Ask anyone their opinion of the media and you will get responses, lots of them, and all different! Most of the responses will more than likely be based on the political ideology of the person being polled.
Not surprisingly, most who claim they are conservative say the press is biased toward the left, and those who claim to be Democrat, or at least have a liberal leaning, say the press is either fair or leaning toward the right.
A new Rasmussen poll shows that in reality, a mere 17% of all people, (across all demographic lines,) believe the media is fair and unbiased. According to the poll, "The perception that reporters are advocates rather than observers is held by 82% of Republicans, 56% of Democrats, and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party. The skepticism about reporters cuts across income, racial, gender, and age barriers."
Rather than going into the old argument about the fairness of a news reporter, journalist, editor or publisher endorsing one candidate or another, or whether it is right or wrong for any media outlet, print or otherwise, to lean one way or another, I would simply like to accept that this is true and actually say it is OK!
I was a publisher and editor of a small paper. I am still a freelance journalist and researcher, and once in a while a pollster, political consultant and analyst. I am a registered Republican and very much a conservative. Most of my commentaries are from this view. I offer no apologies for this.
But, if I own the paper, and it is alright for me to write from my perspective, then I also have to accept that it is alright for someone who owns a media outlet to publish stories from their own perspective. My problem is when the stories are either intellectually or factually dishonest. If I know that the story is biased from one angle or another, but I am being given the facts, I can still discover what is really going on with the story.
What appears to be missing these days is objectivity. It is fine to have a political opinion, and even to report from the view of those opinions. But, if you have to change or ignore the facts to support your opinion, you are doing your readers or viewers a disservice. There have been many times the facts have contradicted my opinion. When this happens, I have no choice but to change my opinion to suit the facts rather than change the facts to fit my opinion.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Mexico At War?
It is true, or at least I believe it to be. So do many others.
But just who would they be at war with, you might ask. For news junkies such as myself, the answer is rather obvious. The drug cartels! True, they have been at each other for a while now. Violence has escalated. But look deeper into the stories and you will come to the same conclusions as I have if you are honest with yourself. War does not have to be declared to exist.
One by one the cartels take a town. Now and again the government sends in troops to retake control, but everywhere they go there is still uneasiness and fear. In response, the drug lords taunt the government, sometimes by hanging banners with statements mocking the government. Eventualy though, the cartels reign once again.
How did it get to this point? The government has long been in the pockets of the cartels. It has probably been the worse kept secret that the drug lords have been paying off officials to look the other way while they continue their nefarious deeds. But lately, the price has been getting too high, and the government is under a lot of pressure to reign in the cartels so they attempted to put on a show the cartels did not like.
To keep the drug and human smuggling rings working and all the lanes of traffic open, the cartels started getting more and more violent, bringing more pressure on the government from places such as the United States to get control of the violence that has been spilling across the border. It has finally come to the point that the cartels have decided to simply take over the entire country.
The cartels have not officially declared a war on Mexico. It would not be a wise move. For one, an open and declared war would not only force the government to send out the entire military at once to stop the cartels, it would force the United States to step in, and possibly even the UN. (They can peacekeep the drug lords to death! The smugglers would end up laughing themselves to death!) All of this would distract the smugglers from their business and cut too deep into their profits which amount to billions each year.
So, they continue as they are, openly recruiting the police and military as they go, one town at a time. As the cartels are much better armed, trained and financed, the government is almost helpless to stop them. Without intervention from outside, which the government is not all that willing to ask for since they would have to admit to having some real problems that are actually very painfully obvious to everyone outside, they do not stand much of a chance of winning.
But, can the United States tolerate a country on their southern border that is run by these criminal gangs?
But just who would they be at war with, you might ask. For news junkies such as myself, the answer is rather obvious. The drug cartels! True, they have been at each other for a while now. Violence has escalated. But look deeper into the stories and you will come to the same conclusions as I have if you are honest with yourself. War does not have to be declared to exist.
One by one the cartels take a town. Now and again the government sends in troops to retake control, but everywhere they go there is still uneasiness and fear. In response, the drug lords taunt the government, sometimes by hanging banners with statements mocking the government. Eventualy though, the cartels reign once again.
How did it get to this point? The government has long been in the pockets of the cartels. It has probably been the worse kept secret that the drug lords have been paying off officials to look the other way while they continue their nefarious deeds. But lately, the price has been getting too high, and the government is under a lot of pressure to reign in the cartels so they attempted to put on a show the cartels did not like.
To keep the drug and human smuggling rings working and all the lanes of traffic open, the cartels started getting more and more violent, bringing more pressure on the government from places such as the United States to get control of the violence that has been spilling across the border. It has finally come to the point that the cartels have decided to simply take over the entire country.
The cartels have not officially declared a war on Mexico. It would not be a wise move. For one, an open and declared war would not only force the government to send out the entire military at once to stop the cartels, it would force the United States to step in, and possibly even the UN. (They can peacekeep the drug lords to death! The smugglers would end up laughing themselves to death!) All of this would distract the smugglers from their business and cut too deep into their profits which amount to billions each year.
So, they continue as they are, openly recruiting the police and military as they go, one town at a time. As the cartels are much better armed, trained and financed, the government is almost helpless to stop them. Without intervention from outside, which the government is not all that willing to ask for since they would have to admit to having some real problems that are actually very painfully obvious to everyone outside, they do not stand much of a chance of winning.
But, can the United States tolerate a country on their southern border that is run by these criminal gangs?
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