A Closer Look Here, There and Everywhere
by Trish PurcellGregg Jarrett and Monica Crowley clearly don’t let the facts influence their opinions. They not only make unsubstantiated claims and quote discredited books, but they ridicule those who try to point out the truth.
A case in point is a December 24 Fox News show on which Jarrett stated that “Historians pretty much agree” that FDR prolonged the Great Depression. He said this backing up Crowley’s assertion that “based on all kinds of studies and academic work done on the great depression" she knows that the New Deal's "massive government intervention prolonged the Great Depression."
Specific sources for these studies and academic works were interestingly absent from the show’s content. When David Sirota began to contradict their statements both Jarrett and Crowley laughed as though what he had to say was too ridiculous to even warrent the courtesy of a hearing. Sirota , whose credits far outshine those of Jarrett and Crowley , was first subjected to ridicule and then simply cut off.
Anyone really interested in the truth looks at all available information and does not simply cherry pick the parts that agree with what they want to believe. It is obvious that Jarrett and Crowley used only the information that backed up their already formed opinions, regardless of the veracity of that information. As John Kennedy once said, this is the “comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
As we attempt to deal with the results of removing the protections put in place after the Great Depression, it is incredible that anyone with half a brain could continue to promulgate the theories that got us here. But there are some who would rather risk our future than admit that perhaps their ideology was a mistake. And others who have personal agendas that do not permit such an admission. Those who have the power of the airwaves can do much harm when they choose such a path.
Jarrett and Crowley are not alone. Celebrities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly do great damage to democracy’s need for a free press. I call them “celebrities” because by no stretch of the imagination can they be considered journalists or news reporters.
The hypocrisy and hate mongering that stream from their mouths add nothing productive to our society. On the contrary, such rancorous rhetoric encourages negativity and divisiveness. It stirs up anger over past incidents and future possibilities by stretching and twisting them out of all proportion to reality.
Freedom of speech is necessary to democracy. But in order for that freedom to benefit democracy, listeners have a responsibility to consider what they hear and not just swallow it whole, without thought or skepticism. Common sense and experience tell us that ridicule and constant angry ranting tears down, it does not build up; it causes difficulties, it does not solve problems; it brings about divisions it does not promote cooperation.
So why do these celebrities go on the air day after day ranting and raving about evil liberals, about the dangers of an Obama presidency, about the “sins” of those who think differently than they do? Why do they spread half truths and stories that have already been discredited when our country is in such need of unity?
Could it be that they need to keep people angry because their livelihood depends on it? A career in rabble rousing can only be maintained if people stay upset. If the people calm down, think things through, and stop accepting the rabid, biased, bluster of these men and women, the world might be a better place. But if that happened, these celebrities would be out of a job. Their actions show they don’t put country first, they reserve that place for themselves.
If we, the listeners, want to put country first, we will have to be discriminating in what we accept and repeat from “news” broadcasts and political commentary. This is change we can all participate in and it is change that will make a difference.
Trish, most of us who are not in denial realize that Fox “News” (Noise as Keith Olbermann says is a better word) is politically based propaganda. In the past years it seems to have gotten its talking points from the White House and GOP instead of the real world. The staff and pundits usually disseminate misinformation to a very gullible segment of the American population and accomplish little more than dividing and making the nation weaker. One can only guess at their motives, but it is certainly not to make America stronger, or more united. Already they are on a 24/7 campaign to demean the new President who hasn’t even taken office yet, and at a time when the nation desperately needs to pull together out of the economic quagmire created by the people Fox supported for the past eight years.
People like Hannity, Limbaugh and O’Reilly represent the worst form of pseudo media the nation has to offer. Their real agendas appear to include self-aggrandizement and keeping the nation divided. One can only guess that their real motive is to make money for themselves, and the motives of the network itself are even more suspect. Ask Rupert Murdoch. Aside from Hannity, who I’d characterize as a total dumb-ass, they must be aware that they peddle lots of lies for political and personal gain. None of the network’s political consultants seem particularly bright or well informed.
There has to be more to it than keeping people angry and protecting jobs. The real answer appears scarier, like the aquisition of political and economic power, and the people and the nation be damned!