5CRCmAw
Skaters arent to be fucked with, we grew up ridiculed and harrased so we learned to fight back.
/old skool punk ethos
Hmmm…
“…plead not guilty.”
Where is CAIR when you need them? It was political speech.
An intelligent species is more capable of coming up with behvaioral adaptations.
Laziness is a vital evolutionary force. Technological progress is driven by people who say, “Fuck this, there has to be an easier way.”
All dogs agree, there is an easier way,
Thats perfectly normal at a competition, fuck that worthless fuck, probably cant skate vertical, pansie
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cbs-news-staffers-receive-new-marching-orders-urged-treat-democrats-republicans-equally
Weiss listed 10 “core journalistic values,” among them holding “both American political parties to equal scrutiny.”
1. Journalism that reports on the world as it actually is.
2. Journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual.
3. Journalism that respects our audience enough to tell the truth plainly—wherever it leads.
4. Journalism that makes sense of a noisy, confusing world.
5. Journalism that explains things clearly, without pretension or jargon.
6. Journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.
7. Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.
8. Journalism that rushes toward the most interesting and important stories, regardless of their unpopularity.
9. Journalism that uses all of the tools of the digital era.
10. Journalism that understands that the best way to serve America is to endeavor to present the public with the facts, first and foremost.
I may subscribe to her new newsletter if she can make the fucktards honest.
What a shame, fallen at the first hurdle…
#3 is the heresy against the Lippman dogma. Once you are a priest, you don’t respect the flock and allow it to come to it’s own decision(s), you guide it.
It’s interesting that you are lumping journalists and priests together. And it makes a certain kind of sense – both claim to be the retail outlets of moral philosophy.
Priestly morality a la Nietzsche – doesn’t matter if it comes from a ritually anointed priest or a salubrious self-anointed fake.
*finally catches breath*
Stop it. You are killing me.
Also, that entire list is predicated on journalists that know what truth is. Journalism schools have been brainwashing kids for at least two generations to think that truth is entirely subjective. The current crop of practicing ‘journalists’ today are incapable of doing even one thing on that list even if they earnestly tried.
Agreed. Journalism schools teach “creating a narrative”. Start with a conclusion and write the story to support it. They are teaching backwards thinking. That has to end first.
And also, the fact that many of them are fighting against those requirements above shows the rot within the J-schools. The basic premise above is to be honest, be as accurate as possible, respect your audience, and have a curious mind but yet this is blasphemy to credentialed class.
blasphemy to credentialed class
And thus my allusion to priestly pretensions.
I can deal with journalists having biases because we all do but at least be honest about those biases. And I also don’t like lying nor its cousin, lying by omission, to push some narrative. That’s when you step into Goebbels territory.
I think one of the perfect examples was the Covington kids’ story where the media intentionally created a false narrative and lied. It damned near ruin a teenager’s life and even when caught lying they didn’t care to change their tactics or be better.
Or Rittenhouse.
Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.
That trick never works.
“This time for sure!”
The current crop of practicing ‘journalists’ today are incapable of doing even one thing on that list even if they earnestly tried.
Admitting you have a problem is a good first step.
They can quit and go work for Salon, or the Atlantic. Advocacy journalism will survive without CBS.
I think what will happen is they’ll throw tantrums and won’t fall in line thus forcing CBS and Weiss to terminate their employment. Then that’s when the lawsuits will start rolling in. Most corporations hate lawsuits and will settle which will be expensive but hopefully CBS has the cajoles to stay the course. Once the smoke clears the other employees will either fall in line or leave.
The Left, as we have seen these past couple of years, aren’t going to go without a fight and will dig their heels in, especially when it’s something they believe they should control. But we’ve also seen that if you go into the fight with half a brain, ferocity, and determination, they can be beaten and forced to accept defeat.
Cajoles, or cajones or Chingones, balls count
The NewsMax people took a different approach. Rather than try to cut out the rot they built their operation from the ground up. From what I see it looks like they took on the malcontents that couldn’t tolerate even FOX level PC. Their viewership has taken off like a rocket.
It is a little too Jesusy for my taste but small price to pay to see Greta Van Susteren.
Ms Weiss needs to add an explicit prohibition on cheap appeals to emotion, and that’s going to be a hard habit to shake.
That’s pretty much core to reaching a mass audience.
Once the smoke clears the other employees will either fall in line or leave.
I can’t help wondering how many people, secretly or otherwise, are ecstatic about the move to depoliticize the newsroom.
How many more people are out there like the guy at PBS(?) who mostly just keep their heads down and go along until they just get sick of it all?
This guy
An editor for National Public Radio resigned Wednesday just days after he inflamed the ongoing culture war about mainstream media with an essay about what he considers the news outlet’s liberal leanings.
Uri Berliner, who was a senior business editor, wrote an essay for the right-leaning online publication The Free Press in which he said he believes NPR is losing the public’s trust.
NPR, a nonprofit radio network, has an “absence of viewpoint diversity,” he wrote in the essay, which was published April 9. It “has always had a liberal bent,” but now an “open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR,” he wrote.
>/em>
They’re out there.
I think in the future we will all see the murder of Charlie Kirk as the moment the tide changed, and it is changed. I think a lot of us see it now but it will be more stark in the rearview mirror 20 years from now. We wont remember many names from now but we will remember that one.
How many people remember Abbie Hoffman? Oh yeah, that guy….who was he again? Walter Cronkite? Was he one of the astronauts?
Martin Luther King? Everyone knows that name and will 100 years from now. You could probably put John Brown on that list too.