Christmas greeting from Murrow

As most of my readers know, Ed Murrow is one my heroes in the world of journalism. As we approach Christmas 2010, I thought I would use Mr. Murrow's words to send a Christmas greeting to a few folks.

To Democrats and Republicans:
"We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late."

To Glenn Beck:
"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."

To Rush Limbaugh:
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices."

To the Rest of Us:
"Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live."

Merry Christmas to all and to all, "Good night and good luck."

Media Bias: Not Liberal, Not Conservative

I commend to you an article in the January 25 issue of The New Yorker by Ken Auletta. I hope you will read it...and if you have time, read it again, because it contains the essence of the governing problem faced by today's leaders in Washington. Here's what Auletta says about the impact of the 24/7 news cycle:

"The news cycle is getting shorter -- to the point that there is no pause, only the constancy of the Web and the endless argument of cable. This creates pressure to entertain or perish, which has fed the media's dominant bias: not pro-liberal or pro-conservative but pro-conflict."

When the goal is not to inform or illuminate but to stir the pot of "conflict" constantly, there is little room for reasoned heads to be heard, understood, and God forbid, followed.

I know. The media are a favorite whipping boy for those in power who don't like what is being said about them. But this is different. This is the continuing and growing cacophony of uninformed voices coming at us from a thousand directions -- some with an ax to grind (NRA, NARAL, etc.) and some just seeking to entertain (Limbaugh, Beck, etc.).

The Internet has opened the flood gates and now everyone is a "Presidential Advisor." The power they have found is sometimes incomprehensible to those who only recently have discovered how to use their blog, their Twitter account, Facebook, YouTube, etc. But just because they are there does not mean we should listen to them, must less adopt their point of view. If anything, it means we should read all of it with the largest grain of salt we can find and use our heads to think through as carefully as we can what the truth is and what the next course of action should be for our leaders, our government, ourselves.

Several years ago, a lady slipped by the telephone screeners on the Rush Limbaugh show (she was not the typical sycophant that let on the air) and she caught him in an outright lie, a total contradiction of the facts and she knew it, he knew it and it was clear to the audience that he had lied, too. He gave that now trademarked Limbaugh chuckle, "heh, heh," and finally said to her, "Madam, you must remember, this is only entertainment.

Trouble is, Rush, governing is not entertainment, serving the people's best interest is not entertainment, and to put it in terms you might more easily understand, love of country is not entertainment, it is our duty.

This genie is so far out of the bottle, the genie has forgotten where he put the bottle...and as a result, I fear for our country.

The gridlock in Washington has been imposed upon it by the people -- the people who were supposed to elect representatives to go to Washington and vote their best judgment when issues were laid before them. But now, we don't permit them to fulfill that duty. Instead we use the various communications tools at our disposal to tell them, and tell them over and over, loudly, how to vote and what we are going to do to them if they don't vote today exactly how we feel they should vote today. That is not the representative republic envisioned by our founding fathers. It is not!

Newt, Rush -- and Obama: A Tuesday Potpourri

When Gingrich says as he did on one of the Sunday talk shows, “No one wants Obama to fail, we just want his policies to…uh, we just want him to change policies,” make no mistake about it, he wants Obama to fail. This comment is so sad…so clearly transparent and unworthy of the former leader of the OS.

I have almost concluded Gingrich should run for President in 2012 as he has suggested he might. Maybe that would be the best way for us to dismiss permanently this less than helpful individual from the body politic. I wonder if that teaching position is still open at West Georgia College at Carrollton from whence he came.

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President Obama has more on his plate…right now…than any human…ought to face…ever. I know there must be loyal opposition – everyone is entitled to a different opinion, if they have one – but all of us, those who voted for him and those who did not, should give Obama time to lead. He hits a couple of objections to his bold attempts to stabilize the economy and the media – all of them – collectively pounce and pronounce “The honeymoon’s over.” And that was just 10 days after the swearing-in. Today, he has been in office 50 days and TV business analysts are calling the market decline “Obama’s bear market.” Give me a break. If you expect to enjoy any measure of credibility with the American people, your comments must be found somewhere within the realm of reason, please. The American people deserve more thoughtful analysis.

