Just the facts, Mr. Vachss

Just got off the phone with Andrew Vachss , who was calling from the Oregon Coast . He called me because he’ll be reading from his new novel, “Two Trains Running,” on Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore . I had been told that an interview with him was “intense.” But I found him refreshingly frank, and the word I would use to describe him is committed. Anyway, anyone who says he holds journalism in high regard, as Vachss does, is OK with me.

Of course, one thing we agreed on: Journalism as it’s being practiced today, when people such as Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass get fired and then become celebrities, is not exactly a noble profession. At least it’s not the honorable trade that I, for one, was taught that it was supposed to be so many years ago at the University of Oregon School of Journalism .

There are individual players who still do their jobs with a sense of professionalism. But journalism overall is gradually turning into something that merely plays to the masses, instead of fulfilling the obligations of the Fourth Estate .

But what the hell, right? Somebody turn on the television. I think “American Idol” is playing.