And as for “ImNotBlue” … I hope that there is life for you outside of this mediaite site, I really do. Every time I read an article and then glance at the commenters, there you are.

Well, yes of course there’s life outside. But it’s so bright and scary.

No, I mostly comment when I’m bored at work (like now), or when I’m avoiding work at home. But I don’t really like to talk politics and “insider” news media stuff at work, and only a few friends are knowledgeable enough to hold a conversation… so I spend time on this site and a few others, sharing my thoughts on the issues. Isn’t that what this is all about?

Yeah… I comment a lot. I also talk a lot… in person, so I guess it all goes together. Good thing I type quickly, or it would really eat up my afternoons! But how I spend my time seems to be a big topic on the blog this week… I wonder why so many people care what I do.

Merry Merry!

Nater St. WIlly says:
December 25, 2009 at 2:17 am

I just want to say that when you speak of the Main Stream Media, you must also lump Fox News right in with them.

I’ve heard this argument a lot… and it’s mostly correct. FNC has established itself as very mainstream… as proven by their consistently ratings performance ratings. However, when most people use the term “MSM,” they’re not really talking about popular media, they’re talking about historic media. In other words, the network channels and the newspapers. Talk radio, blogs, internet news sites, and cable news are still not really “traditional” sources of information. So technically, yes, MSM would apply to many of those sources… however, in the current definition, not the literal definition, I think there’s a difference.

RE: Katie and Bill O… the real difference is that O’Reilly portrays himself as an opinion guy, not a hard news journalist. Katie, on the other hand, IS a hard news person… supposedly free of bias. It’s all about knowing what you’re getting before you get it… AND having it presented that way.

What then, do you propose to help us cut the costs of healthcare while providing at least basic care to all of our citizens?

Well, some are tea-party people… and some (like me) are tea-party sympathizers, but not necessarily 100% supporters. It’s kinda how I looked at GWBush… I didn’t agree with him 100%, but I didn’t hate him… and that left me somewhere in the middle. I couldn’t agree with the folks who would say, “He’s doing a great job,” but at the same time, I couldn’t agree with the folks saying he should be arrested for treason (as someone told me here the other day).

But anyway… from my POV, this healthcare debate is very much about misplaced anger. We’re demanding “insurance” to make healthcare affordable, when we should be demanding lower health costs. Bringing the cost of healthcare, not health insurance, down would help everyone across the board. Med schools could be better subsidized by the government (doctors perform a needed service –not a want or desire, but a need– to the benefit of the nation, and therefore extended government support seems appropriate), insurance could be purchased across state lines, and the costs doctors have to pay for their own malpractice insurance could come way WAY down. Tort reform is always big on the right, and feared on the left (as Howard Dean admitted, they can’t do it because they’re too beholden to the lawyers groups)… but would do wonders both financially AND mentally for doctors and researchers.

I think the bottom line for most of us on the right, or on the middle-right, is that we don’t want the government to take over another industry or area. The government doesn’t have a very good track record of accomplishing its goals, or keeping a successful budget… and why should they? They make the rules, they make the money… they can do what they want. But that’s not the attitude I want when it comes to the health of me and my family. That’s the most important thing… at least for me.

How can someone be socialist, communist, and fascist at the same time? Those are very different things. If, however, you mean that there are certain individuals within the whole of the progressive movement that would consider themselves socialist, communist, and/or fascist, I would have to agree with you. On the other hand, there are also a few racists and elitists in the tea party movement. The fringe ideal does not make up the whole. I personally do not believe that the nation is as angry as many in the tea party movement would have others believe. They are loud and they are armed, and yes they are still growing in number, but they are not an overwhelming force by any means.

Calling each other names will not help to prove any points here. I just want to say that when you speak of the Main Stream Media, you must also lump Fox News right in with them. Just because they are right leaning does not mean they are not main stream. All media outlets have their agenda because they need to have viewers/readers, therefore, in my eyes, the whole MSM is just a big entertainment industry.

You and your conservative friends will watch Billy O and Glenn Beck and enjoy it because you can agree with it. Liberals will watch Keith O and Katie because that is what they agree with and want to watch, as well. We watch what will entertain us. Both the right leaning and left leaning sides of the MSM use their own propaganda to further their view. It is when we all stop listening to these fools (both Katie and Bill O) in the media and begin to educate ourselves on the issues that we will become truly informed.

When it comes down to it, we are all Americans, but first and foremost, we are all human. If we go back through the history of the 2 party system in the U.S. we see that both sides has made some serious mistakes and the only way to counter act those mistakes is to come together, as humans and americans, to better ourselves and our country.

I hope that this can get some of these comments away from the name calling, which is a pointless wast of time, and focused on healthy debate which can better each and every one of us who read this site.

Here is a question to start the debate off…

Since, it seems, many of you are part of or pro-tea party movement, I assume (and I am sorry if my assumption is misplaced) that you are also against healthcare reform. What then, do you propose to help us cut the costs of healthcare while providing at least basic care to all of our citizens? If we don’t change the system people will continue to be denied care and the care rationing that is already done by the insurance companies will continue… Please respond, I would love to have an understanding of what you would propose to fix this healthcare debacle…

And as for “ImNotBlue” … I hope that there is life for you outside of this mediaite site, I really do. Every time I read an article and then glance at the commenters, there you are. I will light a “red” candle for you. Merry Christmas.

