I was cleaning up my gardening tools in the shop this morning. Hub had the radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh for background "noise". And noise is certainly what it was!I never listen to talk radio for just that reason - it's noise. Free speech aside, sometimes I think the whole concept should be banned. He claims, what, 20,000,000 listeners a week? For many its like Hub, in the car for a brief time or for background noise, but never-the-less people do listen. They do buy into the venom he spews. You can tell by the comments from his "ditto heads". He's not alone. There is Hannity and Ingraham and Savage and on and on. Conservative and Liberal. Each promoting their political ideology with, to be kind, loose facts and meanness of spirit.
Not much better are the talking heads that fill the cable tv channels. While the hosts are slanted, they at least have the faithful from both sides of the political spectrum going at one another. It's a starting place to sort through differing view points.
The newspapers are becoming less and less effective due to budget restraints that show no sign of easing and a lack of reporters who are schooled to be objective.
Much to the chagrin of the "professionals" the blogs, more and more, are becoming the place to go to get information. At times I think we're a pretty insignificant part of the information highway, and true, bloggers such as myself are. But the bigger ones do have the information. Just as slanted as tv and the papers and most certainly talk radio, but there are more to choose from and with some diligence the accurate information is there to be found.
An article by Time Magazine's Joe Klein talks about how the neocons are trying to get him fired because he dared to criticize them. He talks of going against his better judgement, appeasing them and later regretting it.
He goes on to say he won't make that same mistake twice. That they were wrong, they are bullies and he won't be intimitated by them. A reporter for Time Magizine. You can't even depend on what you read there to be fact. How many other publications have reporters submitting articles for our consumption under the same circumstances?
So it's up to us. You and me. If we don't we'll end up believeing Barack Obama is a Muslim and John McCain doesn't get his facts mixed up at all!
What kind of President will we elect with thinking like that?
2 comments:
The thing I noticed is how negative those talk shows are. I never hear them say anything positive. If they laugh at anything it is something at someone else's expense.
And the funny thing is.. they don't even like McCain.And they say they are Republicans. But the negative gets to be almost vicious on many terms.
i hear what your saying. i can't believe the people that listen to that crap, believing everything they hear. i can't listen for second and i'm boiling. i have to say though i'm a loyal fan of NPR.
What can one count on for the truth. You only hope people have just an ounce of common sense. But, i think i'm dreaming when i say that.
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