Getting the news these days is a lot like going to the grocery store. We have the ability to roam the aisles at leisure to pick and choose from a wide variety of products. Don’t care for Chris Mathews? POOF! Be gone. Hello Mr. O’Reilly. Mr. Olbermann’s rants not your cup of tea? Just hop in the car and crank up an earful of Rush. Matt Drudge’s blog leaning a little too far to the right for your liking? Then just paddle yourself on over to Miss. Huffington’s post. To be honest, listening to any of them for too long will ring even the deafest of ears, but, alas, we are what we eat. And unfortunately these bias pundits don’t come with that helpful list of nutritional facts to guide us to a healthy and sound perspective. But, then again it does not take all that much intuition to realize that Oreos, reduced fat or not, ain’t that good for you.
Now, I understand that giving conservative America a hard time right now is like watching one of those killer whales maim a baby seal by rag dolling it up and down the shoreline, but listening to some of the people that FOX News and Clear Channel have chosen to place in front of the mic has gone too far.
Clear Channel, owned by former Governor Mitt Romney, now pays Rush Limbaugh 50 million a year to play God to his listeners. Knowing that he is, for all practical purposes, the mouthpiece of conservative America is down right frightening. If you spend about five minutes listening to Mr. Limbaugh you get a very clear picture of where the conservatives get their foolish fodder. References to communism, socialism, a bias media, high taxes, big government, and an assault on the Bill of Rights by the left are what get broadcasted to his 20 million faithful. Mr. Limbaugh’s self perpetuating diatribes are nothing more than scare tactics, forced down the throats of the ignorant and bitter loyalist of conservatism. To me it’s just sad that one-liners about Teleprompters and articles regarding incorrect phone numbers are all that remains for this group to cheer about. Is this petty bitterness really going to last for the next four years? Will I have to continue to listen to the right talk about their freedom and watch as they masturbate to the mirage that is Ronald Reagan’s imaginary “shining city on a hill”? Has logic and knowledge been replaced by sound bites, partisanship, and living in the past?
The self-proclaimed “fair and balanced” FOX news channel has recently given Mr. Glenn Beck a television show. The fact that this guy’s comedy act is running on an alleged “news” channel is beyond me. Between Mr. Beck, Mr. Cavuto, and Mr. O’Reilly’s commentary I often wonder if FOX’s programming is all just a brilliantly executed practical joke being playing on the American people by Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch. If this is the case, kudos to you sir. You got us. Good one. Really. Now please fucking stop. By distorting the truth, feeding the uninformed bias opinions, and mocking the intelligent you only hinder progress. But maybe that’s the point?
We need remember that our news will always be dispensed without warning labels, which is why our ability to think as individuals is paramount. Listening to the opinions of these former drug addicts and religious wingnuts because they have been given a higher perch from which to speak does not make them righteous. It makes them wealthy and self-aggrandizing, which in my opinion makes these sort of outlets a very dangerous source to receive one’s information. Not unlike this blog.
