Certainly Not Heroes
If you recognize this picture, congratulations. Your childhood was awesome.
This is Princess Morbucks, a spoiled rich kid who was jealous of the love and attention the Powerpuff Girls would get, so she begged her rich dad to give her the money to buy a power suit that could put her on even footing with the Powerpuffs. She, too, wanted to be considered a hero, and she felt entitled to being considered one.
In many ways, Princess Morbucks is no different than many journalists working on the national stage today.
Guys like Jim Acosta at CNN, who have acted belligerently with the President and expect to be awarded great praise when Trump attacks back. Acosta wants you to think he is the hero of the story, standing athwart a vile, corrupt politician. In truth, he is an ass.
Many journalists are like him. They see the President as a means to a particular end, one where they are seen as the heroes of the very stories they are writing. This flies right in the face of what journalism is supposed to be, and the fact of the matter is that real journalism is always what happens behind the scenes, when you have the good reporters doing the legwork, hitting up their sources, digging for more information, pouring through public records, and all that.
What Acosta does, and what many of these other reporters do, is not journalism. It is grandstanding, pure and simple, and it demeans what journalism is. They are certainly not heroes.
Journalism That Matters
Truth be told, I have almost entirely stopped watching cable news networks, and I dropped my subscription to the Washington Post because the coverage is so bad. Many of these reporters are making a mockery of journalism, which was my first career field and something I care deeply about.
That’s why, though, it’s important to support your local journalists. The vast majority of them are not looking to be the heroes of their stories. They aren’t looking to jump to that next level. They are simply in it to report on what’s going on in their communities, or within their beats. The most important journalism is what gets done when you challenge the powerful with facts, not with assertions, accusations, and act foolish at press conferences.
Gannett recently announced furloughs for employees who earn a certain amount per year. I have friends who are affected by this. Luckily, Gannett restructured a year or so ago and it’s able to weather this COVID-19 storm a lot better than some. Other media companies are going to be making hard choices. The Advocate, which is a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, paper with offices in Lafayette, Louisiana, and had bought out the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, is having to do mass furloughs and reduce staff to four-day weeks.
Across the country, other smaller, local media outlets have faced a lot of problems. Things have been getting better thanks to a reviving economy, but the COVID-19 outbreak has stopped that growth and, in some cases, reversed it. When it comes to the information that is really important to you, it’s these outlets that need your support. The national outlets will be just fine. They operate on millions every year, and if they can afford to pay guys like Chris Cillizza of CNN 6-8 figures per year, then they can certainly afford to hold on while the economy is shut down.
Local journalism is what matters. These are the people who do the best work. There are good people on the national stages, and I’m friends with some of them. But America will survive without them. America will be much worse off if your local community did not have anyone to report on what your local government was doing, and how your community was handling an important event or crisis, or how local schools were adapting to new requirements and standards.
These are the important things. These journalists deserve your support now more than ever.
Homestyle Podcast: Organizing All Your Photos
This week’s episode of Homestyle, the podcast co-hosted by me and Leigh Guidry of The Daily Advertiser is all about using the time we suddenly find ourselves with too much of and doing something constructive like organizing your photos. If you’re anything like me, your phone has a couple thousand and you desperately need to make room on your phone for other things, like the Zoom app because everyone is totally using that now.
So here’s the episode. As always, you can follow our podcast on Instagram by looking up @homestylepod, and you can find us on Facebook by searching for the Homestyle Podcast.
Recipe Of The Week: Crockpot Chicken Alfredo
Making a homemade alfredo sauce isn’t very difficult. It’s one of the easier things you can do in the kitchen to add something to your cooking repertoire. What you do with it, though, is the tricky part. Luckily, I got you.
The one thing I will note before sharing this is that shredded chicken is not always my favorite texture. But, if you do this right, it absorbs a lot of that alfredo flavor and stays super moist during the cooking process.
4 cups heavy cream
1 stick salted butter
2 cups Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. kosher salt
3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups rotini noodles
Shredded mozzarella
Put a saucepan on the stove over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the butter and let it melt.
When the butter is melted, at the heavy cream and whisk until mixed together. Then, add the Parmesan.
Once all three ingredients are mixed together, add your spices. Taste the sauce and adjust to your liking. I love a little extra garlic and smoked paprika here.
When the sauce is simmering, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit.
In a crockpot, add the chicken breasts and then cover with the sauce you just made. Cook on low for about six hours.
At the 4.5-hour mark, take the lid off the crockpot and, if you used more than three breasts, pull the extras out and let them cool. They will make awesome shredded chicken tacos with barbecue sauce later. Shred the chicken still in the crockpot and then add the uncooked pasta directly into the sauce. Stir until incorporated and close the crockpot, allowing it to cook for the final hour to an hour and a half.
The pasta will have absorbed most of the liquid, leaving a cheesy, soft pasta in the pot with the chicken. Turn the pot’s heat up to high and add a layer of Mozzarella on top. When it’s fully melted, turn off the heat.
Serve and, if you’re still not satisfied with the spice, a little Tony’s Chachere’s never hurt anything.
Final Note
Look, you’re probably sheltering in place, or close enough to it, that you are looking around the house for something to work on. I suggest the flower bed in the front yard you’ve been neglecting. I am insanely proud to report that after returning to mine and getting started, my very favorite rose is blossoming.
If you aren’t a fan of hybrid tea roses, then this will mean nothing to you… but if you like roses, then may I introduce you to my friend, the Neil Diamond rose.
It’s beautiful, and if your local garden center is open-air, then chances are they are open and might have one you can pick up curbside. It’s worth it.