Stuck On Stupid

The next time you hear a journalism student, when asked why he or she wants to get into the profession, say they “want to make a difference,” cringe. It would probably be quite disheartening for them to hear the job of the reporter is just to report the news. After years of being taught from an ideology of activism, it must be a downer to know that the art of reporting constitutes being a mere observer, not a participant.

“Understand that there’s a problem in getting communications out. That’s where we need your help. But let’s not confuse the questions with the answers. Buses at the convention center will move our citizens for whom we have sworn that we will support and defend, hooah? and we’ll move them on. Let’s not get stuck on the last storm. You’re asking last-storm questions for people who are concerned about the future storm. Don’t get stuck on stupid, reporters. We’re moving forward — and don’t confuse the people, please. You’re a part of the public message. So help us get the message straight.”
• Lieutenant General Russell Honore

The line between news and entertainment has been blurred to the point where a Michael Moore film and the New York Times have become required class material, while alternative points of view are not analyzed but ignored with extreme prejudice.

Overall, the media has become a political tool of liberal indoctrination and propaganda; the entertainment end is contributing to the dumbing down of the electorate so the propaganda can sink in easier. And as long as a camera and microphone are magnets for irresponsible, pontificating politicians, the rhetoric remains volatile.

For example, during last weekend’s Cindy Sheehan, anti-war, arrest-me-please, anti-Bush fest, Democrat Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney addressed the audience….

“A cruel wind blows across America, starting in Texas and Montana and sweeping across America’s heartland. It settled here in Washington, D.C. And despite our presence today, it continues to buffer, to buffet and batter the American people. This cruel wind blew disenfranchisement into Florida and Ohio. It blew hard-heartedness into the capital, division across our land and wretchedness in high places.”

Now, with whatever due respect for the Congresswoman, which is pretty much nil, just who have been the blowers of the cruel winds? It’s my recollection that during the Clinton Administration, there were always adjectives directed at the President’s opponents. Some of those adjectives came from the President and the First Lady themselves.

Can anyone show me ONE negative word spoken by George W. Bush to any of the hundreds of pundits, Hollywood celebrities, and political opponents who gleefully bash him to this day? From all the heated words, you’d think President Bush will be running again in 2008.

As far as “disenfranchisement” goes, just who should really get the blame for the plight of black America, and why doesn’t the media remind the public that there were many independent media recounts of the ballots, both in Florida and Ohio, and not one of those recounts resulted in a win for either Gore or Kerry?

Has the media ever attempted to tell the real story of race in this country? Of course not, because to do so would mean their having to explain why they’ve covered up and misled the nation for decades.

Reverend Wayne Perryman, who is trying to obtain reparations for blacks to redress the legacy on blacks in America, has chosen a unique strategy. Although I don’t agree with his remedy, the medicine he’s chosen is something I’ve yet to see refuted on the left.Incidentally, his research comes from places easily accessible to the masses, like the PBS website.

He reminds us that…

“Democrats supported slavery and fought and gave their lives to expand it. Democrats supported and passed the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 & 1854. Democrats supported and passed the Missouri Compromise to protect slavery. Democrats supported and passed the Kansas Nebraska Act to expand slavery. Democrats supported and backed the Dred Scott Decision. Democrats supported and passed Jim Crow Laws. Democrats supported and passed Black Codes. Democrats opposed educating blacks and murdered our teachers. Democrats opposed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Democrats opposed the Freedman’s Bureau as it pertained to blacks. Democrats opposed the Emancipation Proclamation. Democrats opposed the 13th , 14th, and 15th Amendments to end slavery, make blacks citizens and give blacks the right to vote. Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and had it overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Various Democrats opposed the 1957 Civil Rights Acts. Various Democrats argued against the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Acts. Various Democrats argued against the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Acts. Various Democrats voted against the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Democrats supported and backed Judge John Ferguson in the case of Plessy v Ferguson. Democrats supported the School Board of Topeka Kansas in the case of Brown v The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. Southern Democrats opposed desegregation and integration. Democrats started and supported several terrorist organizations including the Ku Klux Klan, an organization dedicated to use any means possible to terrorize African-Americans and those who supported African-Americans.”

Yet Democrats like McKinney and selective activists like Jesse Jackson can play the race card and the media will stand on the sidelines like innocent bystanders.

The media has echoed the sentiment of experts like the Minister Louis Farrakhan, who insists the New Orleans levees were intentionally blown up by the Bush Administration. Jackson has since abandoned New Orleans and returned to a story that has a longer shelf life….

The media and their activists repeated claims that there were tens, if not hundreds, of dead bodies within the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center. They warned us of the stories of mass gang rapes. By doing so, they delicately portrayed the mostly blacks within as savages.

However, no one in the media (outside of talk radio) is talking about a very interesting piece written by Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell of the New Orleans Times Picayune….

“After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA— Beron doesn’t remember his name—came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

“I’ve got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome,” Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said.

Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside.”

Arrogance immediately comes to mind when addressing these new facts. Why is it that those whose responsibility it is to relay news to the public, can get away with making mistakes and need to be brought kicking and screaming to issue a retraction? Funny how they seemingly demand that people who do wrong offer contrition, yet they are too damn stuck up to admit they were wrong. How many weeks after the fact did it take Dan Rather to issue his lame apology?

During my interview on CNN, I was asked to explain two lines from my “Black Days In New Orleans” piece. I wrote, “Black people in New Orleans should be made to understand that the whole world is watching. Any racism people may have is being justified every time they turn on their televisions.”

Daybreak hostess Carol Costello asked me if that was a racist statement? While explaining that the media depictions of blacks in the media in general are negative, CNN was showing footage of blacks looting.

The media loves to play that race card.

Anyone out there remember the reading of O.J.’s verdict? Anyone remember how CNN split the screen down the middle? Anyone remember the one side being a live shot of a sidewalk cafe in Encino, California, while the other side was a live shot from a student lounge at Howard University? Anyone remember that all the people in the shot from Encino was white, while the student lounge was filled with black students?

The beauty of this blatant example of media manipulation was that no matter the outcome of the verdict, there would most likely be two extreme responses. The verdict was read, the whites were appalled and the blacks were jubilant. Later, the CNN anchor acted all stunned and lamented the “racial divide” being exposed by the polar responses. All the news magazines, in lockstep, headlined the new angle: the racial divide in America.

The media is the problem in America. Not just news, but entertainment. Whether you’re watching a depressing movie like “Crash,” where everyone in that L.A. story is a racist, or MTV, where young Americans on reality television require occasional subtitles so the viewer can understand their mumblings, the agenda is clear.

Keep America dumb. After all, would it be a ratings disaster to see an occasional young participant on “The Real World” or “Laguna Beach” reading a book?

Funny how the media never did a follow up after ABC’s Dean Reynolds couldn’t find a black person to decry President Bush’s post-Katrina speech in Houston. He tried and failed four times on his live “Nightline” segment.

Thanks to the Internet and the bloggers, the media has a new watchdog. But how many more people have to deal with the mischaracterizations by a blood-sucking group of liberal elitists who look down on everyone else, and dumb down a message when deemed necessary, withhold facts when convenient, and offer no substantive explanation when wrong.

The real racists in America are those to seek to preserve that racism for ratings, political expediency, and their own personal hatred of all things conservative. The media is stuck on stupid and fortunately, the American public will find out who’s been telling the truth, and who’s been giving us all the news that’s “fit” to print.

Bob Parks is a former Republican congressional candidate (California 24th District), ex-Navy, single dad, graphic designer and television producer, life-long New England Patriots fan, and member/writer for the National Advisory Council of Project 21.