Lame-stream Media – Fair and Unbalanced?

Something has happened over my lifetime that has me a little pissed off. And that something is how the main stream media has become very overly biased in how and what they report in the news. I am not talking about Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Keith Oberman, or Chris Mathews as those are opinion based shows. I am talking here about the regular national news of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, local and national newspapers, etc.

So you ask well how are they biased, well it is not just that they provide a left (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, newspapers) or right (Fox) leaning slant to the news that they report. It is that with some things that they do not even report about it. So if there is no news on a particular subject, than the masses do not know about it, and therefore it is not news. Sometimes they will report a news story and not do any effort in fact checking (does anyone remember how to do this) in the story. And in some other cases they report flat out lies or distort the news to further their (and their political aligned agenda’s) cause. And the sad thing is that none of the news outlets today even attempt to hide their bullshit agenda’s anymore. So let’s take a look at some examples so you can see what I am talking about.

Remember when President Obama was running for office in 2008 and it came out (well if you managed to hear about it) that the preacher at his church was spewing out hatred of white people and that they were to blame for all of America’s and black people’s problems? I heard about it barely when it came out but only because I read about it online. The main stream media buried the story because Obama was a Democrat and well the media was acting as a lapdog, and they wanted him elected to office. Now imagine the year is 2000 and George Bush is running for president and it comes out that he attended an East Texas church where the preacher is spewing KKK like hatred for black people. Do you think the main stream media would have reported it? You bet your ass they would have and you would still be hearing about it today.

Another fine example of great reporting was when a few years ago there was a rally in Arizona where there were people protesting Obama and some of them were carrying weapons (which is allowed in Arizona fyi). Well the mainstream media found and took a picture of a man in a white dress shirt that had an assault rifle over his shoulder. The media then went on to describe the people in the crowd as angry, racist, white gun nuts. And when they showed the picture of the man, they only showed the man from the neck down. The media then went on to discuss racism and race relations for months afterwards. If the main stream media would have showed the whole picture instead of a cropped picture, you would have seen that this man was a black man and not some racist angry white man.

Do you remember the 24/7 coverage of Cindy Shennan (spelling?) and the anti-war moms who were protesting all the time? The main stream media reported on them non-stop from the time the Iraq war started until George Bush left office. Then when Obama was sworn in the protests stopped. Or the media stopped reporting about it. Did the protestors magically disappear when Bush left office? No they did not. Yet any day of the week you can find someone protesting in front of the White House against the two wars we are involved in right now.

Did you hear about the three Black Panthers who in 2008 were in Philly intimidating voters as they went into the polls to vote on Election Day? No you sure didn’t. The Justice Department brought charges against them and then earlier this year dropped the charges against them. And you still did not hear much about it from the media. Now if this had been three white guys intimidating voters, brought up on charges, and then had the charges dropped under say George Bush’s administration, you would never hear the end of it would you? But because the media is left leaning and so is the current administration and this story has been buried and not reported on.

Even my local newspaper has become liberal left leaning in their reporting. I have been reading this news paper daily for over 20 years at lunch time and I have noticed a change. Whenever a criminal was on the run and wanted by the law, they would give a full description of the person which included their race, height, weight, hair color, etc. And sometime over the last ten or so years they changed the way they report on these wanted people. Just two days ago there was story about a man wanted for a bank robbery and the only description which was listed was the guy’s height, and weight. Do you know how many people fit that damn description of being 6’1” and 200 pounds? That is half of Houston. And just two weeks earlier the paper listed another wanted individual as being a white man in his 20’s, 6’1”, and 200 pounds. The paper only lists a person’s race if they are white. Now if you can’t list the race of someone who is wanted for a murder or serious crime, how the fuck do you expect the public to help in the capture of said criminal?

Remember the Fort Hood shooter and how he yelled out Alah Akbar before killing the people? Did the media call him a terrorist, no you did not. Do you remember during the healthcare debate that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were on national tv and said if you are against health care reform you are a racist because it affects black people and a black president is pushing the bill. Since when did race have jack shit to do with supporting or opposing a piece of legislation? Remember how the media suggested that the guy who left the car bomb in Times Square was a white tea party member? And it turned out to be a Muslim terrorist.

Now keep in mind that I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican, I am an independent voter. I have been all my life and will be until the day that I die. I just want to see the news reported fairly and without any bias. Which is why I love the sports page of my local newspaper so much, and that is because you can’t bullshit the stats. There is no spin on the stats. It is what it is.

I guess the short version of what I am trying to say is that you should get your news from multiple sources and not from just one source in order to get through the bullshit that is out there today, more so during the election season we are in. And with most of America only getting its news from the main stream media, it is easy to see why people constantly vote for idiots.