Category Archives: Culture

Penn State’s 9/11?

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Asked by a reporter how he felt about sanctions against the Penn State football program, one fan said, “I just can’t put my arms around it, it’s, to me, it was our 9/11 today.”

Ummm…no, it was justice.

In the Penn State fiasco, the only events remotely comparable to 9/11 were the sexual assaults of children committed by a former Penn State coach.

Unfortunately, this fan isn’t alone in his opinion.  Upon visiting the fan message board on Rivals’ Penn State website, you will find many, many other fans who seem far more outraged at their university’s punishment than at the real crimes.  Many want to fire the university president for accepting the sanctions.  Many want to sue the NCAA.  Many are furious at Louis Freeh for his report implicating Joe Paterno.  Many are outraged that their beloved coach’s statue was removed from their campus.  Many refuse to consider the culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to abuse children for so long.  Many are in denial – convinced that their university could not have covered up the crimes.

Of course, Penn State’s fans are not unique.  The fans of such football factories as Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and USC would likely react in much the same way.  Their teams have been on top so long, the fans feel entitled.  They have lost touch with reality.  Many are all too willing to turn a blind eye to crimes committed by great players.  They dismiss their team’s cheating by saying “everyone does it.”  They ignore the fact that many of their star athletes attend their university only for football.  A degree program and grades are immaterial.  What really matters is another bowl win.

Maybe it’s time for universities to, once again, view football and basketball as mere sports.  Not as sources for endlesss amounts of money.  Maybe they should be more concerned with their academic reputations than their sports reputations.  Maybe they should focus on students more than athletes.

Well, you can’t blame me for dreaming.

The Cowardly Russell Pearce.

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Those in Arizona are all too familiar with Russell Pearce for using his position as former Arizona State Senator to push for the ill-conceived immigration bill, Arizona SB 1070.  Happily, he was recalled in a special election and sent packing back to the cave he crawled out of.

But he’s making news again by blaming the victims of the Aurora, Colorado shootings for the crimes perpetrated against them.

That’s right.  The shootings were the victims’ fault.  According to Pearce, “Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this “bad” man from most of this tragedy.  He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload.”

Keep in mind that this is coming from a man who has long fought for expanded gun rights, including the right to carry concealed guns into bars and onto college campus.  It’s because of people like Pearce that assault rifles, handguns and high-capacity magazines are so readily available to potential killers like Jared Loughner and James Holmes.

Arming every single citizen in the US will not help prevent incidents such as that in Colorado.

After every mass killing, those who were victimized or witnessed the event say that it happened in such a flash that they didn’t have time to react.  Indeed, following the Tucson shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the one person who drew his weapon nearly shot those who disarmed the shooter.

One wonders how Pearce would react in a similar situation, even if armed.  I’m betting he’d dive for cover behind the women and children in front of him.

Where Are The Real Newsrooms?

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The HBO program called Newsroom is terrific!  It portrays a news program that transforms itself from “human interest” style, ratings-driven drivel to a program dedicated to telling the truth.  In other words, it’s recreating the style of news that we enjoyed before the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.

You see, under the Fairness Doctrine, broadcast media were bound by law to serve the public interest; in other words to tell the truth.  If a network or station failed to prove that it failed that standard, it could lose its license.

Yet it wasn’t necessary for news reporters such as Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Shore, Harry Reasoner, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and Dan Rather.  They needed no such incentive to tell the truth.  They were true newsmen.  They were not bound by ratings or the need to be first.  They were bound by the need to be right.

Unfortunately, when the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, that commitment disappeared.  Networks canned most of their news gathering staffs and focused on ratings.  At the same time, the mouths of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others were unleashed to hammer away at their political opponents by telling any lies they found necessary.  Fox News Channel was created to fill the news void with innuendo, lies and half-truths on behalf of the GOP.

It can’t continue.

The job of a real newsroom is to tell people, not what they want to know, but what they need to know.  So enjoy HBO’s Newsroom while you can.  Listen to Jeff Daniels and imagine how much better off this nation would be if there were real news anchors like his character.  Imagine a new Fairness Doctrine that would chase liars like Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck and company back into the swamps and caves where they belong.

Imagine an informed electorate.

Of Bullies And Cowards.

