Friday, September 5, 2008

Fair and Balanced: Getting the "News" in America

The conventions are over. American politics moves on and it seems that the country is split down the middle.

The thing that impressed me the most was the vocal expressions of dissent and affirmation by – everybody.

America is the best place to hold an election. I couldn’t even imagine the goings on in Denver and St. Paul being replayed on the streets of most nations.That was the good part.

The bad part was that everyone had an opinion. I expect people to be opinionated but the news reporters turned out to be nothing more than shills and prostitutes for their respective candidates.

I have an opinion, we all have opinions, but I expect a news reporter to have some dignity and ethics about the profession. I don’t want them to give me their opinion of what happened – I can make up my own mind, thank you very much; but I would like them to tell me what actually happened.

American news reporters have become no more than walking gossip mongers. THey are so full of their own inflated opinion that I doubt if they could actually give a true picture of an event without adding biased language one way or the other.

So let’s see whose opinion the people believe. Watching the news is more like listening to a preacher in church than listening to a report from the town crier. Walter Cronkite is surely dead and Tim Russert of MSNBC has no replacement. Even Greta Van Susteren of FOXNEWS, a lawyer who one would think, familiar with the concept of ethics and decorum, could not help herself in declaring for one candidate. A judgeship is obviously not her goal.

Is it not possible for news reporters to be impartial – and cast their vote in the privacy of a booth rather than publicly, via running lips in a supposedly professional position? FOXNEWS: We report You decide? Obviously not. Rather: “We decide, We report.” Or maybe MSNBC: My Side Not Both Countdown?” Or CNN: Comments Not News.”

I give credit to FOXNEWS for trying. Their “pool camera” work at the Democratic Convention was excellent, while the CNN pool at the Republican Convention paled in comparison. It got better, I think even their peers complained. The problem I have with FOXNEWS is that their opinion makers were disguised as news people. Except for Mr Hannity who clearly, several times reminded people that he was not a news reporter. And then there is MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann who could not be called a reporter by any definition.

Does anybody know what is actually happening in America - or, just some gossip and opinion? I wonder.

Where is Augustine's "City on the Hill" and who lives there?
And perhaps more importantly: How do they live - with each other?

不知彼,不知己,每戰必殆 (孫子)

(If you don't know yourself and if you don't know your enemy,
then you are in for a world of hurt!)


γνῶθι σεαυτόν (Δελφοί)

“I couldn’t imagine this ... world.
Hell is so big and dark and heaven is so small." HJM

"the U.S. has a little manifest destiny over here,
and a little more manifest destiny over there..."

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How About a Bill of Responsibilities Rather Than A Bill of Rights

What if we chose the wrong religion?
Each week we'd just make God madder and madder.