Because anyone can take a picture

It had been a lousy day in the market, I confess. America is sitting on $1 trillion of mortgages sold by the corrupt to the stupid, which will presage a recession. Maybe a depression. Wall Street is busy hiding the losses until year-end and even then auditors, judging by their stellar history (can you say Enron or WorldCom?), may well not notice that all that debt is being valued at 100 cents on the dollar.

Let’s face it. Wall Street is a professional contact sport and, like all professional sports, is rigged. You thought those nice young boys in the Tour de France were just taking their vitamins?

So when I sat down for my five weekly minutes of prime time news (I have only so much time to waste on fiction) what did I see? A bridge had fallen down in the mid-west and there were no CNN (the “Certainly Not News” channel) journalists on the spot to cover the event. Now this was an event made for ‘news’ reporting, for it had everything that a non-newsworthy event can have. Personalities, not issues, tragic loss of life, dramatic pictures, politicos with arms outstretched palms up, etc.

But what I saw was no less than startling. The first reports were accompanied by some incredibly dramatic still pictures. No, not from your local photojournalist (whom I define as someone taking newsworthy snaps for money) but by amateurs at the scene. They were mostly using cell phone cameras. I very much doubt they were paid. Likewise, all the ‘reporting’ was done not by reporterettes with breast implants and Botox lips, but rather by people who lived close by. And their reports were intense, focused and moving. They were not returning to New York that night to dine at a swanky restaurant. They have to live with this thing.

And, yes, there was no mention of the looming recession and the global tragedies it will bring.

So who needs photojournalists anymore?