Fair and Balanced -- I Kid You Not

That Fox News calls itself "fair and balanced" is amusing and frightening at the same time. They can't really believe it, because they champion "conservative" causes 24/7. There's about a 10 to 1 ratio of opinion to news on the network. From Sean Hannity, to Bill O'Reilly, to.............Glen Beck who organized, promoted, cheerleaded, and "reported" the 9/12 rally (he's the one who said: “I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9/11 victims... And when I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining.” He's the guy who called President Obama a "racist" and got suspended for a week. Like Jack Paar used to say - I kid you not. Fox News says, "We report. You decide." Fox News exaggerated the turn out for the rally by about 2000% I kid you not.

If they just said we are the right-wingest of the news, at least that'd be accurate reporting. They can't really believe "fair and balanced"; so the only conclusion left is that is that they choose to misrepresent themselves to the public -- lie? A friend of my brother's told him she watched Fox news because they were the only network that wasn't biased. The only network that isn't biased? --- I kid you not. Fox Newsers wear their right-wing "bias" like a medal.

I told a distant cousin of mine that the new Republican strategy of being rude, disrespectful, ignorant, and misinformed would probably work in derailing any meaningful health insurance reform. Modern politics is to misrepresent the opposition point of view and then respond with anger and vitriol to the phony misrepresentation. The Big Lie is working.

Here's are a couple of examples of the efforts to find a compromise health insurance bill that one or two Republicans might support: in one compromise version, illegal immigrants will be barred from being able to purchase health insurance even if they have the money to buy it. Joe Wilson's misinformed, rude, disrespectful, ignorant "You lie" shout at President Obama led to this "compromise." The fact is that if an illegal alien shows up at an emergency ward with an injury with no insurance, he gets treated and we foot the bill now. That won't change. And another compromise is that homeless street people will be "forced" to buy medical insurance or pay big fines. That's the direction the health insurance debate is going.

I usually try to find the humor in all of this, but it's getting harder to do. Maybe it's because it's Thursday and I'm wearing down. But all this "Obama is a Nazi/Communist/illegal alien socialist Marxist, the anti-christ, Bury Obamacare with Kennedy, nastiness" is discouraging. It's gotten so crazy that even Rush Limbaugh and other right wing radio nuts have been knocked off the news for a few days. I kid you not.

I watched Jimmy Carter's remarks about what he perceived as an underlying "racist" factor in the most intense vitriol out there. And I watched the dozens of talking heads on TV supporting or lambasting him for his remarks. My opinion is that he's probably pretty tuned into the issue. And I remember seeing a news report about a campaign worker canvassing a white working class neighborhood in Pennsylvania I think. The canvasser asked who they would be voting for for President. The response, "I'll be voting for the n*****." I kid you not. It doesn't take much of a scratch to expose residual racism under the surface of American life.

Thank God for Fridays and Nebraska football. Go Big Red. I kid you not.

Regards,
Bud C
www.artbycassiday.com


pic attached is "Nebraska - The Good Life"