Home > Work > Sh*tshow!: The Country's Collapsing . . . and the Ratings Are Great
1 " I am not the best gauger of destitution, my judgment having been warped by years of reporting in Detroit. By comparison, in cities like St. Louis and Chicago and Los Angeles, the “ghettos” appear relatively nice. Livable. No falling-in porches. In West Side Chicago, the streets were paved and swept. The apartment buildings occupied. The grass cut and the stores full. What was more, there was foot traffic. "
― Charlie LeDuff , Sh*tshow!: The Country's Collapsing . . . and the Ratings Are Great
2 " As for Congress, one imaginative polling firm found that brussels sprouts, head lice, cockroaches, colonoscopies, and gonorrhea were more popular than our elected representatives. Apparently, the American people realized that when you take it up the ass from a proctologist, at least it's for your own well-being. From Congress, not so much "
3 " TV news is quite probably the most superficial form of journalism ever invented. Hunter Thompson characterized it fifty years ago as a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men go to die. "
4 " We will not admit it in the course of our Emmy acceptance speeches, but we reporters know that our work has a corrosive effect, amplifying anxiety in the suburban kitchen. It reinforces stereotypes of a violent black city, which may have its truths, but the extent of the violence is blown wildly out of proportion. "