When I was growing up during the 1950s, I knew the world was a scary place. I knew there were dangers, even those above and beyond my mother's long list of things that can kill you. However, you got the truth about the world on television, in newspapers and in magazines. There were no "sides" in journalism. There was not a "left media" and a "right media". There was Walter Cronkite on CBS, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC and I think Harry Reasnor was on ABC. They reported the news of the day. Facts. Checked and double checked. Sources researched and as close as they could get to it the truth went on the air. Thirty minutes and we were informed. Not swayed, informed.
Deeper truth was in the newspaper and full coverage and lots of detail in magazines. At our house we were Cronkite people, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, morning and evening editions and Time, Life and Post magazines. The magazine subscriptions changed a bit over the years and we lost the evening edition of the paper as it went the way of home delivery for milk and diaper services.
As a child I sat and listened to the news with my family. I looked at the magazines and read the articles that interested me. Mostly Beatles related information in my younger days. Then I would read about current events and the news of the war in Viet Nam. The Nixon administration and the lying and the cheating that actually went on in the Oval Office and in the West Wing. I was shocked that President Nixon walked away free. That didn't seem to set a good example for future holders of the office.
After Nixon resigned and the war was over I didn't pay much attention to the world or politics. I had a life to live, a job to do and tons of fun to have. I listened to the news when I was home and was moved by the sad stories, shocked by the horrific, appalled by the injustice but not especially motivated to do anything except listen and agree or be disgusted.
Then 2000 rolled around. It was a presidential election year. George W. Bush and Al Gore went head to head to be the leader of the free world. I was a Gore supporter. I liked Clinton as a President. I hated Congress wasting my money over the Lewinsky affair. I hated it more when the President did the lawyer shuffle. That speak in circles and be so specific. However, there was no way I was going to vote for W. I didn't like him as a governor and I knew he wasn't smart enough to run any country much less this one. Al Gore seemed benign but I thought he would surround himself with excellent people. I became very interested in that election and started watching all the hoopla. That was when I learned about the new media.
Every one I knew who supported Bush, that was quite a few, seemed to have no reason why. They, for the most part, watched Fox News, listened to Rush and spouted the same rhetoric. The Gore supporters all watched network news or MSNBC. I was a Brokaw watcher and I loved Tim Russert on Meet The Press.
I stuck with the "mainstream" media.
This is when people went berserk. I wasn't informed enough if I watched "left wing media and read the Dallas Morning News, a liberal publication". WHAT? I had never heard such foolishness in my life. "Listen to Bret, listen to Rush, you will learn so much." So I exposed myself to Fox News.
The first thing I learned was that everyone one on the Fox News channel peddled their books. Hi, welcome to ____________, buy my book, available in stores and on line. This was journalism? Didn't seem to me that it was. Seemed to me that it was an excellent forum to sell opinions.
I listened to Rush Limbaugh for about five minutes before I thought I might shoot the radio. What on earth were people getting from this buffoon? Support? Validation? Good heavens, he seemed a menace to society.
I was amused that information on FOX NEWS passed for anything except a GOP love fest. Seemed to me it should have been named, "The Conservative Opinion Channel". The hard hitting Bill O'Reilly made me laugh. He approached everything I watched from the, "I am correct you are stupid", angle. That is hard hitting journalism at it's best. When O'Reilly interviewed Obama during Super Bowl halftime this past February I was surprised there was a room in the White House big enough to hold O'Reilly's ego. He would ask the President a question and answer it for him. Repeatedly. Why did Obama even sit for that? I would have politely declined and watched the game upstairs in the residence. And tried not to choke on a pretzel.
One thing I could not help but notice was that all the women on FOX were blond and leggy. It's an important requirement for a journalist. The men, however, seemed to have no physical standard to meet. That seemed true of most "news" channels. Pretty women and regular men.
I am sick of there being any side to media. Anyone who allows a broadcast to show bias without announcing the information as an editorial is not a journalist. The FCC should do it's job and stop counting the number of times children can be offended by something the children's parents should control. The FCC should insist that "news" be precisely that. A summary of events of the day. It isn't interpretation, it is reporting on events. As in, "There was a fire. So and so died. Congress did not pass this bill. The President is traveling to India. Thank you, good night."
The spouters and rhetoric spewers and rabble rousers should be labeled as such.
And for the record I do not watch MSNBC. I don't need an opinion, I have one.
The saddest part of this scenario is that we should be smarter. We should be engaged in the course of the nation not the discourse of so called reporters. We should be able to distinguish what is trash talk and what is simply the truth. But no, we are engaged in the most uncivil war. We have allowed ourselves to be divided by people with agendas. Agendas by nature are one sided.
I would like a good old fashioned slice of truth. Ala mode, of course.
You're welcome,
Lillybell Blues
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