I've been convinced for years that, while I am not typical, nor am I alone in my thinking and feeling about things.  Recently I have stopped watching the major news (which really aren't) channels because I have wearied of listening to media time being given to so many who do nothing but tell the world what they would do if they were present, though that is not what they admit to doing.  The world could be falling apart, but as long as panels require less work from production staff, they will probably be the word of the day just as 'reality' shows are to commercial fodder for the masses.  Spoken of as 'our all-star roundtable' we get to hear arrogant speaker after egotistical speaker who thinks they have worth by telling what they would do if they were President or, if that is even beyond them, have the temerity to tell the sitting President how to do his job!

Another on which I rant is that these self-called 'journalists' (but who aren't, really,) were paying off gambling debts on the elections on Fox News today.  It was an anathema for me to have been on Fox News at all, in the first place.  The second shock was what I saw, renewing my reasons for staying away from that channel which is like the black plague to me.  Have they no shame?  Apparently not.  Even though when they paid their debts off, the money went to charity.  But it was arrogant to giver away such large sums as a game when so many people are out of work.  He grandly paid off a $1000 lost bet in the amount of $10,000, writing the check as he said he was happy to pay because it was a donation to Doctors Without Borders.  Did he really have to do that before the poor millions in the country?  I doubt he would even understand the criticism of 'lack of sensitivity'.  Another big payer was John Stosssell and a third was a beautiful blonde whom I would not have recognized, since I rarely watch the channel, having promised myself a fast death rather than the slow death viewing Fox would give me.

News Channels have sunk to being gossip channels with people speculating with as much accuracy as predicting (without an ultrasound ) the sex of an unborn child!!

BULLYING NOT NEW; JUST SUPPORTED BY TOO MANY

Bullying is often not the creation of the bully.  Often there is subtle approval and permission given by a parent or parents, the local society, and those who want someone else to do their 'dirty work'.  I've been searching out what is going on about laws or states who seriously express concern about bullying, I found a site that looks interesting.  Click here. The site belongs to the Bully Police USA.  Most of the states are listed, with many having been given a grade rating.  I was interested in seeing that Massachusetts earned an A++ rating.  If that is deserved, I don't wish to imagine how little is being done in other states.  California brought their rating up from a D to a B and the reasons why it came up are listed.

Bullying exists wherever the power structure is unequal and the one with more perceived power can effectively bully...sometimes indistinguishable from blackmail, though often physical or power in other ways to hurt the target, such as firing, doing damage to their reputation, etc..  As prevalent as it may be in Middle School, we should never presume bullying only happens in children and teens.  There are bosses who are bullies, law enforcement personnel in all stations, clergy, politicians, men, women, and anyone who can 'win' over someone else and sports the cruelty to be able to see it through.  Just disagreeing with someone else's opinion causes some bullies to take action.

This makes it a conclusion that those who are biased, opinionated, and unable to believe theirs are not the only acceptable opinions can easily bully to get others to agree.  The abortion doctor, Dr. George Tiller, who was shot a few months ago is certainly a poster boy for this kind of rigidity in the bullying perpetrator.  The murderer believed he was doing something good.  He was incapable of feeling for the life he took nor the family around him and friends who loved and depended on Dr. Tiller. 

As is typical in my first paragraph, the man who shot Dr. Tiller was being urged on by the rhetoric of the anti-abortionists.  Those who advocate violence will watch this kind of bullying and feel virtuous because it was not their finger lifted in the violence.  However, Bill O'Reilly, in my opinion, and those like him should share the responsibility for their actions.  Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, and all those who are stirring up violence should be held accountable when it happens.

ISN'T IT AMAZING HOW MANY ILL-PREPARED AND UNINFORMED PEOPLE TRY TO ADVISE OBAMA?

It seems the media has done the world a disservice by thinking man-on-the-street interviews are useful. For a while interviewers were like vultures, asking for feelings of people in trauma from loss of loved ones, homes, life savings and the countless emotional reactions which shatter people. It seemed they couldn't stop badgering people until they got them to cry on camera. For some reason I either have stopped watching those shows or the producers decided it was the wrong way to go. I found them too intrusive and painful to watch (and this from a psychotherapist who has never minded hearing people's feelings). It was the blatant exploitation of the most private and painful struggles people were forced to describe for the disinterested or voyeuristic public which bothered me.

Now the me4dia has seemed to decide that anyone who has an opinion that differs from that of the current administration is worth being given air and camera time. Considering that the Cheney's (the Big Dick and his opinion clone, Liz) really have no voted-in standing of political office, it always galls me that their word is reported more often than Obama's.