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Every time the TV networks replay a tape of Rush Limbaugh pontificating on the major issues of the day, as he was recently at a meeting of right-wing conservatives in Washington, I think of a day many years ago when a lady called his radio show to challenge him on a couple of issues. She had her facts ready and in a few minutes it was obvious he had been wrong and she was right. He stopped her finally, chuckled his famous, “Hehehehe,” and added, “Madam, remember, this is just entertainment.”

And so we all should remember, “…this is just entertainment.” Got that, dittoheads? No, I guess not.

Rush, your dittoheads don’t get it, that what you do is just an act. To them, what you are telling them is nothing short of gospel. That you are willing to lead these followers into a land of perpetual ignorance where they are not encouraged to challenge all that they hear, including what they hear from you, is shameful. If you would start and end each show with “Remember, what you are about to hear during the next three hours is just entertainment,” that would be an appropriate way to bring your followers back into the land of reason, knowledge and understanding.

Colin Powell speaks to GOP

I'm going to keep this very short....so my Republican friends will "get it" clearly and unambiguously. In an interview with former Sec. of State Colin Powell, taped for Sunday broadcast, Powell said his party should stop listening to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

I know, it's OK; catch your breath....and read on.

"Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?" Powell asked. "Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

Got it? Good.

Now -- Turn. It. Off.

Lock and Load, Rush. Karl Marx is at the door

OK, I want to make one thing clear: anyone who listens for one second to Rush Limbaugh is admitting he is perfectly willing to suspend all semblance of reality in his life. Rush is blaming Obama already for the recession we are in. He is blaming the President-elect for a whole range of national plagues a full 69 days before Obama is set to take the oath of office.

Rush and the nut-case right wingers on talk radio are also responsible for the run on weapons -- especially assault weapons -- at gun stores across the nation. They are telling those foolish enough to listen to them that the next President is going to pass new laws to confiscate their weapons and gun owners should prepare to resist that day, apparently with violent revolution if necessary. Brian Williams had a report about the up tick in gun sales tonight on the Nightly News.

No one could make this up. Who ARE these people who listen to that fruitcake? Please tell them as calmly as you know how, when you have the misfortune to engage them, "Stop, please stop listening to Rush Limbaugh." If possible, add this bit of truth, "Rush is not a patriot; if he were, he would not be seeking to blame Obama for every mistake visited upon the nation the past 50 years, except, of course, the period when Bill Clinton was President. Bill Clinton is still responsible for all the bad that happened in those eight years -- including, I guess, all that peace and prosperity we enjoyed.

Say goodnight, Rush.

The Limburger Effect

I don't understand how Rush Limburger can claim his "Operation Chaos" was a success. He instructed his followers to walk like sheep into Indiana voting booths and vote for Hillary Clinton to increase her chances of winning by a margin big enough to impose "chaos" on the Democratic selection process. If it was such a big success, why did she win by just 15,000 votes? If it was such a big success, why didn't she win by 500,000 votes...or even 100,000 votes? Geesh, she almost lost! What about that, Rush?

All of us know the truth. And the truth is this: Rush is afraid of an Obama win. He knows thinking Republicans are giving Obama a close look and many seem likely to support him in November. As MSNBC reported, exit polling of Republicans who voted Tuesday in Indiana showed 58 percent of them think Obama can beat John McCain in the fall.

Another Republican Party leader told me that when they can't find their volunteers in a given state, they have only to look to an Obama rally...and there they are!

No, Limburger knows what we all know, that America is ready for change and if the change is Obama, there is likely to be real change in Washington. And that type of change -- real, productive, positive change that solves problems, restores American integrity and credibility across a broad range of issues doesn't sit well with Rush and his minions.

This democracy thing is inconvenient, isn't it, Rush?