Media Bias & Politicians

    

     Greetings everyone!  Hope you enjoyed a good Thanksgiving and have picked out all your ideal Christmas presents and have them wrapped already.  For me, its not Christmas eve yet, so I'm good.  I'll get to my shopping later.

     This evening, I find myself annoyed at the media.  Which media you ask...  all of it!  I tweeted last night that we needed a local television station for news, here in Shelby County Alabama.  All of our TV stations are in the neighboring county of Jefferson which, of course, has the City of Birmingham in it.  Almost all of their news stories are about black on black crime, schools that need money, politicians that could be(or should be) going to jail, sewer system debt, or the past April 27th tornadoes.  Oh, I forgot the biggest story of late, the awful Alabama immigration law which is being harsh on illegal immigrants.  Crocodile tears flow regularly from the news anchors when they speak about the poor criminals who have to leave our state to find jobs and how evil we are not to look the other way and leave them alone.  I've stopped watching FOX6 news altogether over that one issue.  I alternate between ABC33/40 and CBS42 news now, with the edge going to 33/40.

     It amazes me how a 21 county television market can spend 90% of their coverage on probably 40% population but possibly 5% of area.  Shelby County alone has 800 square miles with a population of around 200,000.  It is the fastest growing county in the state and ranks among the 100 highest-income counties in the United States.  It votes heavily with the Republican party, hence was punished politically for years when the Alabama Legislature was controlled by Democrats. 

     We do have a good newspaper, the Shelby County Reporter, but it is not published daily.  It contains much better local news for us than it's rival the Birmingham News.  The News has a section once a week about Shelby County, but is isn't worth reading.  The Shelby County Chamber of Commerce has a nice website with additional info called Shelbyco. Also, if you get on the right twitter feeds, there is plenty of local stuff.  We just need news about us, without all the Birmingham bias.

     Now that I've chased that rabbit, I want to talk about the national media a little.  The latest polls have Newt Gingrich in the lead, with Romney a distant second.  I hate the fact that misinformation is constantly published as truth in an effort to mislead the public.  They want you to believe there is no reason to keep supporting your loser,  just vote for who they tell you to.  This is the same media who set up the Obama-McCain contest.  I held my nose and voted for McCain, but it won't happen again.  I WILL NOT VOTE FOR NEWT GINGRICH.  In my opinion, he is morally and ethically challenged!  He is old news and should have stayed out of the race.  You might find this story revealing about Newt.

     I find myself supporting Ron Paul.  Where Obama promised change last time around, Ron Paul would actually accomplish it!   He seems to be the only candidate with common sense!  Listening to him speak, it is from the heart and not to appeal to any particular group of voters.  The media is harsh on Representative Paul.  You can tell from the way each question is framed in the debates.  They TRY to make him look foolish but usually end up foolish themselves.  I follow him on his YouTube channel.  Visit it and listen to a real statesman!  And to the media I'll say, "you should be more fair and balanced so as not to drive your listeners away"!