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Jan. 14, 2007 I no longer subscribe to the local newspaper (The Augusta Chronicle) because the editorial page is backwards, bigoted, and extremely right wing. Instead, I get USA Today which is a much better paper. The editorial slant of this national newspaper is also conservative though it's a more centrist conservatism. The only time I look at the local paper is when I sit at the juice bar while waiting for my wife to finish her workout at the Family Y. I still glance at the editorial page, however, there is never anything in it that I think has any credibility. My opinion was reinforced by a recent editorial written by their house editorial writer (a man I consider a mentally handicapped plagiarizer) lamenting how the majority of the American people were being duped by the mainstream media about how the war in Iraq is going. Mike Ryan, the editorial writer, blames the "liberal" media for the failing U.S. occupation in Iraq. Or rather he believes it's not a failure at all. He writes that the media focuses on the bad news and ignores the positive "inroads" being made. Let's see: In an average day in Iraq twenty people are killed by a terrorist bomb, fifty tortured and beheaded civilians are found scattered throughout Baghdad, three U.S. soldiers are killed, another dozen are wounded, and a U.S. soldier is charged with killing innocent civilians. And conservatives are angry because the media didn't focus on the good news--that there was a bumper crop of watermelons this year, and they're going to be cheap and sweet. The Augusta Chronicle isn't the only conservative media outlet with this hallucination of the "liberal" media causing the U.S. military's defeat in Iraq. The drug-addled Rush Limbaugh and the sex-obsessed Bill O'Reilly repeat this horse manure as if it's reality. Unfortunately, there are many conservatives out there who dive into this communal hallucination and think the media is to blame for Bush's disastrous blunders. The invasion of Iraq has been supported by one hallucination after another. Initially, there was a mirage of weapons of mass destruction, a mirage which vanished soon after the invasion. But there were some liberals and independents caught up in this hallucination also. They woke up after this, but conservatives are still hallucinating. They actually believe Saddam sent his weapons of mass destruction to Syria, a country Iraq didn't even have diplomatic relations with. Not only is there no evidence he sent weapons away, but it doesn't make any sense because Saddam wouldn't get rid of weapons he could have used to defend his regime and at least keep American forces in a stalemate. Conservative letters to the editor spelling out this hallucination still pop up from time to time. Now that support for the war is hemorrhaging, conservatives like to blame the "liberal" media. I've studies this claim and have asked conservatives to give examples of so-called liberal bias. Invariably, the examples they show me are not evidence of bias at all. The media reports the truth, the truth proves conservatives are wrong, and conservatives don't like it. "Oh, the wording of the headline is too aggressive," they whine as if that were somehow evidence of bias. So if they don't trust the liberal media, where do they get their information? Talk radio and Fox News must be the answer. Fox News actually is led by an executive who sends daily memos ordering its "journalists" to find stories favorable to republicans and detrimental to democrats. I think the mass hallucinations conservatives suffer from can be blamed on talk radio liars and Fox News propagandists. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. www.mark-gelbart.com Email: agelbart@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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