My intent is not to be derisive about the man-on-the-street but have full intent to be so about the paid talking heads on radio and TV. They speak with not much more knowledge than the average citizen. What they know is usually passed on like the parlor game (telephone) so the what they finally say is not-recognizable, quite distorted and no longer accurate. I can only hope they are so thrilled that someone is asking their opinion and can have their 5 minutes of TV fame, many probably don't require much paid. The principals, however, earn huge amounts for reading teleprompters and occasionally being allowed to ask questions, cued by the bug in their ear. Chris Matthews, like Bill O'Reilly, ask lots of questions and then answer them before the guest is permitted to speak. Actually Chris Matthews belabors points to death, subjectively, before he gives an opportunity for his guest to resopnd, if he allows them to at all.

It should be sad for the media that many prefer infomercials and ads to their version of the news.

DECEIVED BY HYPOCRITES AND LIARS

Bill O'Reilly was sued for sexual harassment. Read here. Not surprisingly, the suit was settled out of court. Click here for more. Recently O'Reilly took on a bunch of girls for their lewdness in dancing. To read an interesting article on his moralizing to sexy high school dancers, read here.




On 8/30/07, top Republicans were trying to get Senator Craig to quit in disgrace.
Read more on it.
Larry Craig is not longer a Senator but he was listened to for years spewing his hypocritical nonsense and asking people to believe in a morality he did not follow.

Sir Allen Stanford is a disgraced Texas billionaire. There was tremendous impact on English cricket. The consequences of evil people go far. Bernie Madoff is another example of the easy way people have of believing a con artist.

What people fail to see is that con artists are everywhere. They were in the Catholic church and molested children of both sexes for years before law suits forced the church hierarchy to stop their cover ups. The tobacco industry lied about the toxic effects in their cigarettes until the law, once again, began a truth campaign. For many years, homosexuals have hidden in heterosexual marriages, while preying on organizations catering to boys. They have hidden themselves in Boy Scouting, De Molay, Family Institutes, and other organizations, like cancer....doing their silent damage until the prey is often beyond repair.

We are all potential targets of people like the above mentioned. If one were to try to list the most dangerous, we would not be able to read the length of that list. We all need to be wary, especially of those in the fringe who seem to be marching to the beat of a different drummer.

GET ENTERTAINMENT RATINGS OUT OF THE NEWS SHOWS

We have Oscars and Emmys and lots of other awards for the best of a category. Perhaps someone should set up a new contest to incorporate the news media since it has now fully slipped into an entertainment category.

As long as we now have Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Palin, Malkin, and I could just go on and on, we have the greatest lot of prevaricators as to what is going on in the world. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the only two who admit they are comedians though many of us get a far better picture of reality from them than the aforementioned.

It is pitiful that our news media has allowed itself to be in bondage to ratings rather than truth. If you need to find out whether you are a good judge of ethics, morality, veracity, admirable modeling...know that you are not a good judge if you enjoy any of those listed above. It is unlikely that you will agree with me if you see that this is truthful about you, but it doesn't make it less applicable whether you agree or not.

We need to resurrect the old newsroom cast, with crushed felt hats, cigars or cigarettes hanging from the mouth, and the guts to print the truth.

Sarah Palin, who is not openly running for office and yet has never stopped campaigning as though she were, is talking as though she expects people to believe her.

ODDS AND TIDBITS: MORE ON ABUSE OF FREE SPEECH

Bill O'Reilly, Sexist and Proud of It Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 3:00 PM on May 7, 2009. It will always puzzle me how so many people are unable to see through the lies and nastiness that people like Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, among others, get rich on while poor people stay poor and misinformed by listening to them. Limbaugh can enjoy his 24,000 sq foot house while he makes the common man's life more of a problem, having done so much to support the terrible choices the past Administration made in the last eight years.

Another One Bites the Dust: Joe the Plumber Is Quitting the GOP Posted by Staff, Huffington Post at 11:12 AM on May 7, 2009. Time Magazine is reporting - burying rather - the news that Joe the Plumber, also known as Samuel Wurzelbacher, is quitting the GOP.

The Secret Right-Wing Strategy on Health Care—Exposed! Posted by Bernie Horn at 10:13 AM on May 7, 2009. If conservatives make the debate about what is good and bad in the Obama plan - they will win.

While Cheney goes around bragging that we have not had a terrorist attack since he and Bush used torture and kept us all safe. Well, I for onr, do not consider us safe at all. We may have not been attacked from the outside, but the dangers within the country still persist. When a sports announcer talks about about shooting Nancy Pelosi twice and strangling Harry Reid and Osama ben Laden, Olbermann's term 'abuse of free speech' says it all for me.