Warning: Politics!!

[havenne]

Actually, I just want to save some article references, goodies found while doing my Sunday morning surfing.  I really do not mean to offend and realize that other people are passionate about their issues, whatever they may be, just as much as I am.  Gee, aren't I willing to offer up placatory qualifying statements, today.  Usually I say something

Comments

[havenne]

Sorry to rile you.

Um, you missed the part at the top of the article: it was an Op-Ed piece, not a news report. It was someone's opinion published on the Opinion page. That the someone is a member of Congress and has an issue near and dear to him is quite plain. Mr. Frank also appears to be answering some previous communication which I have not taken the time to ferret out - I go into Palin overload very quickly and am extremely thankful to have had a day with zero election coverage on the opening page of the NY Times. My appetite for surfing through the, often contentious, available verbiage runs out very quickly now.

Okay, bias. It can be pro, enhancing a point of view, as was done to Sarah Palin's Wikipedia entry before the RNC (I am surprised that her entry is currently editable as the entry for the State of Alaska is not). Bias can be con as is virtually everything written about Trooper Wooten. That should read "alleged" intimidation of the Palin family, "alleged" death threats and the tasering incident? Who the hell knows what the situation was or even if it is corroborated - there is zero backstory getting disseminated with any of this. Why has the Wooten child custody battle dragged on this long? - it isn't just a divorce but something worse: fighting over the kid(s) and people do and say all sorts of nasty things during this sort of battle. Been there, done that. We don't know what the situation is but you might notice which party is held up for supposed negative behavior; there is zero reported about the ex-wife. Wooten was just on CNN, as reported by the Anchorage, Alaska, newspaper: nothing really new but he does deny a lot of the things attributed to him. We might notice, rather than going into any more detail, that it doesn't take very many reiterations of this whole sordid story for the "alleged" part to get left off the accusations. Bias can be subtle or it can take the form of hearing the same version of a story over and over and over until the alleged becomes fact to us. We can't lose sight of the "alleged" and it is so easy to drop that one word.

But to get to why I saved the references - and I don't promise not to do it again because I don't really want to start a journal just for issues like this. Mr. Frank juxtaposed the belief system of "Social Conservatives" against the situation of their heralded candidate in a way that I had not seen before. Honestly, I think some folks are trying to have it both ways - demonize a behavior yet sanctify the people involved. The article isn't perfect but what is important to me is the social issues idea - the abuse of power issue in the "Troopergate" story is a distraction. I am convinced that virtually all politicians abuse their positions to some degree but I have written of that previously.

I will admit that I rarely vote for social conservatives - I find their policies inflexible, prescriptive and often subtly discriminatory (they were forced to give up the overt stuff). Yes, I could expand upon that at great length but I don't want to take the time to write it, I don't think anyone really wants to read it and we might come down on opposite sides of some passionately-held issue that, in the day-to-day sense, isn't important to our friendship. But I do promise to warn you, as I did this time, when I save some links to something I find interesting but with which you may have issues.

[dragonmyass]

Heavens, you didn't rile me. I'm just really, really finding my patience short on the biased reporting as of late. It seems to get worse every year. Actual reporting seems to be a thing of the past and it is sensationalism that sells. Chris was telling me about some of the cases he heard on grand jury & I was asking questions on things I had read in the paper. He told me that much of what is reported in the news is false and was done to sell the story to the public. I find that sad. What is the purpose of taking a crime and making it appear to be even more horrific just to sell a few more papers?

The Troopergate story reminds me of when I was at OCC and taking a criminalists course. My instructor was almost at the top in the Sheriff's department when the local election caused a change in who was in charge. My instructor was having his current position taken away from him, but being offered another position instead. He didn't want to change and resigned to become the director of a local ambulance company. I see him in the news now and again, he's back with the Sheriff's department. My point, the press is making an issue out of Palin firing the man who refused to fire her brother-in-law when in fact, she moved him to a different position, which he declined to take and resigned. Shake ups happen in government when there is a change of administration and those who work in government know that. It's the spin, lack of facts and lack of unbiased reporting that dismays me in so many of these stories.

Having differences of opinion, religion and politics and the right to express them publically are all rights we enjoy in this country and should support and embrace. So many others are denied even the smallest of these freedoms. Express yourself and never have a fear of doing so or offending someone - as long as it is never hateful, which is so much of what I am seeing in print and TV coverage lately. Once we allow hate in, we will travel down that road of intolerance of others and their opinions. Our differences are the spices that make us unique. I wouldn't want anyone else to be spiced like me - it would be boring.

[havenne]

Now I understand a bit better - you gave me an example. There are a lot of stories where I read what is offered and then have to wonder: what's missing here? If it is a story where readers can post comments (like on Syracuse.com and on some of the NY Times stories) I have to further wonder what these other people read that I didn't - other people's holes in the story are different than mine. That is assuming that I get very far in scrolling through comments; people are incredibly vicious these days and that is apart from what is in the 'news.' People are nasty.

It is sad to think that the information released to the public is 'spun' for some governmental purpose but, then again, my cynicism sends me surfing to a lot of different places for tidbits. There are all sorts of alternative sources out there with every sort of point of view imaginable, from the totally bizarre to incredibly alien to just plain head-scratching. The worst 'news', though, masquerades as fact while it attempts to sway your opinion on various issues and, yes, the sensational gets attention and sells ad space on the internet - you did hear that print is dead? You see, I have to make a joke so I won't beat my head against the wall.

If I could make a portion of the media just disappear overnight it would be every last 'sensational' or 'celebrity'-based outlet: People magazine, Entertainment Tonight, many of Oprah's segments, all of Jerry Springer and so on and so on. There is just too much dribble and it's a distraction even as it makes us think 'image' is everything.

[dragonmyass]

Chris and I popped into Nichols grocery store in Liverpool yesterday. It's one of the last mom & pop stores around here. They still have their own butcher shop and make their own Italian sausage as well as having employees who actually help you. I need to shop there more often. Watch for their meat sales, they can be good. They have them about twice a year. Anyway, I was surprised and relieved to see no weekly rags. They had the monthly magazines, but none of the trash. It was akin to not being assaulted at gun point.