Bruce Apar’s Blog

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the kings of news parody, must be crestfallen. All the real politicians are stealing their acts by performing their own self-parody.

Can the level of election campaign discourse sink any lower on a national scale, or local? That’s a rhetorical question. Apparently there is no bottom to the cesspool of ethical snubbery, another way of saying ethics don’t matter any more in public life. The only rule for how far to go is whether you can get away with it.

Let’s face the music and wince: The sanitized term “spin” has replaced that not very nice word “lies,” but who is kidding whom? Voters who want to be duped will be. Others will just shake their heads in a mix of disbelief and disgust, and mutter that now, heaven knows, to quote Cole Porter, anything goes.

The same goes for some media outlets, including certain local papers.

On Fox News, jingoism has replaced journalism. On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann fancies himself Edward R. Murrow. How humble of him. His screeds against the President, no matter what you think of the latter, are like listening to chalk screeching across a blackboard. They are pedantic, self-important and plain badly written. As for CNN, I haven’t tuned in since “AC” (Anderson Cooper) came after “AB” (Aaron Brown). The CNN brass reportedly though AB was too low-key and lacking in sex appeal, yet I find AC flat-out boring, so off with this talking head, at least in my media room!

How do you really know that the cable news nets, of which I am admittedly a junkie, are not practicing any form of journalism known to earthlings? That’s not a rhetorical question. It’s because when was the last time you saw a newspaper that quoted the same so-called expert every day in articles covering the same story. Or continue covering a story every day when there is nothing new to report? Or having the reporters (read: Bill O’Reilly or Olbermann or Geraldo Rivera or AC) insert themselves into the story, or proclaim, as O’Reilly is wont to do, “I’m going to git you, sucka!” (he does not say it in so many words, but I did recently see Mr. T on one of those shows as a guest, if that counts).

The same political “analysts” are hauled out every evening on the cable newscasts, but they really are not analysts. They are paid flacks. Gee, I can’t imagine what position the campaign manager for John McCain or Barack Obama is going to take when asked about something their man said earlier in the day. It’s a joke.

Peekskill plays jazz & blues
Something I didn’t have room to include in my Talking Points column this week in the print edition of North County News, as I sang the praises of Peekskill’s many charms, is the Jazz & Blues 2nd Annual Celebration this Saturday night at Division and Park streets (site of the gazebo). It’s quite a lineup of diverse talents and genres on stage from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., including a quartet fronted by Peekskill’s “finest” policeman-musician, Andy Polay, a familiar figure about town on his bicycle. I’m a big band buff, so Greg Westhoff’s Westchester Swing Band also catches my eye (and ear). And you never can go wrong with Tommy Dabbs & A Little Bit of This & That, a very Peekskillful group. Plus there’s lots more. Guest of honor is Carmen Leggio “for his contribution to music and the arts over the past 60 years.” Check it all out, because Saturday night’s alright for groovin’.

Who’s the yank-ee?
Watching the 2008 edition of the professional baseball club formerly known as the New York Highlanders (if you don’t believe me, just ask your grandfather, if you can, and if you’re past 60) can give a fan whiplash. (And the prices of seats in the new Yankee Stadium can give a fan bankruptcy.)

They get within 1 game of 2nd place Boston and three behind front-runner TB Rays, then fall back to their current slot of 6 games behind the leader and a trey behind Fenway’s faves. And the season sure ain’t getting any longer.

Feels like your pinstriped heart is being yanked this way and that, raising the question: Just who here is the y anker and who is the yankee?

Whatever and whomever, it sure feels more and more like this will be the first October in a dozen falls where we won’t be watching the Yankees on the field.