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For more than 30 years, the bullies at the National Rifle Association have pushed their gun laws on the American public.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” they say.  Well, a whole lot of people have been killing other people with guns lately.  And, unless we do something to keep assault weapons and handguns out of the hands of crazy people, we’ll see a lot more deaths.

“But guns are needed for self-defense,” they say.  Well, the fact is that guns are offensive weapons.  In most cases they’re useless for self-defense.  What good would a gun have done in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater last night?  If some movie-goers had opened fire, likely even more people would be dead or wounded in the crossfire.

The plain fact is the NRA is full of bullies who demand that everyone else accept their beliefs.  Our gun laws are not designed for hunters.  Who hunts with an assault rifle, a silencer, a night vision scope or a semi-automatic handgun?  Our laws are designed for bullies who want to have the threat of violence easily at their disposal so they can force their will on others.

Sensible gun laws would place limits on the number of weapons any individual can purchase and own.  They would limit the size of ammo clips.  They would ban assault rifles and large caliber sniper rifles.  They would force anyone who wants to carry a handgun to be trained and licensed.  (If Teapublicans think voters should have drivers’ licences as ID, why shouldn’t gun-toting wingnuts have a gun license?)

What does it say about our society that guns are so readily available to the crazy and deranged? What does it say about us that our citizens are so afraid of each other that they feel the need to be armed? What does it say about our politics and media that people are now convinced that they must arm themselves against our government? What does it say about us that we accept one mass killing after another with scarcely a whimper of protest.

It’s not only the GOP, the NRA, Fox News and the radio hate-mongers who are at fault.  The cowards in the Democratic Party who refuse to fight for common sense laws must also accept some blame.

In Nobody We Trust.

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A new Gallup poll shows that just 21 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news – a drop of 25 percent since 1993!  And only 25 percent expressed confidence in newspapers.  But these numbers should come as no surprise when Teapublican nitwits such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have long decried the “lamestream” media.  Indeed, the right has been trying to kill the messenger since the 1970s during the Nixon-Agnew administration.

Of course, among right-wing idealogues, there’s no lack of confidence in Fox News Channel despite a Fairleigh Dickinson University survey that found that those who rely on Fox News Channel for news are less informed than those who watch no TV news at all.

In reality, the US news media have earned their lack of trust.  Since the major networks succumbed to the ratings chase in the 1980s, they have emasculated their news gathering operations and replaced real debate with screaming talking heads from each side of the political spectrum.

Radio is even worse.  Since repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, commercial radio has been taken over by right-wing lunatics such as Rush Limbaugh.

And, as subscribers abandon home-delivered newspapers in favor of on-line versions, publishers have been unable to devote resources to traditional news gathering.

So where can Americans turn for reliable news?  I’d suggest National Public Radio and the BBC.  Both are politically neutral organizations with large news gathering operations.  But, in reality, most people will continue to ignore the news (except for the most sensational stories) or turn to (gasp) the Internet for information.

As a result, I’m not hopeful for our future.

What Our Politicians Could Learn From A Lifeguard.

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By now you’ve probably heard the story of Tomas Lopez, the Florida lifeguard who was fired for saving a life.  You see, he dared to save someone from a portion of the beach that wasn’t under contract by his employer, Jeff Ellis Management.

Of course, this story vividly illustrates the problems of outsourcing traditionally government jobs to private companies, but that’s another story.

It also shows that Tomas understands morality and ethics – something in very short supply in Congress.  Tomas didn’t stop to consider how his actions might affect him personally.  He just did the right thing.  Our Congressional representives on the other hand…

You see, the first thing many of our Congressional representatives do after winning an election is to start fundraising and campaigning for their next term in office.  That means, if there is legislation that would benefit the public versus a political contributor, they often choose to vote for the contributor’s benefit.  Or if the right thing to do is controversial, they’ll vote against it for fear their opponents will use it against them.

No one party is more guilty than the other.  This is one aspect of Congress that is truly bipartisan.

We can’t change the situation with term limits.  They’ll just be motivated to ram through as much partisan legislation as possible during their limited time in office.  We can’t change it with legislation.  They’ll just find ways around it or, worse yet, take money under the table.  But we can change the situation by making it unnecessary to raise insane amounts of money to run for office.  We can also demand better candidates. 

