Random idea: the office of WTF? in chief

January 12, 2009 · Posted in Media Criticism, Politics, Random Ideas 

Following up on the “semi-success” of the Unicorn Chaser idea, here’s another one that might be worth some time from the media industry, even though the idea itself isn’t solely aimed at the media industry:

The WTF? In Chief

I’ve been working on an interactive graphic for the Obama inauguration. Here’s a preview:

click to see larger version

click to see larger version

The idea is, you get a visual representation of all of the things the new president has “on his plate” when he takes office. It might be instructive to compare his “plate” to what previous presidents had on their “plates” when they took office.

Honestly, I probably won’t get this finished by the time the inauguration rolls around (classes starting this week and all), but I might assign it to my interactive reporting class to finish up. :-)

So the WTF in Chief idea would be to have an official appointee whose job it was to explain WTF?!?! to the American people.

Not the press secretary, but someone whose sole job is to respond to the righteous indignation of the American people about the seriously messed up state our nation is at the moment (and if you don’t think we’re in a world of doo-doo, then I don’t even want to deal with your denial of reality). Maybe that’s Obama’s job ultimately, but it might help if we had someone who could respond on a semi-regular basis to commiserate with us.

Someone whose job it would be to explain:

  • WTF happened to our $350 billion in bailout money?
  • WTF happened to the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Rita?
  • WTF is going to happen to those who authorized torture at Guantanamo Bay?
  • WTF is going on in Iraq?

etc. See this report from the Center for Public Integrity for a list of 128 major meltdowns in the executive branch over the last 8 years. I think you get the picture.

The idea also got me to thinking about a similar position newspapers could adopt – think of it as sort of the ombudsperson for the financial meltdown. We already have Alan Mutter doing this from the outside, and others who are content to lob information from the outside, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for some newspaper company execs to come out and lay everything on the line for their loyal readers and “stakeholders” (I hate that word)?

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Comments

  • Isn't that our job as journalists? It would be great for Americans if someone in the governmental structure would do this, but if they did, there would be even more journos without jobs, right?
  • scmurley
    Well, you're assuming all the journalists have been *doing* that job for the past 8 years. :-)
  • And that brings us back to the "fixing journalism" argument. We spend so much time talking about blogs and comments, when its the actual journalism part that needs work, more than what platforms we use. Less about what Obama had for lunch and more about the issues.
  • Well said Megan!
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