The News hasn’t been about news for a few decades now. But after other so-called news organizations saw what Fox was able to do with a cable channel devoted to right-wing ideological propaganda, the others decided to follow suit.

Actually, the commercialization and profit-making off of “news” began decades earlier, when CBS noticed that its long-form, magazine news show, 60 Minutes, was actually scoring big in the ratings arena. And the network execs began planning to put the news division under the entertainment division to capitalize on America’s thirst for news.

But as they began making money off of it, they somehow realized they could reach a larger audience and maximize those profits by dumbing down the news, and here we are.

The problems with today’s media was just one area of discussion between Driftglass and myself when he joined me in the first hour of today’s show – and we never did get around to talk about Amazon. Oh well. Check out Driftglass’ blog, and the Professional Left Podcast that he hosts with the awesome Bluegal Fran too.

And I was thrilled to welcome Howie Klein back to the show this morning! As you may know, Howie has been gone from the program to devote all his energies to fighting cancer. He’s written a bit about it at his DownWithTyranny blog (Google DownwithTyanny cancer to get his subsequent diaries, it was a long fight), and this morning, I asked a lot of questions – hoping to help anyone else out there who might have some stubborn symptoms that the doctors can’t seem to diagnose. The moral of the story is Don’t Give Up and keep pushing until you get answers.

Howie told us that his cancer was fairly advanced, but he’s in full remission now! And that’s the best news ever!!

Of course, we found time to talk about the Blue America PAC, especially for the newer listeners who weren’t familiar with the great work they do. Although Blue America primarily gets involved with House races, they’ve endorse in four senate races: Russ Feingold, Alan Grayson, Donna Edwards and newcomer P.G. Sittenfeld.

In the House, all 435 seats are up for grabs every two years, and that’s where Blue America really shines. They identify and support the most progressive candidates out there. Click here to see the list already endorsed by Blue America, but bookmark it, as the list grows regularly.

Today’s reading assignment: A Native American’s take on the BLM/ Bernie Sanders dustup. Read it here, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is Friday! Julianna Forlano will help me recap the week, and we’ll segue into the weekend with a Flashback Friday musical blast from my radio past, radio or not!