So, for no apparent reason, I decided to take an hour or so last evening to do some basic research. It wasn't terribly scientific, so draw conclusions at your own risk. And frankly, what I found really just reinforced my prior thinking. But let me set the stage.
I got home after work and began the typical channel-flipping exercise to wash away the workday's inanity (and replace it with the media's inanity). After perusing my cable guide for a few minutes, I decided to give Fox News' Glenn Beck a look. Beck's been in the news recently for apparently accusing POTUS Obama of being a racist, as well as just generally being a Fox blowhard. I think I tuned in to see how objective his comments and guests were, as well as the general tone of Fox as compared to other cable news networks. I watched about 40 minutes of this show, which is interspersed with live updates from the Fox News desk anchor, and followed it up with another 25 minutes or so of CNN, which was showing Wolf Blitzer's take on things. Wolf and his panel were focusing entirely on Kennedy's passing, and one panelist in particular carried the love-fest a bit over the top. Yes, CNN's a bit to the left. But that paled in comparison to the antics going on over at Fox with Glenn. At some point his discussion turned to a comment Obama made awhile back in which he referred to a "civilian national security force." I was especially intrigued because I've heard some rumblings on this and I was anxious to get more info, as it's just not garnered much attention. The comment itself appears to be a throw-away line in the middle of a speech he made touting his desire to increase the size and funding of American volunteer/service groups like the Peace Corps, Americorps, and USA Freedom Corps. But he does specifically say "civilian national security force," and that gives me pause. Does Obama want his own security force to rival the military, a la Hitler's Brown shirts? Well, according to Beck's panel, that's precisely what Obama wants. And the commentary and criticism went right into discussing how much this would cost and the implications of having a security force that answered only to the POTUS. Which would have been fine if they'd also taken the time to define Obama's plan and its stated intentions. But they went straight past this and right into speculating entirely. Now I'll be honest, I don't know what Obama's plan on this is. Given the context of the statement, I'm inclined to lean toward it meaning that he wants a strong volunteer/service oriented American populace to tackle issues that our already strained resources cannot handle. But due diligence had me investigating further. And guess what... of the first 10 responses to my Yahoo search, 9 were blatantly right-wing blogs speculating wildly on the potential negative ramifications, and 1 was from FactCheck.org detailing the history of the statement. I saw no sites going into detail on the facts, nor any from Obama clarifying the statement itself.
But these are cable shows. Objectivity is not their stock in trade. Wolf and his panel couldn't stop kissing Kennedy's ass, nor could Glenn and his panel stop speculating on how iron-fisted the Obama regime would utilize this new service corps that would rival the size of the military. Neither of them could... until the commerical breaks. And that's when the stark contrast between these 2 networks really shone through.
CNN broke to commercial far less often while I was watching. I'm not sure how they managed to structure that, or maybe I wasn't paying as close attention. But their commercials were pretty generic consumer stuff, with an abundance of promos for other CNN programming. They seem pretty adamant that we all watch Anderson Cooper. Meh... maybe. But Fox... wow! For 3 straight commercial breaks they made it undoubtedly clear where their allegiances lay. 2 "paid for by" commercials completely lambasting Obama for, first, having a corrupt administration, and then for deceiving the American public on healthcare. In between, we had G. Gordon Liddy - everyone's favorite public burglar and advocate of shooting ATF agents in the head - hawking... wait for it... GOLD. The Fox message seems to be: we hate anything/everything Obama does, and oh yeah, let's buy gold!
Like I said, I didn't really learn anything new or draw any mind-blowing conclusions. It was just a fun exercise while killing time before a truly mind-numbing experience: going to the mall. To be honest, I can't recommend either.
