They all Suck

Over the last few years, I have become transfixed listening to Bill O'Reilly. He pretends he has no agenda but clearly does. His tactics are quite transparent. My favorite is when he pretends to take a point of view and lets his guest tear his weak point apart. Later, when he does not like the guest, he puts out his real point of view and yells vociferously every time the guest wants to make a point. Listening to this type of drivel (not to mention Foxes other drivel like Hannity and Colmes or Chris Wallace for example) really angers me. And yet, I don't turn it off.

One point that Bill O'Reilly has successfully made to me over the past few years is that MSNBC is just as bad. At first, I thought it was his way of trying to bolster Fox news which a large portion of the world recognizes is a joke. However, I started to watch MSNBC and realized that he is right. When I was younger, NBC always seemed like a fairly legitimate news channel. I watched Tom Brokaw when I was a kid and he seemed like a straight shooter. Since he has taken over Meet the Press, he still appears to be a straight shooter (although not as engaging as Tim Russert.) However, I started watching countdown with Keith Olbermann and I realized that he is as much a hack as O'Reilly. He uses the same tactics. Playing possum, yelling at his enemies, etc etc.

Is this really what we want? It certainly is what seems to sell but it frustrated me to no end. We have a country rife with debt, a mortgage crisis, 2 violent conflicts going on in two separate nations not to mention 10s of thousands more troops stationed around the world. We spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined. We have a federal reserve that has devalued our money for at least the last 20 years.

Yet, in the media and in political ads, we hear about how famous Barrack Obama is, how old John McCain is, lies about how much a candidate wants to tax poor people or how much money comes from oil companies (souly referred to obnoxiously as "big oil".) Could we please return to intelligent debate?

Look back to our founders and the eloquent wisdom that came from them:

Patrick Henry:
http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/henry-liberty.html

Thomas Jefferson:
http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html

Andrew Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE_5SCC0sts

What happened to this? Actually, I believe we still have great men in our government. We also have fools but it is hard to tell the difference because the media won't tell an honest interesting story. Barrack Obama is not an elite famous hollywood star. John McCain is not an elderly stupid fool who wants to fight until everyone is dead. These are both men of character who have lived interesting lives. I for one would like to here more about it. I would like to hear about the important issues. I want to hear more about the federal reserve in the news. I want to hear more about the true effect of different tax plans. I would like to hear about the pros and cons of a national health care plan. I would like to hear about the effects these men might have on civil liberties or the education system of our country.

I am tired of hearing about fluff. I am tired of hearing about fringe issues like Abortion, Gay Marriage or illegal immigration. There is a systematic problem in our country with the way we deal with credit and markets. Its time the media talks about it. If they think that the populace is not smart enough to understand or care, then it is time to invest more in the education system.

So now that I got this off of my chest, lets start complaining about the asinine things that the media says.