First, instead of going into the field to dig up a real story on her own, this producer swipes a story -- a bad story -- from another publication. Then, instead of doing her own homework, she has the gall to contact Al and ask him to essentially turn over to her his sources (with conditions, that they speak English) so she can just swoop in and turn on the camcorder.

And no doubt that when some less honorable journalist does bite on her hook -- dazzled by the glammor and money of CBS -- that will be the end of that. When the credits role, it will be this producer's name in the limelight inside the corporate media machine, using the story she stole to step up the ladder.

I won't make a blanket indictment of every TV producer on this front, because I have worked with some who are very good, who do it right. But they will be the first ones to tell you the filter is so tight on what gets through to the big lights of a network like CBS that hundreds of legitimate stories are cast aside for the sap that does find its way into the "faith-based" homes of the United States.

And make no mistake about it, at least in my estimation, the story this producer is seeking to manufacture fits in perfectly with the "moral values" climate now washing through this nation like a stream of vomit. Meanwhile, an informant's participation in the murder of more than a dozen people along the Texas/Mexico border -- all under the watch of U.S. federal agents and the Justice Department -- doesn't merit a blip on the national network news front.

Why? Maybe it's because corruption on the U.S. side of the border in the "drug war" doesn't conform to the notion of "moral values" that the pack journalism in the states now sees as the bread ticket for ratings.

I suggest that Al does invite this producer down, south of the border, and drop her in the middle of, say Cochabamba, without a cell phone, to fend for herself -- and see how long it takes before she finds a lifeline. Maybe, along the way, this producer might get a glimpse of what a real story is -- because the experience might actually lead her to interact with the people.

Until she is immersed in the view from the ground, she will never understand the obstructed view of the "penthouse journalist." But we might as well pound sand in terms of getting that point across to posers who are intent on milking the golden calf of the media Moloch -- to steal a notion from Howl.