The New Road

It's not the media. It's political commentary/entertainment.

Problem is that these shows, like Hannity and O'Reilly are on Fox News. Which is where people are supposed to go for news. And the personalities themselves blur the line. O'Reilly claims to be fair and balanced, which he is far from. And Limbaugh goes on and on about how he is the only news source you need.

Honestly, my gut tells me that people don't distinguish between this crap, and news.

I mean, think about it. The government tortures your brother or sister, and then some guys get on the radio and laugh about how they should make torture bears that illustrate different torture methods. It's crazy. It's sick and very very wrong.

Yes. It's disgusting. And Howard Stern is disgusting. And MTV is disgusting. And kids in America, as well as stupid/distracted adults, can not or do not distinguish between entertainment and reality - thus - the popularity of reality television. No wonder some parts of the world don't understand us and think we're the great satan. We present ourselves as heathens.

As for Fox News, O'Reilly is no more opinionated than Dan Rather, Peter Jennings et al, and Hannity is "balanced" by Combs - charisma wins the audience.

NPR is reporting that Iraqi's on the street are disgusted by yesterday's events. I would love to hear that from them. I wish some news outlets could actually interview some Islamic people who are expressing disgust rather than glee and victory. I have not seen anyone (there, here Europe) stand up and say to the West that they think the tactics used against us by radical Islam (9/11-present) are wrong.

Bush said he wants to change the face of the Middle East. We ARE morally superior to a huge sect in that part of the world and we have to let them know that their means are absolutely unacceptable. No matter how long that takes.

I hear this criticism a lot on the right wing about how NPR doesn't show enough disgust for the actions of our enemies. Here was this mornings coverage on NPR News:

"President Bush spoke out today, "There is no justification for the brutal execution of Christopher Berg. No justification..." President Bush spoke to reporters on the south lawn of the white house as he departed for a speech at the national naval medical center today.

The 26 year old Berg was shown being decapitated on a video posted on an Al Qaeda linked Internet web site. His captors said they were acting in revenge for abuse of Iraqis at U.S. run prisons there."

What would you like them to say?

By the way. I'm sure I have said this before but 9/11 was wrong. It was horrible. It was insane. It was wrong. The brutal beheading of Berg was also wrong. As was the killing of Richard Perle two years ago. I supported the war in Afghanistan completely and without reservation, and I still do.

I hear this complaint a lot that, I as a liberal, sympathize and support Al Qaeda. It's absolutely wrong. First, it's completely untrue and couldn't be further from the truth. Second, it's a sweeping generalization, which should clue you into the fact that it's untrue and without basis or merit.

In addition, I work with mostly left leaning folks, some even from that part of the world, nobody, not anyone, not ever, not once, not ever, has ever expressed to me any sympathy for Al Qaeda or the attackers on 9/11.

This does not mean that I support our President's war on Iraq. That war has nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is only in Iraq now because we turned the country into an unstable goo that breeds terrorists.

I also do not support Gitmo and camp x-ray. If the folks there are terrorists then they will get served justice in the courts. But we don't have a Democracy if we don't have a judicial system. Giving up our rights to due process isn't going to make Al Qaeda hate us any less.

We need to clean up the disaster we created in Iraq, as well as get back into Afghanistan and kick some Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden ass.

"a sweeping generalization, which should clue you to the fact that it's untrue and without basis or merit."

Interesting point of view considering 90% of what you write about in your blogs when it comes to politics is generalizations about the republicans, the democrats, AlQueda, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

Jack never said he was a "fair and balanced" News Source. A blog is one persons opinions.

Blogs are all opinions.

My concern with Fox, and in particular Hannity and Colmes is how fluid the mix between news and opinion is. In a genuine news source you get news in one section, and editorial in another.

One 'news' broadcast I listened to referenced the Berg killing as the 'horrific killing of Nicholas Berg'. The adjective makes it opinion and not news. It's easy enough to go legit and say, "The killing of Nicholas Berg, which the president describes as 'horrific'..." But why even bother since the people that take Fox news as gospel, literally, don't really care about fair and balanced.

Back to Hannity, after watching and listening to him I am impressed by the simple brutality of his style. I'm particularly fond of his talking over opinions he disagrees with to acts as a type of noise generator to obscure their comments. That's the mark of a man who is truly comfortable with his arguments.

Another technique I have noticed on now four different right wing radio shows is the 'head on a pole technique' where they have spots between segments of the show that demonstrate just how badly they will barbecue 'liberals dumb enough' to call into the show.

Most of these shows bear striking resemblance to the 'hour of hate' in George Orwell's 1984. Where the government would tell you who to hate and why you should hate them every day of an hour. And daily it would change. The difference being that these radio stations run 24 hours a day.

Lord help us - Is Michael Moore RIGHT?!?!?!?!?