HARBINGER

It's only a couple of blog posts or so ago that I opined that no-one really gives a shit about investigative journalists. That was in the wake of the news of Marinova's murder in Bulgaria.She was the third investigative journalists murdered in a EU member state in the past 12 months. Galizia in Malta and Kuciak in Slovakia being the other two martyred for the truth and public accountability. But  " news " corporate MSM news has now moved on to Khashoggi. A sworn opponent of the ruling Saudi Royal family and of its quasi-medieval politics and practices. A writer and polemicist in exile in the USA and habitue of the Washington Post he popped into the Saudi embassy in Ankara to sort out some bureaucratic paperwork. He was consequently tortured,murdered,cut up into pieces and buried. Even in Erdogan's Turkey,where some 250 professional Turkish journalists are languishing in prison,this act of barbaric impunity was more than one step way too far to shrug off or e...

Truth is most people probably don't a give a shit about investigative journalists.Or what happens to them or doesn't happen to them.Perhaps the only time when some random spark ignites the public's interest in investigative journalism is when a scandal is uncovered and wrong doing is exposed to the bright daylight of public scrutiny. Not all journalists are investigators but it goes with the profession's territory.Born to snoop,to pry,to ask the really awkward questions,to dig, to get their goddamn head blown off if they dig too deep and wind up annoying the wrong people at the wrong moment. But when all the sums get added up at the close of business,not too many give a damn one way or the other;unless and until,of course events start to impinge too often and bodies start to pile up in plain sight of the civilians who would,if they could choose,rather not know,rather not confront the mire and the blood of Realpolitik as it gets played in real time with real conseque...