The blogosphere is all abuzz over yesterday’s comments from Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, in which he opined about the annoyance of today’s cable news television programming.  Apparently cable news gets in the way of his desire for American citizens to do nothing but worship our government, rather than challenge it.

We need new catalysts for quality news and entertainment programming.  I hunger for quality news.  I’m tired of the right and the left.  There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: Out. Off. End. Goodbye. It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future.

Many are making this solely about the issue of the Fairness Doctrine or of Net Neutrality.  And to some extent, this is true.  But there really is a much larger picture at play here – a transition period to government-run media.

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There’s an old saying that describes the fortunes of families, corporations and criminal enterprises: “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” You know: John D. Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Nelson Rockefeller… the other Rockefellers.  Time Inc. editor-in-chief Henry Luce, Hedley Donovan, Henry Grunwald… Your Name Here. Five Families Boss Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, John Gotti… Gotti, Jr.

But what better example of declining fortunes can there be than the Kennedy clan of County Wexford, Boston, Hyannisport, Palm Beach and Chappaquiddick.  From Patrick Joseph Kennedy to Joseph P. Kennedy (the Patriarch), to John Fitzgerald Kennedy to…

Yes, Patrick Kennedy, the soon-to-be-former Congressman from Rhode Island, substance abuser, drunk, late-night car crasher and all-around whackjob, was in the news again today, lashing out at, well, pretty much everybody in one of his farewell addresses to the nation.

Amazingly, he went after the media.  From ABC News’ The Note: (more…)