Yes… look it up.

Big whiny baby. Whined, Ted ironically.

TEA – Taxed Enough Already

Teabagger (Cooper and crowd).

State Run Media
Fringe Media
Biased Media
Elite Media
Enemedia
Broadcast Bimbo

All those work for Katie.

You cannot with any integrity carp about Bush economic policies when you have Obama creating a deficit in less than a year that eclipses anything that came before him. You do not pay for tax cuts, they have been proven to generate more tax revenue, something even Kennedy was awre of in his day. Obama’s stimulous package did not stimulate the economy. He said we have to rush into more TARP spending to hold unemployment under 8%, and now we are at 10%. And his cash-for-clunkers program was supposed to last for months but ran out of money inside of a week, and ended up costing 3x as much, and ending early. They could not pay off car dealers so they stopped using it, and the American auto industry that was supposed to benefit from it saw the majority of sales go towards foreign autos. These are the people who are primed to take over 15% of the economy and dictate our medical care.

Those tax cuts you cite are easily erased by the fees we’ll have to pay for our existing insurance, the Bush tax cuts that are going to sunset, the Cap-and-Trade bill that will raise energy costs, and the inflation we are facing because of all the money they have been printing. Not too hard to see why so many are mad these days, and check out the poll numbers – those are not all white racists who are disapproving.

As for Charlie Gibson, he is off the air. Thankfully — I remember when he said Sheehan should shut up and go home, but the clincher was Gibson’s complete ignorance on the ACORN story.

I look forward to the day that CBS news ratings plummet and the “perky” one has to give up her $15/year to read the teleprompter. Katie is a liberal elite snot, who is not a very good “dirty dancer”, nor does she read poetry that well, but I hope she has a Merry Christmas.

She’s so perfect for Fox I can’t believe she doesn’t have her own show – pretty, bright, yet not above appealing to the lowest common denominator by flipping reality on its head.

Yes, Monica, the five corporations that control over 80% of the media are liberal, Republicans really do care about the poor and working classes. Irrefutable facts and statistics notwithstanding Republicans aren’t only representing the powerful and wealthy while running as populists.

The “liberal media” didn’t hire retired generals as experts who were on DOD and Defense Contractor payrolls to appear on the TV after being briefed on what they were allowed to say in the run up to the Iraq debacle, the “liberal media” must not have ignored anti-war protests and marginalized dissidents as DFH’s.

Sure glad Tricky Dick had such a great influence and trained Monica so well. Mobilize the hoi polloi! Man the pitchforks, the liberals are coming!

Yes, blah blah blah… personal attack personal attack… blah blah blah… heard it all before. I’m a terrible person, and so on. *Yawn*

But as to the substance… that’s your OPINION. The “lied” and everyone else in congress bought into it? And “treason” for what, exactly? What crime would you charge them with… specifically?

Oh, and thank you. You once again helped me prove that the country is no less angry now. You are clearly consumed with a lot of irrational hate (treason… really? are you even familiar with what that word/crime is?). The only difference is the target. In the media… hating Bush and Cheney, saying really nasty things directed at Republicans, and flat out making stuff up is okay. But tea party protesters… nope, they’re too angry… and that’s a bad thing. Thank you for illustrating my argument.

Like it or not, Bush lied, intentionally lied us into a war, illegally, that killed thousands and thousands of people. He and Cheney should be in prison for treason.

YOu should spend less time commenting on this site where you seem to LIVE and spend more time reading real documents.

Try some books

The Italian Letter
Hubris
Tempting Faith
A Tragic Legacy
State of Denial
Conservatives without Conscience
Blood Money
Fiasco
Iraq For Sale

Some of those were written by lifelong Republicans.

Try reading a book or 2. Maybe it will raise your IQ and awareness.

You are sadly a sponge, you soak up and absorb all you are told from the Faux Network

2nd, “fellow news anchors” ? huh? since when is the falafel man, O’Reilly, a “news anchor” ? He’s a COMMENTATOR and on a right wing shill network with a right wing agenda and owned and run by the right wing fringe.

A “fellow news anchor” ? really ? How uninformed and unprofessional.

Right as always, Roxy. There certainly was no “anger” from the left during the Bush Admin.

Nope… well, none of it on network television, that is. As was stated in the segment, and evidence shows… the country is no more “angry” than it was 8 years ago (Roxy proves that… anyone want to read his/her post and then tell me that he/she isn’t “angry”). The only difference is now that many in the media don’t understand, or at least don’t sympathize, with the “angry” ones. So, they think it’s strange and worth covering.

Lefties out on the street with Hitler posters, protesting daily, making up facts to fit their spin and attacks (see Roxy, Olbermann, etc)… that was common place… but more identifiable for those in the media. While they wouldn’t join them per se, they could see why they’d be so angry, and were more sympathetic to their message. But the roles are reversed now, and it’s the righties protesting and shouting… the media doesn’t sympathize, and so Couric says blatantly hypocritical things like this.

The country isn’t more “angry”… it’s just that the media is less.