Don’t Get Mad….

… Get even, or so the saying goes. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, actually. I don’t get mad as such… it’s more of a frustration that I feel boiling up inside. You might think that the current administration, or the looniest of the left, is the cause of this combustible condition.



Well… no. They are what they are. Crazy, misguided, dangerously blinded by their ideology… whatever. But, we know what to expect from them, as does the average Joe when he takes time to look away from reality TV long enough to realize that he too is being hit hard by their Marxist machinations. What I’m talking about is the liberal media, in its many guises… and disguises.

In yesterday’s article, I covered the Letterman-Maher conversation (CBS, Monday night). I use the word ‘conversation’ in its loosest form… it was no more than an exercise in GOP/Conservative/Tea Party bashing. Performances like this are all too common on the major networks. The host gives the liberal guest carte blanche for scathing personal attacks. In sharp contrast, when a conservative guest (a relatively rare occasion) is on the couch, they are put in a defensive posture from the get go.

Political satire has been with us as long as democracy itself. Indeed, it is an important part of that freedom. From the 19th century pencil cartoons, which gave us the elephant and donkey, to stand-up television monologues and edited YouTube videos, it is often amusing regardless of the viewer’s political leanings.

The danger arises when media outlets which pertain to be impartial become vehicles for a specific agenda, either of their own volition or that of those holding the purse strings. Before I go any further, I hear the stray liberal that wandered on to this site screaming “What about Fox News?” Well, FNC is split into news and opinion programming… it is also a cable channel, subscription only, so you don’t have to watch it.

Of course, that goes for any station or newspaper… you don’t have to watch or read it. I once teased Skip about him reading a certain well-known Bay Area newspaper. He replied, “I wouldn’t use it to line the bird cage”.

Why, then, does the left seem to have the upper hand in popular media? The answer is leverage. I can think of one or two legal terms to describe their activities, but I don’t want to push my First Amendment rights too far, which is something they do all too often with their unfounded allegations against the Tea Party.

Popular media, like the main television broadcast networks, has a large proportion of definite or possible Democrat voters. If they put out a message that conflicts with the leftist ideology, they put the screws on the advertisers… “Pull your ads or we boycott your products”. This escalates to the point where the networks, in the interest of their revenue and a quiet life with their employee unions, take the easy option.

The result is that only one point of view is heard. Unfortunately, there are millions of people who believe that everything they are told on television is solid fact. Global warming is a classic example. How many companies advertise on the networks, boasting of their contribution to carbon reduction? What would happen if an energy company aired an ad that said “Forget the carbon emission fallacy, we’re producing American gasoline to keep the country running”? There would be mass protests from the left, accompanied by the usual thug tactics courtesy of the union goons.

Naturally, it would never get that far. The station would never air the commercial to start with. It’s far easier, and safer, to take the PC approach, the one that’s been hammered into every home and school in the country… the lies that masquerade as fact. We’ll be back after these important messages…..

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)