The Dangers of Letting Strangers into Our Homes.

This, if you didn't already know by the smug face, is TV personality Glenn Beck. I call him a TV personality because this man is *not* a reporter. In fact, he was accepted into Yale into some program for "unlikely students" and dropped out after one class, and it wasn't even a journalism class. Personally I think the man is a venomous opportunist who switches sides on an issue whenever it is convenient (as he did on health care), Glenn Beck's show is an hour of utter madness, you would think the world was going to end any second if you randomly tuned in and didn't know who he was. His weapons of choice are crying, yes, literally crying, or staring up at the ceiling with his big puppy dog eyes, doing a sort of faux prayer. But I defend his right to have his programs and his crazy little radio show where he cries and plays "chicken little" for millions of listeners a day. It is his right, he's a business, and as long as he pays taxes I don't care. Even if he is a total douchebag.

This is Sean Hannity. He is also a television personality and not a reporter. Mr. Hannity actually dropped out of college twice before saying "fuck it, I'm going on talk radio..." He used to have a program with poor left wing punching bag Alan Colmes, which was basically an hour of Sean and his guests telling Colmes that he was a moron and was wrong about pretty much everything in his fail of an existence. A couple of years ago, Fox realized that people didn't really want to see the "Colmes" and the show became "Hannity" since then, it has become even more insane... the hour is now comprised of Sean Hannity trumpeting his insane, poorly researched, often FALSE accusations about our president or other Democrats surrounded by nodding "yes-men" who in many cases are crazier than he is.

This is Rush Limbaugh... Aside from being an opiate addict who never had to pay the price for committing massive amounts of medical fraud, he is a radio personality and *NOT* a reporter. In fact,the only thing of prestige that he has is his family background, personally, he is worthless. Educated? Hardly, dropped out his first year in college because it was easier to be a DJ on the radio. Yes folks, Rush Limbaugh (AKA Jeff Christie) is nothing more than an ex-disk jockey who decided to turn political commentator on a format with NO GUESTS (no one to disagree with him) and somehow found enough brain dead troglodytes or hateful people to propel him to greatness. One only needs to listen to Limbaugh for 10 minutes to find something either wrong, racist, or otherwise offensive. The man is a hateful bigot, don't believe me? Think I'm a "dirty liberal"? Well, here are a list of Rush Limbaugh quotes, I encourage you to do your own research if you think I am lying, they are quite real... These quotes by the way, were compiled by Casey Gane-McCalla and reported in NewsOne in 2008.

1. "I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

2. "You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed."

3. "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

4. "Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing."

5. "Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

6. "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

7. "They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?"

8. "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back (to an African American female caller)."

9. "I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve."

These people are *NOT* reporters, and there is no reason any rational and sane person would allow someone like this to bring them the "news". Entertainment programming? Sure, why the hell not, it's a free country and if people want to give these morons the time of day, it says more about them than about these three jackasses, but I take a certain amount of offense to them being called journalists. You see, Journalism is a college degree... People go to school, study, learn about ETHICS and about their sacred responsibility as journalists. Throughout this curriculum, which I am sure is just as loaded with bullshit as many other curricula are, Journalists are taught that they have a responsibility, and that their task should not be taken lightly. People count on them to have "journalistic integrity" and to research something before they say it. I have never, ever, heard a true newsman give their "opinion" on something, as that...is...not...their...goddamned...job. Their job is to observe and report the facts, not interject the news with bits about death panels and "Obamacare" (their word, not mine).

We sober minded people on the left have our Hannity/Beck... They are named Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (and not even, it would be an insult to compare them, but it's the closest we've got). The main difference? They are on COMEDY CENTRAL and not on a so-called news network, and by the way, they research their material WAY more than Fox does. The reason Fox News has the highest ratings is because it is not (with very few exceptions, who get hidden away at obscure hours [looking at you Shep Smith]) news! Americans do not LIKE news, they like drama. If they liked news, they would listen to NPR, they do not. I do not want this to be missinterpreted as a polemic against the right, it isn't, CNN and MSNBC are *no* better... those two stations pander to the left or to morons. However, their reporters actually have degrees and experience, believe me, I looked up the usual cast of Characters trying to find left wing examples of this, (Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Wolf Blitzer, Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper) and they all have degrees and/or professional News Bureau experience (talk radio does NOT count). (I'm sure Fox has some REAL reporters as well, don't get me wrong...)

Hannity and Glenn Beck do not report the news, and believe me, there is a LOT of news happening right now... What they do is pick a hot button issue and develop long segments of rhetoric centered around putting down the president. If CNN or MSNBC had to done to President Bush what Fox News does to President Obama, there would have been cries of "unpatriotic". What do they do? They invite ex-politicians, (Palin, Cheney, Huckabee, etc.) to use their 'street cred' to slander the sitting President. Nothing he does is right, everything is leading to the end of America... This is NO MORE news than the announcers on the WWF(E) are news anchors.

We should not allow these people to bring "news" into our homes, as it is a travesty of the sacred responsibility of the press. For the last decade and a half, the right has cried about the power of the "liberal media" because they don't like the stories coming out, unfortunately news is news, and not liking the reality is not an excuse to create a network dubbed "news" that does nothing but pander to one side and deliver trumped-up content designed to put asses in seats, stomachs in the throat, and brains in the back pocket.

Sadly, this is America, and freedom of the press means freedom for jackasses to abuse the press. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes have done just that. And in beating the drum of liberty, often used to trick and subject the masses, they have carved out a niche for themselves among the legitimate news organizations and in essence stolen the true freedom from people. How? By refusing them the ONE responsibility of a true journalist, which is to objectively and without opinion deliver the FACTS. I know that undoubtedly someone will smugly exclaim "Hey, you do the SAME THING!" Well Sir/Madam, I also don't have a press pass, an audience of 4 million, and inexplicable credibility. What I give are my opinions, which to me, are fact. But I *NEVER* call what I do news...

Would you go to a surgeon with no medical degree because he "Has watched a lot of House MD"? Would you go to a lawyer without a degree because he's "seen law and order"? Would you hire your electrical contractor based on the fact he has helped install a few ceiling fans? Then why the fuck would you turn to someone with no experience or moral obligation to deliver what is going on in the world to bring you your news? There is no rational reason. These people are entertainers, and everything they say should be taken not with a grain of salt, but with a whole god damned salt shaker.