Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Posts tagged FOX News
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Feb 17th
I’m sad that I even have to waste time on this topic. A few weeks ago the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the McCain-Feingold Act that violates the First Amendment of the Constitution. While the story has been the outrage from the left and independents about the ruling (thanks in part to the horrible coverage in the press) the real story should be there are four justices on the Supreme Court who don’t understand Freedom of Speech. The ruling by the Supreme Court didn’t go far enough in protecting Free Speech as far as I’m concerned. Rodney Smith has an op-ed in the Washington Times that agrees with my position.
In Federalist 10, James Madison states that special interest groups will always exist and that we need to get use to them. He argues that “Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire. Human life is sustained by air. So is fire.” The elimination of air to eliminate the threat of fire would also mean the end of human life. Likewise, freedom is essential to both special interests and to vigorous political debate. Withdraw freedom from special interest and you destroy political life itself. This is exactly what campaign finance reform has done.
If tomorrow I decide to make a movie about a political candidate and it’s funded by a major film studio what business does the Federal Government have in telling me it’s not allowed? It may be unseemly to some that a corporation funds my movie but unseemly doesn’t rise to the point of restricting the First Amendment. The most frustrating part of this issue is there isn’t anyone adequately explaining why this decision was a victory for the First Amendment. It’s certainly not President Obama, who shamefully attacked the Supreme Court during the State of the Union. Obviously, the President either doesn’t understand or would rather score cheap populist points than tell the truth.
Why are corporations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and FOX News exempt from campaign finance laws? The editorial content of these news outlets is very political and is absolutely not objective. The reason these corporations are exempt is the same reason why campaign finance reform is unconstitutional. That’s what is so shocking to me about this issue. The four liberal members of the Supreme Court are okay with some corporations and some citizens being denied the Bill of Rights.
obama’s fox news paranoia continues
Oct 22nd
It’s one thing for liberal bloggers, talking heads, and small time politicians to complain about FOX News, but for the President of the United States to say that FOX is like “talk radio” is insane. Does President Obama really want to go to war with America’s most popular news source? What does he hope to gain? The President is faced with a bad economy, a health care fight and a war. Why is he wasting time bashing FOX?
“I think what our advisers have simply said is that we are going to take media as it comes,” Obama told NBC’s Savanah Guthrie. “And if media is operating basically as a talk radio format then that’s one thing, and if it’s operating as a news outlet that’s another but it’s not something I’m losing sleep over.” [Emphasis added]
Oh really? Does anyone truly believe the that White House would be wasting time on FOX if Obama was completely unconcerned? One thing I think Americans are learning about this young presidency is that he can’t take criticism. By any standard Obama has received the greatest coverage from the press in modern history. Yet, he’s upset with FOX? I can see why the White House holds up CNN as the model of centrist journalism. After all it was CNN’s superstar Anderson Cooper who was making jokes about “teabagging” and Wolf Blitzer “factchecking” a skit on SNL. I can see why the White House loves CNN. Just for the record, George W. Bush never said the word “strategery” and Sarah Palin never said that she could see Russia from her front porch. I didn’t know “factchecking” was necessary for sketch comedy.
Corruption we can believe in!
Maybe what Obama is really upset about is his falling approval numbers. If so, he really is a thin-skinned woosie. If I remember my Greek mythology correctly, Narcissus was a thin-skinned woosie. This is part of the job, Mr. President. Even President Reagan had days when he wasn’t so popular. Obama needs to get tough. Quit complaining about FOX News. The leader of the free world needs to start acting like it. Let’s start with making a decision about Afghanistan.
the media that cried wolf
Oct 20th
A few weeks ago I wrote about Glenn Beck. I’m not too fond of the guy. That aside, it’s a sad indictment of mainstream journalism when a guy like Beck keeps beating them to the punch on issues like ACORN and Van Jones. The White House has become obsessed with FOX news. Who can blame them? Every other major network is bowing at the altar of Obama. Notice the vitriol that has been heaped upon Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Andrew Breitbart, and even Sarah Palin. These people are guilty of having a different opinion. Over the past year who has contributed more to news, Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann?
