April 11, 2020

Sorry state of Journalism today

I'm in the process of moving my blogs to Google's Blogsite.  The following post was originally dated February 12, 2017.

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A recent article by Todd Richmond of the Associated Press is one (of many) illustrations of the sorry state of journalism today ("Wisconsin lawmakers want to make the sun set earlier in the summer"; Friday, February 10).

Let's begin by addressing the primary issue with such reporting.  Journalists have an obligation to report the news impartially, unbiased by their own beliefs.  If they choose to pontificate on any issue, whether for or against, then they should not call it journalism - it's simply that person's opinion.

In the article, Mr. Richmond stated the impossible proposition that legislators can determine when the sun rises or sets.  Specifically, the debate and controversy in this case is over DST, or Daylight Savings Time.  I'm not alone in the opinion that DST is a ludicrous artifice of humans to "fool" themselves into believing that the sun rises and sets on their dictum.  The sun will rise and set of its own accord, without any help from humans, as it has for billions of years.  "High noon" will always be high noon (that is, when the sun is at its zenith) regardless of our irrational declaration otherwise.

The number of hours of daylight at the winter solstice will always be significantly less than the number of hours of daylight at the summer solstice.  Since we already have more daylight during the summer (naturally!), why artificialize it by moving clocks forward an additional hour?  It makes no sense.

If an individual or group of people choose to rise or retire at an earlier or later time of the celestial day, then they merely have to set their alarm clocks an hour earlier or later, rather than artificially impose the ridiculous concept of DST upon large population segments of the world.  Obviously, I am in favor of eliminating DST.

Let's bring responsibility back to journalism, and refrain from stating opinions as fact.

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