Stop The Media Madness

Ginger Rutland, one of the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board members  and op-ed contributors, scored another “wow” moment of dumbfounding  consternation this morning on npr/kxjz with a seemingly pithy and  illuminating investigative commentary.

She chose to use her position  and editorial “megaphone” to chafe against the Sacramento Police  Department for allowing patrol officers who live outside the city to  use their police vehicles to commute to and from work. That some of  these officers live in Benicia, Stockton, or Yuba City, according to  Rutland, illustrates, in her view, managerial delinquency because  taxpayer funds are used to pay for excess gas consumption that by city  law prohibits subvention of these kinds of costs if city employees  live outside city boundaries.

Wow. Call Rumsfeld, it’s time for shock  and awe. Really? Of all the topics of critical concern to Sacramentans  today including -- but certainly not limited to – crime, flood  protection, rising energy costs and unemployment, a home-building and  housing crisis -- Rutland couldn’t come up with a more important  problem to bring to our attention? What about spending a few minutes 
of deep thought to propose a new solution to gang violence?

Sacramentans need to stop settling for media mediocrity. Cancel your  subscription to the Bee. This is an unfortunate situation but one that  simply has to change, and it's up to us to do it. We need local print  media that elevates the dialogue of our collective experience -- not  simply because it’s the only game in town -- but because it is a  thought-leader, a beacon of journalistic integrity and sophistication  that reflects issues that propel forward our collective quality of  life.

Rutland’s little commentary today exemplifies the sorry state of local media that is unfortunately perpetuated simply because people continue to pay for it. I say that it’s gone on long enough. “Stop the madness”!