I know I have commented on this topic before, but today was so over the top it bears revisiting. The major news services really do a disservice when it comes to presenting the issues. Today, I happened to catch a snippet of both FOX and CNN that left a bad taste in my mouth.
This morning started off with FOX on while I was doing laundry. They were covering the story of an individual, I think he was a Minute Man on the immigration front, complaining that he was "denied free speech" because Columbia University rescinded their invitation for him to speak. Okay, let me break this down for you. The right to free speech does NOT guarantee you the privilege of an invitation to speak in a particular forum! And the fact that you were able to air your concern to millions more people over national airways than ever would have heard you speak on your actual topic of interest at a college seminar is quite dramatic proof of just how much freedom you have. Freedom does not equal entitlement! Do people not see this?
Tonight, while I was eating dinner, CNN was on in the background. Sandwiched in between stories of how the federal government is not doing enough to provide healthcare to children, the federal government is not doing enough to protect us from dangerous imported Chinese food, and the federal government is not doing enough to enforce immigration law was a scathing report that the federal government was (and I'm not making this up) spending far too much money and will crush the middle tax with higher taxes when it finally comes time to pay up. Wow. Now, I recognize the caveat here that says is government was more efficient it could address all of these complaints at the same time, but I suspect most people did not recognize the rather mutually exclusive nature of these complaints. What do you want people? More and bigger government or a balanced budget with lower taxes? I think the moral of the story is you should always be dissatisfied with the government no matter what it does, and not realize that in actuality what you want are for incompatible goals to be reached simultaneously without any sacrifice of your own. Or, at least that's what CNN would have you believe.
3 comments:
I've never publicly commented on it, but the entitlement attitude has been a thorn in my side for years. While I didn't see the story about Columbia University, I've encountered the same thing all over the place, people feeling they are entitled to a better paying job when they aren't doing the minimum requirements of burger flipping, or wondering why they were overlooked for promotion when the files they keep are never in order and order is required for the advanced position, etc... I have the freedom to build the best life for myself that I can imagine and aspire to, it doesn't mean that it should be handed to me for sitting on my toosh watching TV and eating bon-bons all day, it means I have the freedom to work for it.
As for the rest of your post, it's the same attitude, they want everything but don't want to have it impact them in any way. I just remind myelf that we're never going to have a completely peaceful existence until we're with Jesus and that until that time comes I'm just going to be grateful for what I do have and try not to let other people make me too nuts.
Hugs & Love
Steve,
Actually, Columbia Univeristy did not rescind their invitation to have Gilchrist speak. While speaking at Columbia by invitation of College Repubs, students stormed the stage and attacked Gilchrist and his group. He was led off stage to safety. See here:
http://www.nysun.com/article/41020
So, I think the news either omitted that fact or you could have tuned in late.
Either way, the president of Iran (a sponsor of terrorism, holocaust denier, arms suppier to those who would kill Americans and Israelis for the crime of breating)although treated disrespectfully, was allowed to finish his lecture while an American was not.
Ending an invited speaker's speech in a private forum by means of violence isn't a free speech violation - as it wasn't the government who shut him up, but I do agree that it was quite rude.
Aside from that, I still think someone in the State Department was cowherdly not to deny Ahmadinejad's visa so as not to permit him to set foot on U.S. soil so that video footage of his speech and any applause can't be used to aid or comfort the enemy.
Dude, I've said it before and I'll say it again, my life is so much happier after I have decided to not watch/read the news. I would rather remain ignorant of every last little petty current event and debate than informed all of the time and pissed because the media is so bad.
I figure if there is something happening in the news I need to be informed of, like some terrorist attack or Hilliary Clinton being run over by a train, then I will hear it from other people.
I am not going to waste my time worrying or thinking about things which I have no control over or do not concern me. Nor am I going to let the media "guide" me to a certain conclusion by how choose to unveil things.
See, the FOX news report doesn't bother me because that's some special guest on the station and doesn't necessarily reflect the station's goals. The guy was a moron. Oh well. How many morons show up on news talk shows? Almost every second of every day. But when you have stuff like CNN where they show entire stories like that, I call that spin. And I'm not buying it. Or watching it.
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