Journalism in the 21st Century

"In this corner, we have a very large man with bulging biceps and fire spewing from his eyes! Yes, it's the U.S. Government!" "And in this corner (crowd applauds wildly) the averagewoman, played today by the once fabulous editor, now struggling freelance writer who can't afford her rent, let alone a root canal or that trip to St. Martin she's been longing for!" [cue: bell at boxing ring] If you are a writer trying to wend your way through the maze that is the "government shutdown", you're a little like you've always been: unclear on where you'll next find food or whether food stamps will continue. In the event that you make, oh, $1,000 this month instead of your usual $552.32, will you be on a 'spend down' with Medicaid, who can't apparently understand that a contractor's income fluctuates wildly? And as with most things American, apparently the right for anything beyond basic medical is a luxury. Don't you...

Watching Ann Curry's heartwrenching goodbye Thursday on "The Today Show," I wept like a school girl. Who didn't? When was the last time viewers were treated to such honest, gripping emotion? First, kudos to the NBC executives who allowed her to have her five minutes. As critical as I am of her ousting, it could have been far worse -- we might have awakened to her simply being gone, like an anchor-cum-Sopranos victim. She could have been 86'd like the first Darren on "Bewitched" or the superiority of network programming over cable (oops - did I say that out loud?) Yet, we all know that what happened to her was merely what happens to all of us women of a certain age who are no longer desirable in the eyes of our male bosses - or in her case, the imaginary viewers these male bosses felt had lost interest. Their golden boy, after all, has to fight the drool coming out of his mouth whenever Savannah Guthrie or Natalie Morales are at his side. Is this a ...