I’m not going to waste time calling for an advertising boycott of Olbermann. His show seems popular and there’s a demand for his take on politics. More power to him. Is Olbermann less divisive than Rush Limbaugh? It’s a difficult argument to make from the man who has a “world’s worst person” segment on his show. NBC uses Olbermann for sports coverage and liberals don’t seem to mind, but if Rush Limbaugh wants to partially own a team there’s outrage, fake quotes, and lies. No one apologizes because it’s fake but accurate.
It seems as though the left is doing a good job of dismissing all conservatives as stupid, racists, bigots and homophobes. These character assassinations are freezing the debate. If you truly believe, as Janeane Garofalo does, that conservatives have something wrong with their brains there’s a problem. When Garofalo made those asinine remarks Olbermann nodded right along.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is a fable that teaches us that even when liars tell the truth they’re not believed. Today it seems that simply “crying wolf” is enough to believed. If you call Rush Limbaugh a racist long enough it’s just accepted as truth. If you call Sarah Palin stupid long enough it’s simply the truth. If you say President Obama is a woefully inexperienced, naïve, and liberal you must be a racist. The reason people like Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart keep breaking stories is because the mainstream press is too busy crying wolf to cover the news.
bread and circuses
Jun 26th
“Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they’ll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar.”
-Gracchus in Gladiator
I absolutely resent the news media’s round-the-clock coverage of Michael Jackson’s death. I was hoping he would continue to fade into obscurity, become less crazy and die of old age at Nevemind Ranch. Why his death matters so much to the media is beyond me, but I also wonder why the media pays attention to what anyone in Hollywood has to say about politics or anything else of importance.
I’ll admit to a certain bias here: I hate Celebrity and the worship of Celebrity in America. Celebrity, not religion, is the opiate of the masses. But I suppose Celebrity is a religion in its own right with its own rites, altars and priesthoods, not to be confused with Jason Priestly, formerly of Beverly Hills 90210 fame.
The rise of Celebrity in America coincides with the willingness of the American people to cede their liberties to the state. Americans believe all kinds of myths because the celebrity culture anesthetizes them to the truth. Celebrity offers easy, pre-packaged answers that require little intellectual effort. Why look into an issue on my own when I’ve got Oprah, George Clooney, Pamela Anderson and Michael J. Fox doing the research for me?
For instance, it has become a truism via the Celebrity culture that embryonic stem cell research, of course funded by the taxpayer, is the only way to cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In reality, the most successful research and actual progress has been made with adult stem cells. But let’s not let facts get in the way when said “facts” have already been cherry-picked for us, and when they happen to coincide with one of Celebrity’s favorite causes, abortion. Yeah for the death of those that are inconvenient to us!
“The science is settled” on any number of topics, according to Celebrity and its minions in Congress. All of the bad weather anywhere in the world is caused by man’s selfish consumption, and must be stopped. Of course, as a Celebrity (or a member of Congress), and because I’m so important, I cannot possibly curb my consumption. “Let them eat cake” has been replaced with, “Let them drive clown cars!”
That is why our spoiled aristocracy – the 21st Century Marie Antoinette – is in favor of the supremacy of the state over the individual. It’s very similar to the feeling a lot of Coloradoans have about their state, best summarized by the bumper sticker fashioned like a Colorado license plate that says, “No Vacancy“. I freely admit to feeling the same way. Now that I’m here, I’d like to fence off the state and not allow another person to darken its borders.
In the same way, celebrities and other hyper-rich, powerful people (such as Avon’s Andrea Jung mentioned in a previous Club Soda post) want to fence off the American Dream and keep the bounty and freedom of America to themselves. It’s a form of arrogance that says they’re individuals while the rest of us are simply numbers in a census (conducted by ACORN, of course).
So, while the media devotes itself to non-stop coverage and posthumous tributes to the King of Pop, Americans are being screwed by another unreadable, voluminous, multi-trillion-dollar bill that will finally defeat climate change and the American economy in one fell swoop.
The media, once again, is asleep at the wheel, celebrating celebrity and accepting at face value the pronouncements of the aristocracy that something “must be done.” Bread and circuses, if you will. When this monstrosity of a bill passes, Denver’s weather better be like San Diego’s year-round, or I’m going to be pissed.
