Fair And Balanced?

Well, everyone knows that "Fair and Balanced" is only a marketing slogan for Fox News. But still, watching CNN these days is like watching a funeral procession. Give me O'Reilly anyday.

cj I suppose the argument could be made that war and it's aftermath is a funeral procession of sorts.

I must respectfully disagree with Bi-Polar. The liberation of Iraq is in no way a funeral. Of course, Coalition troops have been killed, but so far the casualty rate has been much lower than Desert Storm.
Mr. Bi-Polar may not realize the joy with which most of the Iraqi people have greeted the liberators which have freed them from death, torture and rape from the Saddam Death Squads.

italgato I have seen joy in the face of "liberated" Iraquis. Whether or not they are truly liberated remains to be seen and will be judged by history.

I have also seen pictures of people American, British, Iraqui, military, civilians, women and children who have lost their lives in a most brutal way.

I will not deny that there are many Iraquis who lost their lives due to Hussein's brutal regime.

Does that minimize the sadness and waste of the lives of those who have died in the overthrow of Hussein?

I stand by the remark that war and it's aftermath is a funeral procession of sorts. Perhaps if you believe in an afterlife we will have a chance to debate this with those who have died in this campaign one day.

It is possible to recognize the joy of the liberated and the heartbreaking waste of life paying for that liberation at the same time .

A life lost in the pursuit of freedom is not a waste. IMO.

I greatly value and honor the lives spent for my freedom.

Some basical logics, please:

To live under Saddam's regime meant not being free, but it does not follow that to live under a regime different from Saddam's means being free.
To live under foreign occupation, however well-intended, does not mean being free.
One barrier to freedom has crumbled. Others have yet to be overcome. <frown>

I knew someone would quickly post as Sofia has and I disagree.

The dead children's lives are too high a high price for admission to the freedom party if the voluntary participants lives are not, and I personally consider the death of our American men and women a pathetic waste whether they volunteered or not, but that is strictly personal opinion.

Should these deaths be worth the price of the freedom for Iraq, I suppose it's a little early to tell if they have been freed or not.

There is no question that they have probably been freed from Saddam Hussein, but are they free and will they remain that way?

If a Grizzly Bear is chasing me through the woods to eat me, and I jump into a cave he can't follow me into I am free from the Grizzly, but if I find I have jumped into a cave with a nest of vipers am I free?

That does not I mean I consider the USA a nest of vipers but how about the next rulers of Iraq? If they are independent rulers or a USA puppet government, either of which is up in the air, will the Iraqi man/woman/child on the street actually be free or will one oppressive regime be exchanged for another?

Will they be more free than before but still not as free as we are (at this moment anyway)? What is the standard for measuring the new freedom of Iraq in the coming times?

When all this is sorted out then we, they, and the rest of the world may be able to make an educated judgement on whether the lives that have been lost were worth it for this elusive and subjective freedom we speak of.

Food for provocation:

Lincoln Freed Me Today

Been a slave most all my life
so´s my kids and so´s my wife
I´ve been working on the Colonel´s farm
Ain´t been mistreated, ain´t done no harm
I´ll be a slave to my grave
No need of me being free.

Recollect when I was just fourteen
Freedom use to be my biggest dream
I´m older now, lot wiser too
If I was free what would I do
The Colones right good to me
He´s taken care of my family.

The Colonel rode the buggy in from town
Hitched the horse and called us all around
Said he couldn´t keep us here no more
I saw a tear as he walked toward the door
Oh Dear God, what did he say?
Lincoln freed me today.

David Patton
Published by Rolling Meadows Music


I'm sure Saddam was not like the Colonel in the song.
But Bush is no Lincoln either!

what do the dead say?
does the soldier's tongue blather of honor?
does the child's lips ask for her heart back?
the old man does not ask for water.
does freedom ring in the ears of the dead?
does the despot beg for mercy?
to the dead it doesn't matter,
what do the dead say?
nothing.

Bi-Polar Bear

Does that minimize the sadness and waste of the lives of those who have died in the overthrow of Hussein?
I can agree with you relative to the sadness over the loss of life. However, the loss of life in the pursuit of freedom can never be called a waste. Were the lives lost in gaining our freedom a waste

Loss of life before it dies of natural causes is a waste and a pity unless it's on the food chain.

But stop to think of it military and civilian alike who die in wars are merely feeding the greed of a few "leaders" , so perhaps we too are merely part of the food chain, and I should stop worrying about it.

Getting back to Fox News being "Fair and Balanced", of course, they're not. But I'm sure they enjoy how angry it makes some of us to hear that. Though I can barely stomach what they're doing, I have to admit their strategy has been brilliant.

Just say you're balanced and that everyone else is slanted to the left!

They have also been alot more entertaining to watch than CNN lately. Aaron Brown's nasily delivery is really hard to take. Love him or hate him, O'Reilly's Factor is the show to watch.

O'Reilly is certainly entertaining in his way. He's also a bit of a phony, claiming (or implying) that he has some sort of hard scrabble NY Irish background, when in fact he grew up in a comfortably suburban locale. But the former works better for the host of the "No Spin Zone"...

When Limbaugh had a TV show, I made it a point to watch. He was abrasive, totally biased to the right, and very hard to stomach, but I watched for several weeks, because I wanted intimate knowledge of my enemies and their icons. I watched O'Reilly for a long time for the same reason. I even tried to watch when they put Mike Savage on MSNBC,but I couldn't stand him but for one show.

Anyone who gets their information from one of these venom merchants cannot be relied on to supply a viable counterpoint in debate - only a foil in a pissing contest. I need never subject my senses to those particular three again - they made an indelible impression as bigotted, sensationalistic hacks.

Still - CNN makes a droning noise, and the reporters all speak in rushed voices, except for Wolf Blitzer who speaks all the time.

The fair and balanced is enjoyable because it's like a television tabloid (which is what all Murdoch publications are). They don't care about truth (several times they've had to do retractions), and the whole Murdoch empire makes Hearst seem like virtue.

It's like the tabloids you pick up and read while waiting in line to pay for the potato chips and soda. Would never buy it, but take a look as long as long as I'm there.

This invasion is a sorry event - and I can't see where it's making the world or me safe for democracy. But I don't want any loss of life, and our military is doing the job they were trained to do. And CNN goes on and on about it 24 hours a day.