Dwarf rapes nun--flees in UFO

That is the mythical, but accurate, headline written to show where journalism has landed. Larry Flynt said he would make the whole world a tabloid and he did. My journalism degree from UC Berkeley was never put to use because I went directly into the world of "Mad Men" advertising. But I still read the papers and magazines but there isn't much to learn from them since they mostly care about business and celebrity (that dwarf is getting an agent right now). George Orwell was one of the finest journalists ever. He is somewhat misrepresented in an op-ed column in the NY Times today headlined: "Hollywood's political fictions", about the new film "Green Zone". The writer Ross Douthat says, "the removal of a dictator and the spread of democracy to the Arab world inspired a swath of liberal intelligentsia to play George Orwell and embrace the case for war." Now hang on, Orwell never inspired anyone to embrace war intellectualy he went to war himself. He fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and was shot in the neck. No Hollywood there. He did have an inkling of how the newspapers deluded the British public during Dunkirk. He saw an 8-page paper of the day that devoted 6 pages to race results and a few columns to the War in Europe...virtually on the eve of a German invasion. But who cares really about Iraq or even Afghanastan when you can find out if your cat is psychic?