What we need is a Congress full of representatives like Tomas Lopez.

More Evidence That Mainstream Media Are Not Liberal (Or Fair).

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ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox’s Sunday morning “news” guests between June, 2011 and February, 2012 have been 70% Republican, 86% men and 92% white according to the monitoring agency, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.  This is particularly revealing since Sunday morning programs are some of the most-watched programs for government and business leaders. 

These statistics are a reflection of those who are deemed to be most influential in our government.  And since they are given more access to promote their agenda on national television, they are allowed to gain even more influence.

So tell me again, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, et all.  Exactly where is this liberal “lamestream” media you constantly whine about?

There’s A Reason It’s Called Gun Fire.

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Much of the western United States is tinder dry as the result of a prolonged drought.  Wildfires are breaking out throughout Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah at an alarming rate; many caused by people taking target practice in remote areas covered in tinder dry grass.  The resulting fires have cost millions, yet the shooters are not going to let that get in the way of their second amendment rights.

It seems the states can ban campfires, even camping, but they don‘t dare ask a gun owner to hold his fire until the drought eases.  They can’t even ask them to confine their shooting to gun ranges thanks to the National Rifle Association.   You see, the NRA vehemently refuses to accept any restrictions on guns, no matter how many people are needlessly killed.  No matter how much damage their “rights” cause to others.

As long as politicians continue to fear the NRA, we can forget about common sense gun laws. Although NRA members have an abundance of guns, ammo and political influence, they’re entirely lacking in common sense.

The Freedom To Fail On Your Own.

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There’s a long-standing attitude of individualism in the US that causes people to inherently dislike any form of collectivism, such as collective bargaining through labor unions.  As I wrote in a previous post, we come from a long line of independent-minded people; people who were pushed out of Europe by dictators of all ilks, from royalty to the Roman Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, corporations and their lackeys on the right have been able to exploit this inborn streak of independence to extract money from us.  They have used a combination of lobbyists, campaign contributions, exportation of jobs, and right wing media megaphones to undermine labor unions and pit workers against one another in order to maximize profits while minimizing wages and benefits.

As a result of the propaganda, far too many Americans equate labor unions with socialism or communism.  Many poor and middle class workers vote for candidates that will continue the pattern of withdrawing employee benefits, eliminating pensions, depressing wages and foreclosing on homes.  Now they are turning their attention to the “entitlements” – Social Security and Medicare.

Yet many of us will continue to support corporations out of the fear of losing our jobs, misplaced loyalty, or the determination to “make it on our own.”  What these people don’t understand is that any individual’s disagreement with a large, heavily capitalized corporation is not a fair fight.  A retail clerk cannot fairly negotiate with a big box retailer.  An assembly line worker cannot win against a large manufacturer.  A maid cannot fight a large hotel chain.

The only chance they have to improve their position and their wages is to band together.  Individuals, no matter how hard they work, are far more likely to fail on their own than to make it on their own.

Liberal Media, Huh?

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If you’re a media observer, as I am, you may have noticed a change in the political coverage over the past several weeks.  The majority of stories are now about Mitt Romney’s rallies and statements.  The few stories about President Obama have been largely negative – showing his decline in the polls or supposed “gaffes” by his campaign.

Another more subtle trend is to refer to President Obama as Mr. Obama.

It seems that the narrative has become “Mr. Obama is a nice man, but he has failed to live up to his campaign promises.”  Never mind that he has faced the most obstructionist Congress in history.  Never mind that the right wing media has blathered endlessly about his “socialist” policies.  Never mind that the Teapublicans have rallied the nation’s racists into a hateful fever over the birther “controversy.”

The “liberal” media seems to have accepted the right wing propaganda that, since the economy has not rebounded quickly, we may as well let Mitt Romney have an opportunity to lead.  They don’t even discuss the fact that Romney’s policies are nearly identical to those of the presidential predecessor who drove our economy off a cliff.

The “lamestream” media seem too partisan, too lazy or too brainwashed to do their jobs.  Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a network news reporter ask a question that’s as insightful and penetrating as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

It’s a sad fact that our comedians are now better reporters than most of our journalists.