Quis custodiet, ipsos custodiem

Forgive my brutal Latin, but that signifies that today, I have bought my midnight showing ticket to the Watchmen. Perhaps the greatest comic I have ever read. The first preview I saw before the Dark Knight floored me. I remain there, trodden upon, waiting to be resurrected by the awesomeness of this movie.

The opening line of the book, actually inside the first cover asks us: Who watches the watchmen? (in latin, roughly similar to the title of this post)

Its a question our society was not meant to have to answer, because we have the free press, now loosely called "The Media" - who are supposed to do it, and ourselves, who are supposed to watch the media. This is inherently wrong. We are supposed to watch the press, follow it, and thus watch those who are watching over us.

Many years ago, free market thinking realized that A: True freedom of the press runs counter to a prevailing desire to make money. B: Insofar as all the media organs the press uses to disseminate its message have the dual function of entertainment (reading: newspapers/ television shows: television news) C: if we simply substitute entertainment for the news programs, the public will continue to "watch" the free press, without realizing it has been co-opted.

At some point people forget what "hard hitting" journalism really is and settle for predictable but altogether uninforming spot news, soft exposes, and contrived crises.

But really, its us who must demand better news. Maybe that's why newspapers are failing. Though, I really don't think so. I think the failure of the news industry is yet another stepping stone in total consolidation of power. Because newspapers, if anywhere, are the last bastion of real news. Despite corporate attempts to squeeze every drop of profit out of them by slashing newsrooms and trebling the responsibility of each journalist.

No, newspapers are failing because we ourselves are failing. We are becoming more complacent, and we are settling for, lets face it, Fox News. Its not wrong to point the finger at Fox. Their strategy for story placement and "investigation" is so far on the entertainment side of TV that you'll soon see actors employed in the role of Journalist, and writers paid to produce snappy dialogue.

Its our fault. And the worst part is, its one of those things we have very little power to reverse.

So I guess the long and the short of Who watches the watchmen is, no one. Just a farcial cardboard cutout of what was once the most powerful force in America - truth, and seekers of it.