Shoddy Journalism

Recently it made top headlines that a friend of mine Paul Braley was booked on charges, of course this surged its way to the forefront of local media headlines,because his father is congressmen Bruce Braley. File this under the "This grinds my gears" category, do the people who report this honestly have any ethics. Why is this classified as top news, infact this shouldnt have made its way to newsworthy status at all. Talk about compromising journalistic integrity, making this a prominent news story tells your audience that you have the mentality of a 16 year old school girl with gossip you deem as absolutely relevant to elevate your social status, but most turn an uncaring cheek to your so called "prominent news". This article brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "slow news day".

Paul is Bruce's son obviously, my question is why must Paul be punished through the court of public opinion for purported wrongdoings because of who his father is, and why must Bruce be victimized by critics for what Paul allegedly did. They are in the same family yes, but they are two seperate entities. I never saw Bruce running on the platform of Paul Braley, I have never seen Paul on CSPAN giving speeches and yeilding his remaining time to the congressmen of (insert state here) and voting as a representative for the state of Iowa. Along with this I never seen Bruce doing Paul's school work and working at his job and living his life. The matter of the fact is there is more at work here behind the story, whether it be someone struggling for any news story they can dip their fingers into or political bias being executed.

Living in an age inwhich police logs are posted in an effort to bolster gossip by community consumers is far enough, let alone to illuminate Pauls charges after not even being brought infront of a jury of his peers to plead his case it makes you wonder about the age of journalism and consumerism that we are residing within. The court of public opinion has already served its role as judge, jury, and executioner and found him guilty as soon as this story was digested by the masses. This brand of amatuer journalism devoid of ethics must be exiled from our papers, magazines, and computers until the person is at least given a fair shake.

Im Steve Shumaker and I approve this rant!