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Editorial blogging
Dec. 4th, 2003 12:51 pmI like to think of myself as a fair and balanced person. When I hear a piece of news about, well, most anything, I always ask myself four questions: Who benefits? Who pays? Is it fair? Is it misleading?
In the last few years I have been noticing a lot more misleading news. The Bush administration talked about spending money to fight AIDS in Africa in one of his State of the Union addresses. The amount: $15 billion dollars over five years. However, this was the amount already slated to be spent there. He did change around how some of the funding would be spent - typically moving it from more effective comprehensive health programs to less effective abstinence-only faith based programs.
Bush benefitted from the uncritical coverage. We pay, from taxes; and the people in Africa pay in less effective disease prevention. It was not fair in its presentation and it is unfair to move from strong working programs to weak less-effective programs. It was misleading.
During this administration the standards for food safety in the USA have been lowered, meaning that less-sanitary food has made it into the marketplace and sickened and even killed people. USDA inspectors have been given more restrictions on what qualifies as tainted meat.
The food companies benefit from the sales profits and relaxed oversight; and the President and his party benefit from campaign contributions from those profits. We pay, risking our health and even our lives for those companies profits. It is unfair that our health is being risked in order to provide more profit when we pay taxes to prevent this. When the news has managed to make it out it hasn't been misleading, but these stories don't have much shelf life.
Ever hear of the "Clear Skies" initiative George W Bush proposed? It's supposed to make our air nice and clean - or at least it implies it heavily. In truth, it removes certain mandatory changes that were already in place to improve air quality.
The energy companies benefit from more profit; the President benefits from more campaign contributions. Everybody pays with dirtier air and increased health risks. It is unfair to blatantly ignore health risks to the whole country just to put money in a few people's pockets. And the whole thing was *very* misleading.
I heard the GOP talk a lot during the Clinton years about how Mr. Clinton was a hypocrite and a liar. I notice most of them being awfully quiet about far worse deceptions coming from the current President, who is a member of their party.
The GOP benefits from the quiet because people think they might be honest. We pay. And pay, and pay, and pay.... *ahem* It's not honest to their constituents and it's sure as hell misleading.
I like some individual Republicans, regardless of their politics. I don't mind disagreeing with their politics so long as they are honest, compassionate and show a willingness to think. But I notice that a lot of their party policies pass only because they are disguised as something else that would be accepted, even something the complete opposite of what it is. They benefit, everybody else pays, it's massively unfair and it's totally misleading. For that mendacity, for that hypocrisy, for that utter shit sold as both sizzle and steak - for those reasons I dislike the GOP.
In the last few years I have been noticing a lot more misleading news. The Bush administration talked about spending money to fight AIDS in Africa in one of his State of the Union addresses. The amount: $15 billion dollars over five years. However, this was the amount already slated to be spent there. He did change around how some of the funding would be spent - typically moving it from more effective comprehensive health programs to less effective abstinence-only faith based programs.
Bush benefitted from the uncritical coverage. We pay, from taxes; and the people in Africa pay in less effective disease prevention. It was not fair in its presentation and it is unfair to move from strong working programs to weak less-effective programs. It was misleading.
During this administration the standards for food safety in the USA have been lowered, meaning that less-sanitary food has made it into the marketplace and sickened and even killed people. USDA inspectors have been given more restrictions on what qualifies as tainted meat.
The food companies benefit from the sales profits and relaxed oversight; and the President and his party benefit from campaign contributions from those profits. We pay, risking our health and even our lives for those companies profits. It is unfair that our health is being risked in order to provide more profit when we pay taxes to prevent this. When the news has managed to make it out it hasn't been misleading, but these stories don't have much shelf life.
Ever hear of the "Clear Skies" initiative George W Bush proposed? It's supposed to make our air nice and clean - or at least it implies it heavily. In truth, it removes certain mandatory changes that were already in place to improve air quality.
The energy companies benefit from more profit; the President benefits from more campaign contributions. Everybody pays with dirtier air and increased health risks. It is unfair to blatantly ignore health risks to the whole country just to put money in a few people's pockets. And the whole thing was *very* misleading.
I heard the GOP talk a lot during the Clinton years about how Mr. Clinton was a hypocrite and a liar. I notice most of them being awfully quiet about far worse deceptions coming from the current President, who is a member of their party.
The GOP benefits from the quiet because people think they might be honest. We pay. And pay, and pay, and pay.... *ahem* It's not honest to their constituents and it's sure as hell misleading.
I like some individual Republicans, regardless of their politics. I don't mind disagreeing with their politics so long as they are honest, compassionate and show a willingness to think. But I notice that a lot of their party policies pass only because they are disguised as something else that would be accepted, even something the complete opposite of what it is. They benefit, everybody else pays, it's massively unfair and it's totally misleading. For that mendacity, for that hypocrisy, for that utter shit sold as both sizzle and steak - for those reasons I dislike the GOP.
