I am past "What was he thinking". This suggests that Senator Jay Rockeffer had his brain in the off mode when he was talking. Do you think that is common with Senators, given our own Senior Senator, John F Kerry, thinking that the voters are stupid.
Speaking of "the vorers are stupid", here is a post from the Ann Althouse eponymous blog, where that issue is explored. To be fair, this is a reference to a newspaper article where the journalist interviews a Professor, who looks pretty arrogant in the beginning, but was actually pretty straight forward. It was the journalist who was arrogant.
Regards — Cliff
Phrased more deftly, the underlying sentiment would not be wrong. I would agree with the Senator were he to have said something to the effect that "biased news sources, placing partisan rhetoric ahead of responsible journalism, are not advancing political discourse in this country".
ReplyDeleteI would favor "truth in reporting" standards that require noting sources and background for every assertion, (take for example Fox' canard that BO's recent trip costed taxpayers $200M per day, when even the entire war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan cost us only $190M per day), and requiring editorial content and other opinion and commentary to be clearly noted as such. (As newspapers used to isolate theirs onto clearly marked editorial pages).
The issue shouldn't be censorship, but, rather, truth in labeling. The Senator's mistake is in muddling his distinction.
Great if it could be done, but we are back to the basis for our Constitution—Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
ReplyDeleteWho will watch the watchers?
On the positive side, it isn't as bad as it was 100 and 200 years ago.
Regards — Cliff
We could start a cottage industry among the unemployed (perhaps a bonus on their unemployment benefits) to earn a bounty for each factual reporting error that can be demonstrated...
ReplyDelete