This Isn't Your Older Brother's News

This post was inspired by a brief viewing of a panel discussion on The New Media” I’m not really sure because I came in to the programming late, but it was a forum that tied into the Republican Convention, in some way because it took place in St. Paul Minnesota. The one exchange that I caught was MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson having a professional spat, with the founder of the Huffington Post Arianna Huffington in which they battled on man made debate of Global Warming, in which Huffington used to throw darts at the recently named Republican party running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, who does not believe in the man- made argument for Global Warming. Somewhere in discussion, Tucker who is by all accounts a conservative commentator was calling for a neutral voice in the political news media, as all of the major networks have partisan voices as their heavies, as we are sacrificing neutrality for ratings. At that moment I thought to myself, you know what( John), not only is he right, but this is something that I have brought up and thought about many times.

The current American news media, mostly found on cable is rampant with opinions. I have no problem with these opinion based, editorial shows because they do represent a large number of the population (You may hate O’Reilly, but the guy kills in the ratings) the problem that I have is when these commentators are touted as the top “newsmen” news organization. Shows from Keith Olbermann, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, and Chris Matthews, have become the flagship programming for the respective cable news channels. The problem here is that all of these guys have a serious slant towards the right or the left of political views, Matthews, once thought to be “hard to figure out” let the cat out of the bag, when he said on air, that a Barrack Obama speech gave him “Chills up his leg…”. I always thought that political coverage especially on a major news network was supposed to be neutral, but that’s not the case in the least. Even the self proclaimed “Mr. Independent” ole’ Lou Dobbs on CNN has noticeable slant. So the question must be raised why is there no premier neutral “commentator” on television, Tucker said it right, its about ratings.

If the guy who has the highest rated show on your network by far, speaks to and captures a certain partisan audience, then it would be bad marketing wisdom, not to make this person the star of your network. So thus, the left winged Keith Olbermann has become the face of the network, along with Bill O’Reilly, a frequent target of Olbermann, has become the face of Fox News. So now each network touts both of these guys along with a few other “stars” as the moist trusted news people in the business. Really? Trusted by who. Oh let me guess they’re base, am I right? So you have”journalist” who absorbs the talking points for their aligned party, and just regurgitates it out to the public every night for their audience, with no objectivity, and we are supposed to trust them? Really? Having Keith Olbermann, or Sean Hannity as the face(s) and the political news epicenter of your network, is like HBO claiming that Bill Maher is the political center of the channel….oh wait he is, but HBO isn’t a news network, but I’m sure you get my point.
So would a perceived neutral political commentator work in today’s climate? I guess the only way to find out is to try and see.

Until next time, try not to neutral.

Mama Sarah.

Okay I know I’ve been away for a long time and I did state in previous posts that I would update this blog more often, (like anyone reads this anyway) but I can say I have returned just the right time. The “VEEP STAKES” as CNN and Fox News liked to incorrectly call it, is over. Barrack Obama has picked Delaware Senator, Joseph Biden. A man with a wealth of foreign policy experience and overall experience , spending more than 35 years in the United States Senate. Biden, who can be a ‘hot head’ at times may not be the sexy pick, but it is a pick that could sure up Obama’s perceived lack of experience and fill the holes in his campaign. I didn’t see the Obama acceptance speech that brought democrats to tears (pussies) but as I still state that Senator Obama will probably get my vote, however I find it harder and harder to get behind the guy and support him. Yes am proud that he s the first black ( in America he is a black man, sorry interracial children) to be the Presidential candidate of a major political party. It is historic and inspiring, but as many people see Obama as some kind of a one man movement, or a god- like figure (yeah they’re nuts) he is just another politician. Besides some of the few issues that I disagree with Obama on, the one thing that I really can’t get passed is how he is a blatant flip-flopper. His position on the Iraq war has changed. First he had a deadline of 2010 to get the troops out and end military operations, then he said that he would listen to the generals on the ground, but he still had his plan and their job was to execute his plans, now within just a few months, his current stance is to listen to the generals on the ground and then take it from there based on his own plan and their advice. Then we can look on who he changed his stance on offshore drilling, to none at all to limited use if he thought it would be beneficial to the country. This change came only after many polls showed that the majority of Americans asked said that they support offshore drilling. Now don’t think that I’m beating up on Obama because I know a lot of you have Obama fever ( I actually heard a couple say that last night at a friend’s house and I cringed, I just don’t get how someone can get that much behind a political candidate.) John McCain is also a flip flopper, and speaking of McCain what about his choice for a running mate huh?

This week John McCain picked the Governor of the great state of Alaska. A woman (I can see those female democrats who were behind Hills going apeshit for this pick) Sarah Palin, who before becoming a Governor, was mayor of a town with just over 7,000 people than then moved into the executive position to govern a state with about 600,000 people. To put things into perspective the largest borough of New York City, Brooklyn has more people than Alaska, heck Barrack Obama’s home city of Chicago has a higher population than Alaska. Sure she was a Governor, but did I forget to mention that she’s a 44 year old, who’s not even two years into her first term? I’m not a Republican, but come on even I know that this is a stupid pick, when leaders in your own party don’t know much about their party’s presidential running mate. Let’s see Mitt Romney a well known, respected figure in the party, was probably the perfect pick for McCain. I’ve even heard reports, from NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, that McCain picked Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, but you know the Republicans weren’t having that. Joe is an independent that is starting to lean towards the republicans on some issues, and have openly endorsed John McCain, but still at the heart of Joe he’s still a Democrat. Who knows maybe this pick will work to his advantage, but I think that people severely underrates the Vice President position, this is the person who is supposed to be ready to lead the country at anytime. I’m sure people think that Joe Biden is, but given her background it will be interesting to see if Republicans and the rest of undecided Americans who are planning on voting for one of these two candidates will honestly think that Sarah Palin is ready to be President of the United States of America
Until next time...Alaska sucks.