More Proof That Cable News is a Joke

Cable News Wonders: If A SCOTUS Nominee Plays Softball ... Is She Gay?

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Daily Show/Colbert Most Knowledge Viewers; Fox, Not So Much

A new study by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last:

It is a sad commentary on the corporate television media when a comedy channel not only has more knowledgeable viewers than the so-called news channel of Fox, but that many political stories are more thoroughly discussed on Comedy Central than anywhere else on television.

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Another Example of the Myth of the Liberal Media

I'll let this post from the Booman Tribune say it all about the myth that is the so-called liberal media bias:

You can tell that the media is liberal by looking at the Sunday morning political talk show lineups. On Face the Nation, Lindsey Graham is balanced by Evan Bayh. On Meet the Press, Orrin Hatch is balanced by Harold Ford. On This Week, Mitch McConnell is balanced by no one. On Fox News Sunday, Mitt Romney is balanced by no one. On State of the Union, Tom DeLay is balanced out by Chris Van Hollen and Brian Baird. Obviously, that means there are no progressives and, aside from Van Hollen, no mainstream Democrats. It's extreme right-wingers matched up against the most 'centrist' Democrats in the business. The only person on any of these shows other than Van Hollen who will wholeheartedly defend the president's health care plan is Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. That's how they game the system against us.

The Republicans think that the media is liberal because the reporters believe in things like global warming and the value of the United Nations and the theories of evolution and plate tectonics. But, just because the media is educated and cares about world opinion doesn't mean that they are helpful to liberal causes like avoiding senseless wars or extending health care accessibility to 30 million Americans. They're not helpful. If they were, they'd have invited Raul Grijalva and Sheldon Whitehouse on their shows instead of Harold Ford and Evan Bayh. Link

Letter to the Daily Record Editor

Sorry I missed last week's poll question. "Does President Obama have the country headed in the right direction" . Who wrote "An unpopular president" as the poll result? (1/29/2010) What are the 250 other comments? Will you post them online? Are they as "venemous" (your word) as the ones you selected? I particularly take offense at the Communist = Democrats paragraph. Are you expecting venom back? Is this what sells newspapers and TV ads? Is journalism bankrupt too? Are these angry folks heading our country in the right direction? (Another poll question, perhaps?)

Next week's questions: What is the most pressing concern of the country? In my mind, the big looming "something else" is the kind of venemous comments you (and we) repeat that prevent us from working together to do the right thing when it comes to Jobs, Housing, Afghanistan, Health Care and other critical issues. We can't get the job done over the shouting. It's time that quiet, concerned, patriotic and courageous folk (and politicians) begin to question this posturing and courageously work to get the job done.

Peggy Guttieri

Wooster

Letter to the Editor - Balanced Reporting?

Even though I remain an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama, I concede that facts are facts. In its Friday, January 29, 2010 editorial, The Daily Record accurately stated that the Obama-Biden ticket carried neither Wayne County nor Holmes County in the 2008 general election. McCain-Palin received about 56 percent of the Wayne County vote, Obama-Biden about 41 percent. The results in Holmes County were even more disparate; McCain-Palin 69 percent to Obama-Biden’s 28 percent. The area is conservative and predominantly Republican. We know that.

So, it was not surprising that this week’s Daily Record poll question, “Does President Obama have the country headed in the right direction,” “Shows a growing disaffection with the President.” 80 percent of the 250 respondents expressed a negative opinion. Those are the facts.

But, The Daily Record then went beyond the facts. The uninformed, misguided and inaccurate comments of several respondents were faithfully highlighted. Those comments appeared to have been taken directly from the “Tea-Baggers’” talking points. What disturbed me most was the total absence of any balancing comments from the 20 percent of the respondents who answered positively. What happened to fair and balanced reporting? Yes, it was an editorial, but it was reporting poll results. The poll minority’s comments were omitted, as if there had been none. To add insult to injury, an anti-Obama, anti-Democrat editorial cartoon accompanied the editorial column.

Daily Record, you can do better. We expect better.

Don Clement

Wooster

This Headline Sums Everything Up

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

The Village Voice

President Clinton summed up the way voters view political parties very well. Democrats better heed this advice:

People would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right.

The sad thing is Democrats are right. They just aren't showing much strength right now.

President Obama One of Most Productive Modern Presidents in First Year; Media Fails Again

We often hear Republicans throw around the "L" word when it comes to the mainstream media, but this has been a myth repeated so often by the Right that people just come to accept it. But the media is not Liberal. The only "L" word that would describe it appropriately is Lazy. If the media actually did its job, then it could be called Liberal, since the truth has always had a Liberal bias :)

The point is that while conservatives, with the help of the media, including Saturday Night Live, try to make it seem President Obama hasn't done much as President, there can't be anything farther from the truth. There have been at least 90 important accomplishments or actions taken by the Obama administration in just 10 months in office. The Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact.com, as of Nov. 25, has kept 55 campaign promises and has another 160 in the works, while only breaking seven promises.