An On-Going Series: Why Fox News Is Pathetic!!

Welcome to my debut Blog on Blogger.com. I'm not sure who actually reads stuff like this, but I have so much on my mind lately (take it when you can get it!), I feel I need some outlet to unload the pith and vinegar!!!

This will be a brief blog for today, just to get things rolling. (Who am I kidding?!  I don't know the meaning of the word BRIEF!)

I watch political news on TV a lot. The more I watch, the more I'm convinced that mainstream, network media is simply awful. You learn so little of substance from network TV. Every so often somebody like Keith Olbermann will come along and say something radical, but then after you've spread the word about this brilliant, independent thinker, he starts playing "TV Star" and suddenly loses his edge. In searching for actual content that can be learned from, I've had to look to outside sources, such as online blogs and alternate, non-mainstream news sources. 

As an example... I watched as much of last week's Republican National Convention coverage as I could possibly stand. I'm a liberal, and I'd be quick to admit that my views are somewhat extreme and not in the mainstream. I'm a Canadian so I can't even vote in America, so why do I care?!!  Good question!  Anyway... I would vote for Obama because there is nobody else worth voting for. Ron Paul is inspiring and not-mainstream, but voting for him could take votes away from the Democrats and put them in the hands of the Neo-Con Artists. So supporting Obama is a safe way to ensure that the Neo-Con strangle hold on American politics has to take a vacation.

I digress...

I watched the mainstream network coverage of the RNC last week, and surfed from MSNBC to CNN to Fox News to PBS to CBS and on it goes. Every network has its pundits and experts, but most of what they have to say is about the horse-race... what was said that STRATEGICALLY would help Candidate A get more votes. These are not issues that concern me. John McCain spoke for an hour and said very little of importance. Wild accusations about Obama raising taxes came from McCain's tele-prompter, but nothing concrete was divulged. Then, after all of that, the pundits and experts continue to overlook the important points.

On Thursday, I watched Democracy Now online. For those who don't know, Democracy Now is a non-mainstream media outlet. They would appear to be leftist in their views, but they routinely go after both sides of the American political equation. They take the attitude that journalists are supposed to assume everybody is lying and then investigate thoroughly until they discover the hidden truths. It's fantastic and well worth checking out. 

On Thursday, they sent a reporter to the RNC to let the people speak. There was no commentary or explanation, just the opinions of the various people there. I learned more about the Republican attitude from that than from anything on CNN or MSNBC.

So there you have it... mainstream media sucks. It's the Britney Spears/Paris Hilton of information. Life goes on. No big deal.

But as bad as that is, Fox News goes that extra step further into suck-dom. I watch Fox News quite a lot, even though it is like torture. I have friends and family members who believe that Fox really is the most "fair and balanced" news network on American TV. I watch hour after hour and continue to catch them nuancing the issues to suit their conservative viewership base, and I think... "man, I wish my friends were with me right now, so I could point out all the subtle techniques they use to make the left look like radicals, extremists, and most typically, non-patriots!

So this, my first attempt at writing a blog, will give one example of this which I just saw a few moments ago on TV. 

You'd have to be sleeping to not know that Obama has the popularity edge in this election. I know people who think that when it comes down to the voting booth, Americans will not be ready to vote for a Black man for President. But as of now, Obama has all the magic. McCain and the RNC were virtually dead on impact. If it weren't for Sarah Palin, their entire convention could have been overlooked as the slow, agonizing death of the modern Conservative party. But she saved the day and gave McCain some life. But there's no doubt that the odds are stacked against McCain in winning this election. Bush and Darth Cheney have fucked things up so badly, even hardcore Republicans are ready to jump ship until the party gets back to being the GOP of less recent years. 

So if that is true, Fox News, the voice box for the Republican party, has to find clever ways of making the Democrats look bad. When the election process started, they went after Obama because his middle name was Hussein. They would show a picture of Bin Ladin on the screen with the name OBAMA written underneith of it!!  (I'm sure that was just a technical glitch, right?!!) They got on his case for not wearing a flag pin. They went after him because he was an "apparent Muslim." They did everything they could to discredit him. They were in their heyday when Obama's former Pastor was discovered to have held less than mainstream beliefs. 

So today on Fox... there was a report on how there were tons of American Flags left behind as garbage from the Democratic Convention. Disrespecting and discarding the flag?? How dare they?  This is obviously further proof that Obama and the Democrats don't put "America First!!" The Patriotism of all of the "left-wing kooks" or as Bush called them, "the angry Left," is definitely in question. They want their viewers to be reassured that an American-hating, terrorist-friendly BLACK man is not suitable to run the United States of America!!

This is outrageous, and it goes on day after day after day!

I'll be checking the other TV networks, to see if anybody mentions anything about this "flag-disposal scandal!"

For the love of all humanity... please tell me that people aren't stupid enough to fall for shit like this????!!!

Well, thanks for reading. More Fox Patheticisms coming up soon!

Cheers

Ian