Whoa. I'm not a big Bill Maher fan, but he touched on something here that I wondered about regarding the Rally To Restore Sanity, as well.
WHY was their take-away message that the media needs to tone it down? I mean, I agree that the press contributes to hate-mongering in this country...there's no doubt. But, without the opposition we get from these two disparate camps of thought (progressive and conservative) we wouldn't have any idea what's going on in our country. We need the conflict so we can get at the truth.
Here's a great example. Conservatives were up in arms a few weeks ago when Bob Edwards was fired from NPR for stating a potentially racially inflammatory opinion on Fox News because it violated his contract. Supporters from far and wide decried the unfairness of it all. Yeah, yeah. But then, last week Keith Olbermann was suspended without pay for contributing to campaigns without getting permission from MSNBC. Essentially the same type of breach of bias. The same people who were supporting Edwards were suddenly silent, if not gloating. And the left? Well, it was their turn to be upset. Rachel Maddow's show used the event as an opportunity to point out how many Fox News anchors and correspondents are openly contributing to political campaigns and even fund-raising for conservative candidates.
So what does this all tell me? Well, now I know that MSNBC and NPR will try to control the personal lives of their reporters through contracts. I also know that Fox News doesn't even try to claim they are unbiased (except for that whole "fair and balanced" tagline). Regardless of what that means or how you come down on the issue, we now have more information than we did last week because a conflict prompted somebody to do some research.
I think the only obligation that should be required of the media is that they distinguish facts from fiction and opinion. I WANT to hear all the crazy and inflammatory crap coming out of the likes of Bill Maher and Glenn Beck. I want to hear the opinions that aren't even close to my own. Why? Because the media is the most powerful tool that we, as Americans, have besides voting to keep our government in check. The free press is the last place that we should be calling for moderation.
Bill Maher vs. Jon Stewart: Maher Takes On Rally To Restore Sanity (VIDEO)
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