I try to read the paper every day. Yeah, I only read one, but the crap they put in it is all I can take for one day. I read some web news, like Drudge and Yahoo News. I watch TV; that’s where I get most of my news. I read a few different blogs – holy mackerel, there are some wing nuts out there in cyberspace! How do you pick and choose? How do you know what’s spin and what’s unwashed truth?
The problem as I’m seeing it right now though is where I should get my news. People I regularly converse with tell me all kinds of things about the news. “Fox is too conservative.” “CNN is too liberal.” “Bloggers don’t have a clue.” So where do you go to get just plain news? No spin, no bullshit; just plain news?
I try to watch the Sunday morning news shows on the networks; ABC has This Week, whose host, George Stephanopoulos, is the former press secretary for Clinton. If George can’t spin a story then a story can’t be spun! Think about all the crap he had to spin when he worked in the White House!
NBC has Meet the Press, whose host, Tim Russert, has worked for a couple of democrats in the past. Mr. Russert worked as a counselor for Mario Cuomo when he was governor of New York and for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as Chief of Staff.
NBC has another Sunday morning news show, but I have a hard time listening to Chris Matthews. He seems liking he’s yelling at the world most of the time. I live with three women — I don’t need anyone else yelling at me, so no Hardball for me! I think he might have a little bit of a saliva problem, too.
Besides, Matthews worked for Carter. I was in the military when Carter was president. Did you know that when Carter was president, China called the United States a paper tiger? I’d rather watch Saturday Night Live impersonate him anyway — a lot more fun.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Michael J. West
Perhaps it's in your perception?
Study after study of journalism, mass media, and its audiences has practically made this a law among communication scholars:
A person of strong political opinion, regardless of the orientation of that opinion, will, when acting as an audience for major news media, perceive that news media as biased in the opposite direction of the person's political views.
Which means that no matter what your opinions are, you'll think the media's biased against you. If you're looking for something that doesn't seem biased, you have to have no political opinion whatsoever.
2 - gonzo marx
oh c'mon Andy...
you know you get it from here...
heh
me? i go fer a mix, Lou Dobbs then Hardball if nothing else is on at 8 , some Keith Olberman, a healthy mix of Google news links and right here at BC
but the real Answer is...yes Andy, you have to figure this shit out for yourself...the Media are in it to make money, so there Interest in getting the whole unbiased Story out there is colored by financial concerns at the least...and in some cases, partisan axrd to grind at worst
use that grey matter and make up yer own Mind
but you knew that i would say that
Excelsior?
3 - Andy Marsh
thanks gonzo...as always...you really are worse than those nuns ya know!
4 - gonzo marx
why Andy..that's the finest Compliment i've had since a troll remark a few months ago...
i'm Honored
Excelsior?
5 - Andy Marsh
hey, I'm just glad you don't have a ruler handy!
6 - lori
Ruler?
You boys gonna be measuring something?
7 - JR
Lou Dobbs is blatantly biased on a few issues that he's obsessed with. However, for the most part he avoids those stupid Hollywood-celebrity-on-trial-for-removing-the-
feeding-tube-of-a-trapped-coal-miner stories. You get news on issues that might actually impact your life and some slightly-more-informed-than-average analysis. Dobbs would have leaned toward conservative back before the term was hijacked by religious nuts and lobby capitalists.
The other option is PBS's News Hour, but I find it about as enticing as a protein bar. Pity I didn't grow up before TV could rot my brain. Sigh.
But that's the thing about totally unbiased news: it's boring. The bias gives you a point of reference from which to follow a narrative. Without that it seems like a pointless recitation of meaningless facts.
8 - JustOneMan
Think about it....nobody was watching Lou Dobbs until he took a stand became a vocal anti-illegal immigration spoke person...unlike many of the CNN & MSNBC types who pretent they are being nonbiased in their biased reporting..he is no longer hiding behind a "story"
This is the reason that FOX has grown and Dan Blather has become a living fossil....
9 - Andy Marsh
It sounds like I'm stuck yelling at the TV. Either yelling in agreement or yelling in dissent, but still yelling.
