“I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.”- Napoleon Bonaparte

All this Discussion Board talk about FOX News got me revved up!
Before I continue I would like to explain my opinion on the matter. Then, of course, I will start rambling.

I consider myself “fair and balanced” (pun intended). I honestly can say I am neither left nor right on the political spectrum. I’m like the flag that is tied to the middle of the rope in a schoolyard game of “tug of war.”

Now on to the rambling:
Just for the heck of it, I decided to dictionary.com “fox.” I know what a fox is and I know what it means to call someone a ‘fox.’ Definition #3 says “a cunning or crafty person.” Hmm. I wonder if Rupert Murdoch dictionary.com-ed “fox” before he chose the word to represent the integrity of his “fair and balanced” news station.

I’m not saying that FOX is the only news station with an outlandish political slant [they all do]. I’m just saying it’s the only one with an ironic name.

One thing that bothers me when the FOX News conversation arises is the stubbornness of people on both sides of the issues. Some people feel whole-heartedly that FOX News is legitimate and that it is not capable of broadcasting slanted journalism. Other people feel whole-heartedly that FOX News is illegitimate and unfairly distributing skewed information. Perhaps the truth lies in a mix of both? And in the realization that FOX is not the only guilty party in the world of news stations.

53 Hours a Week- That's a Full Time Job

I read an article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10438088-238.html) recently about the new numbers of how much TV kids watch and how much time is spent using other forms of modern media-computers, cellphones, etc. I knew the numbers where high, but not this high. The article says that "8- to 18-year-olds "devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day." That adds up to more than 53 hours a week." The last time I checked, that's a regular week of full-time employment, plus a few hours over-time pay!

Now I'm not suggesting the eight-year old kids in this study should go out and find jobs, but WOW, that's a lot of media!

If instead of :

tagging their friends on facebook
TIVO-ing an episode of Desperate Housewives, or
texting their friends that are in the same room as them,

kids were slightly physically active, it would probably make a dent in the obesity epidemic or increased rates of juvenile diabetes.

I don't mean to sound like a "Debbie" [Downer, from SNLhttp://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/debbie_downer_thanksgiving_dinner/1179439], but in some ways, media does more harm than good.

Political Media

Media is [more than] a major component of the average American's day-to-day life. This 'fact' is hard to dispute. However, recently I have come to realize how much of a role the media plays in internal politics. Anyone would agree that the media has positively and negatively influenced people- from pressuring girls to want to be skinny and guys to be built, to empowering people to get off the couch and call ITT Tech- but I feel that the media's higher power exists in the way that it influences the American public, voters, in political matters.

The commercials, or should I say the montage infomercials, that have been suffocating my television screen for the past month about the race for the Senate seat are a great example of the power that media has. Between Scott Brown's "I drive a truck" commercials and Martha Coakley's "but is his truck going in reverse?" commercials, it is clear to me that the media has too heavy a hand in important political decisions. In other words, in a [sad] world where people depend solely on the television and political commercials for their voting information, a good commercial could literally change the political path of a country. Call me crazy but I propose that political commercials should be outlawed during elections. The only purpose political coracles fill is to slant the opponents perspective, name bash, and misinform. I do not recall one Senate race commercial in the past month that supplied the audience with cold hard facts about the issues that matter most to the state of Massachusetts.

I happened to like the neighborhood Coakley used to film her commercials in. I live in it.
I also happen to dislike trucks.

Does this mean I should vote for the commercial I like better?
No.
But I do believe that, consciously or subconsciously, people do vote for the guy with the same truck as them and for the woman who lives down the street.

Effective media can change the political direction of a state, and in the case of this week's Senatorial race, can change the political direction of an entire country.