Thanks to former Honolulu Advertiser editor Mike Middlesworth for turning me on to John Camp’s “The Derelict Gunslinger” blog.

It’s always fun to read someone who names names while excoriating the state of journalism, the news industry, and America’s plague of know-nothing politics.

“Elizabeth Taylor causes Libyan ceasefire,” according to one of Camp’s recent entries.

Anyway, at 5:30 CDT, I switch from CNN to the broadcast networks to determine the lead stories on each of the evening newscasts. My final destination is usually CBS. I stay with Katie Couric because she reminds me how lucky I am to be out of the television business.

In fact, I fell to my knees and thanked God Wednesday night for my premature evacuation from TV news. On a day when Libya was being bombed and Japan radiated, the CBS lead story was the death of actress Elizabeth Taylor. If you feel the ground shaking, its Edward R. Murrow bouncing in his grave.

Don’t get me wrong, the passing of an iconic star of Elizabeth Taylor’s magnitude deserves a great deal of news coverage. Like most men in my age group, I have been guilty of conjuring occasional fantasies featuring the glamorous actress. But not to the extent of declaring a cease fire during a war, as was the case with CBS News.

Thankfully, NBC and ABC led news with coverage of Libya, thus delaying the onset of America’s television journalism apocalypse—an event I fear is imminent.

And on Glenn Beck’s departure from FOX News:

For awhile, though, Beck was the darling of the nation’s malcontents—especially the loudmouth leadership of the Tea Party. He gave the movement early momentum.

Indeed, his drooling rants, crocodile tears and conspiracy theories attracted prime time ratings for Fox—a commentary on the ignorance of a large segment of the nation’s population, who have given up thinking and reading.

In addition to ratings, Beck’s behavior also attracted a large number of funny farm inmates, who figured that crazy was the latest craze. So they unstrapped the restraints on their fashionable hospital jackets, slipped outside the gates of institutions for the deranged and ran for public office under the Tea Party banner.

To the everlasting embarrassment of moderate Republicans, the strange band of office seekers declared themselves as members of the Grand Old Party. As a result of these declarations, Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan are probably now performing graveyard acrobatics.

If you’re enjoying yourself, check out his book, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me, available in paperback or Kindle ebook versions.