The kinds of stuf I'm talking about are things like this latest issue with the NYT. Depending on what news program you watch this was either really really bad or no big deal...I haven't seen one news show that put it somewhere in the middle.
10 - Clavos
...I haven't seen one news show that put it somewhere in the middle.
Probably 'cause "in the middle" doesn't sell a hell of a lot of airtime (or papers).
11 - gonzo marx
as for something in the "middle"
it seems SCOTUS gave the Administration a figurative bloody nose today when it ruled that the WH had overstepped it's bounds concerning detainees in GITMO...
from Bloomberg news... a clear cut case of checks and balances kicking in... Roberts recused himself cuz he had ruled on a lower court... so the only dissent was from Scalia and Thomas (suprise) with Thomas making an unprecedented move by reading from his dissent, basicly saying that the WH should have carte blanche in wartime...
luckily the Majority did not agree, and stated that the proposed military tribunals violated both the Geneva Conventions(which were ruled applicable, that's Important) as well as a violation of the UCMJ (uniformed code of military justice, the laws from which our military operates...also important precedent)
so much for a bunch of Gonzalez's legal Opinions on exactly these matters
can't wait to see how the rulings go on other of Gonzalez's opinions...like torture, or extrodinairy renditions...
time wounds all heels
Excelsior?
12 - Andy Marsh
I'm gonna try not to say this to loud...but I watched FNC last night...
Wesley Clark was on O'Reilly...his idea for the GITMO detainees is for an international tribunal...let the rest of the world get involved with these terrorists...like he said...if he's an enemy of the US...he's an enemy of every other democracy in the world...
As O'Reilly would say...what say you?
13 - gonzo marx
i say, if you watch O'Reilly, then i must question your rational ability and sanity
if you take him for an entertainment source, and toss out his blatant factual errors, partisan bias, and outright fabrications...but just enjoy him for a belly laugh ...then fine
but you get about the same amount of hard news from Jon Stewart (which is to say, almost none) as you do from O'Reilly...so taking him even remotely seriously as any kind of "journalist" besides a muckraking partisan mudslinger is beyond the pale of Reason
your mileage may vary
Excelsior?
14 - Andy Marsh
but then again...you like Olberman...who seems to spend more time slamming O'Reilly than reporting news...but he's not biased?
I watched to hear what Clark had to say...after that they were talking about Jolie and Pitt...like I give a fuck about them!
15 - chantal stone
any so-called journalsit who spend an iota of airtime on jolie and pitt should no longer consider themselves to be in the realm of serious news, imo.
gimme a break
16 - Andy Marsh
that's why I turned it off! I mean. come on...it was either that...or watch the Sox beat up on the Mets!
17 - gonzo marx
for the Record, Andy..Olberman is in the same entertainment category as the Daily Show
some info, but not a serious news program
Excelsior?
18 - Andy Marsh
gonzo - I honestly didn't know that! I thought he was supposed to be serious reporting...obviously, I've never watched or I'd know this...my apologies master...
19 - Clavos
Andy...Andy...Andy,
Never EVER feed the ego of someone who calls himself Gonzo...talk about opening Pandora's Box!! :>)
20 - Andy Marsh
Clavos - gonzo and I go back a ways on BC..he actually is a pretty smart guy...in spite of his nom de plume!
He has pointed me to the path many times...I don't always follow...sometimes it's kinda scary...but he has shown the way.
21 - MCH
Besides that, us squids gotta stick together...
22 - Andy Marsh
You know, I woulda thought that too...but it don't always seem to be the way...
23 - MCH
Best news programs I ever watched were Chevy Chase, Jane Curtain, Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner on SNL...
24 - Andy Marsh
The first time I heard Dan Akroyd say "Jane, you ingonrant slut" was the first time I was in CA...I thought...I heard CA was a little different the Jersey! I'd never seen SNL before that...
25 - MCH
Hey Andy...did you get a chance to see that match between Kendrick and Nadal yesterday? Wow, almost one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history...