And so—Last Thursday I decided not to watch the news for the entire weekend. I was disgusted and tired of hearing about whom…you guessed it, Rev. Wright. As if we did not just recognize the 5th year of the IRAQ WAR. As if 25 American soldiers and 57 Iraqi civilians were not murdered over the past week. As if a total of 4,000 American soldiers have not lost their lives over Bush’s war. Instead of reporting this as news, our trusted journalists decided that hmmm…we’re not going to discuss that this week or next…we were going to continue to beat a dead horse and show clips and pictures of Sen. Obama with his FORMER Pastor; because on news stations what mattered most were ratings and sensationalism…not informing the American people.
So, today Tuesday March 25th, after the Easter holiday I thought…"Maybe I can turn the T.V. on again and find out what happened in the world." I sat on my couch…slowly pushed the on button and waited…as if scary music were playing in the pinnacle moment of a horror film to see who would get whacked....EEEEEKKKKKK!!!! And what did I see you ask…Well, let me tell you what I did not see first. I did not see coverage of John McCain making an ass out of himself and the American people in general as he explained how “Al-Qaeda soldiers are trained in Iran”. When asked for greater clarity on his statement McCain said the following: "Common knowledge and [it] has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known." A few moments later, Joe Lieberman, leaned forward and whispered in his ear. McCain promptly offered a quick rewrite: "I'm sorry; the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."
Nope the media did not pick this up as major story. As a matter of fact they dismissed it as a “senior moment”…was that supposed to be funny? Do you want a President who is showing signs of senility??? At 3am??? McCain only based his whole candidacy on the fact that he is an “expert on foreign policy”…really???
What else didn’t I see… I did not see serious discussion on the plight of the people in Tibet; I did not see pundits talking about what issues matter to the American people most. Nope, I did not see any news when I turned on the NEWS channel. I did see that Britney Spears was on a sitcom, I did see more commentary on Rev. Wright and I just saw at 4pm Sen. Clinton explaining that Rev. Wright would have never been her Pastor! Really???
Oh, that’s right because when real Americans express anger and resentment the best thing to do is walk away…that’s not what I want my President to do. You don’t just get to represent the people that agree with you and tell you what the F@$K you want to hear…you get to listen to everyone! Freedom of speech is not for the faint of heart…it’s for the KKK, preachers, radical religious zealots, peacekeepers, liberals and everyone in between. That is what America is all about. So, I say this to the American people…get angry and demand more from your politicians and from the media. I want real conversation and dialogue about what matters- paying for college, healthcare, combating global warming, fixing our foreign relations nightmare, fixing our public schools- the list goes on. And unless Rev. Wright can do that, get him the F@#K off my T.V.
That’s my Two Cents!
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3 comments:
Thanks for reminding me why I don't watch the news after work - depressing, discouraging, and distracting. Sometimes you need a break and yes we need to stand up to this sensationalism!
I completely agree with you on this. After not watching a lot of news overseas for 6 months and then coming back to this, I was disgusted. I even did an experiment (when I was unemployed) to see what got covered on CNN over a whole day. On that particular Feb. day, I heard repeatedly about a school shooting and the presidential race. All in all, I would say they covered world news for about 10 minutes in total. I'm not saying that the school shooting was unimportant because it was a very sad event, but the media needs to remember that they need to paint a whole picture just not tiny parts. I've not been pleased at all with media and I just stopped watching as much as I was when I first got back to the U.S. It's ridiculous that we focus on the "sex scandal" of one politician instead of focusing on problems that so many people (in America and worldwide) are dealing with such as health, education and war.
Great job on this post! Keep them coming!
I couldn't have said it better. I totally agree.
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