Enron

[Chuck52]

<font color=blue>Nice chatting with you Chuck.</font color=blue>

Same here Bayrat. Reminds me of my many discussions with my younger brother, who, to my dear Democratic mom's utter dismay, somehow came out a conservative Republican! We have great fun discussing our politics, until the women folk make us leave the house before we do any physical damage to the furnishings!/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Chuck

 

[Jeff396]

We have the same "predicament" but in opposite. My parents and I are conservative and my brother is liberal. I seem to be the only one who realizes that keeping my mouth shut in the interest of a good visit as we live long distances from eachother requiring everyone to sleep over. My mom and brother just can't resist the jabs back and forth. I don't get it....as if one will change the others mind./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I think one of the biggest problems is that being a conservative I picture all liberals as I see the "far" left and I think that liberals view all conservatives as "far" right. The one thing I always do to see if I am still sane is to ask myself if I would feel the same way about a particular issue if the parties were switched. ie would I want impeachment if a Republican did the same things as Clinton. Or would I be as supportive if the Democrats were the ones responsible for shutting down the govt back in the mid 90's. It really keeps me sane.

Reminds me of a Grisom novel where a black man killed the white rapists of his young daughter and was on trial. During the closing arguments the defense attorney had the jurors close their eyes and imagine the horrible scene. Then after getting the image set in their mind he told them to switch it and imagine that the young girl was white and the rapists were black. Would they then feel the same way or are your perspectives clouding your judgement. Interesting stuff!


Jeff

 

[TerryinMD]

Liberals, progressives, conservatives, moderates.... what does this all mean? /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

One of the faux pas I got caught in a few years back was to say that all democrats are liberals. Well, I certain got lectured on that one!! The gentleman was a southern democrat and very conservative. Doh!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Same with republicans being conservatives - some are slightly liberal in some areas.

The silly part of all of this is that the ultra right or left is the one thing that sticks out in everyones minds when discussing points. Especially, when it concerns something coming out of our media outlets. It would be a joy to hear some unbiased reporting. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

Terry

 

[Jeff396]

Too true. A while back I remember someone posted something attributed to Ted Nugent (though its origin was in dispute). Someone answered my assertion that it coundn't be from George Carlin because he was self admittedly very Liberal. He said that he was Liberal but agreed with most all of what was stated in the list. I'm thinking that by my definition of a Liberal you shouldn't be able to agree with any of the statements which adds to my confusion. I think your statement of a Southern Liberal clears it up a bit.

Jeff

 

[Chuck52]

Don't know that I'd recognize unbiased reporting if I saw/heard it./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Isn't that pretty much like judging figure skating? Even if they don't inject their own commentaries into a news piece, just the selection process for what will be reported will be suspect.

Chuck

 

[TerryinMD]

Reporting unbiased is exactly what it means. Just reporting the facts with no reporter interjections of their "thoughts".

Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear something like:

"A man was shot and killed today. The reasons are still being investigated"

instead of:

"A black man was murdered today in the southern end of town (usually indicating a bad neighborhood). The police are refusing to devulge any information."

I know this is a stretch in my depiction, but sometimes you know that all of the information is either by the reporters injecting their "thoughts" or the stations needing to fill air time.

Terry

 

[Bayrat]

I was going to stay away from this political talk and go back to tractoring or boating thoughts but the media thing really is relevent here. Most media types are admittedly liberals these days, although that does NOT NECESSARILY mean they are democrats. Perhaps I have been a bit harsh on that point, as the line does become blurred when you generalize a group of people as I did previously. Many ultra left liberals are members of the Socialist, Communist or Green parties to name just a few. In fact, and I can not verify the number without more research, quite a few elected Democrats in Washington belong to the Socialist's Party as well (they may call it the Socialist Democrat Party, again I am not positive). I would no more want to place someone like Chuck in that category than I would want him to align me with the skin heads. So we have to be careful when we generalize.

My beloved father in law was a prominent Democrat in our area until he passed a couple years ago. He was a "conservative" Democrat, expecting everyone to pull their own weight and lending a hand to those that genuinely needed one. He was as honest and hard working as the Kennedy's aren't [darn bridge]/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif. I believe that is the true meaning of the original democrat party. The loud minority in the party now, consisting of radical splinter groups has subjugated its message.

Now back to the press. Why can't they just print or speak the news /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif, because doing that would not promote their ultimate goal of socialism for the little folks and empowerment for themselves. Easy to figure, when was the last time you noticed any of the prominent commies from the Soviet Union on welfare? How many politicians of any party that participate on a national level can say they spent less to get elected than they will earn in a couple years? Weeelllll McFly, something isn't adding up here!

I guess that is why I vote for the lesser of evils, to help salvage what freedom we have left. I guess I am a Libertarian at heart (without the pot). But I am also a realist, and know the government has gone beyond a point at which it can be stopped. Socialism does not make sense, nor does it work. Every nation that has tried it has gone bust or is on it's way there. Is there really anyone on this board, liberal, conservative, green, red or purple that would work the hours we must to own our toys and support our families to give the fruits of our labor away to a non-productive "neighbor"? I for one will go next door at that point and have a drink with him, not feeling well enough for work today/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif!

 

[genelp]

Hello Chuck,
When I think of un-biased reporting I think of someone like Walter Cronkite, I have no idea what his political persuasion was. On the other hand news anchors such as Dan Rather and Peter Jennings leave no doubt about what they stand.
By the way there is a new book out which is titled "BIAS: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News", written by Bernard Goldberg, a CBS reporter. I haven't had a chance to read this yet and am wondering if anyone has?

Gene

 

[Bayrat]

Still trying to get my hands on a copy Gene.

 

[TerryinMD]

Oboy.... I think I opened pandora's box. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

<font color=blue>un-biased reporting I think of someone like Walter Cronkite</font color=blue>

I think that a lot of people may disagree with this statement. He may have been the "most trusted man on television" but for what reason I'm not too sure. My understanding was that Cronkite was a little left leaning and did apply his "thoughts" to his reporting. Take a look at his behavior during the Vietnam War. I believe he began to lose favor with the public during that period.

Terry