10.05.06

Another short Couric moment.

Posted in Politics, Pop Culture, Media Morons at 7:28 am by JB

She made a little slip-up. Not a bad one, but one that shows her true stripes. Here it is in it’s entirety.

We’ve gotten a lot of comments and feedback about last night’s “freeSpeech,” which featured a father whose son was killed at Columbine.

A lot of the comments were negative, like these:

Your free speech segment today was the biggest load of hogwash I have ever witnessed. How could you use an unspeakable tragedy to give a rightwing flat earth nut job a podium?

Tonite, you have some idiot who tragically lost his son at Columbine…he has my sympathy, but he does not deserve a spot on the Evening News to spout his political views.

This ultra right wing religious right drivel is a disgrace.

But we also received some positive feedback:

The Free Speech segment from the father of the Columbine student was one of the finest pieces I have ever heard on network news. My sincere appreciation goes to CBS for the courage to air it.

Thank you! As the mother of three children, I applaud your episode of Free Speech tonight. I’m sure that you will receive many e-mails denouncing your segment, but I appreciate hearing a “conservative” view in what can be a very liberal media…I live in the heartland of America (Kansas) and believe we all need a strong faith to get through difficult times.

I never thought I would hear such words on any network television station. He said all the things I have been thinking since the ‘60s.

Clearly, this struck a nerve.

We knew when we decided to put on this segment that a lot of people would disagree with it. We also knew some might even find it repugnant. (Some of you made that point loud and clear!)

But that is the very essence of what we try to do with the “freeSpeech” segment. This is a platform for our viewers to hear from a wide range of people – those who may share your views, and those who don’t.

When we approached Brian Rohrbough and asked him his thoughts about this latest school shooting, this essay was the result. We understood that people may disagree with what he said, and with what he believes. But censoring or attempting to re-shape his opinion would be antithetical to the very idea of free speech.

This is a nation built on dialogue and debate. And, most importantly, on freedom of speech. As George Washington once said, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

We hope “freeSpeech” can add more voices to the national discussion. At the very least, last night, we got people talking.

And we hope the conversation is just beginning.

Now, it is somewhat noble that Cutie- sorry, Katie- explains a bit. And I can almost applaud her choice of email additions. But this digresses into the realm that any writer must confront…..

Katie isn’t a journalist, she’s a newsreader. She says what she is told to say, most of the time, and when she does have control, it’s slanted to the left.

Repugnant isn’t a calming word. If she had said, “Some might find it upsetting….” or disturbing, or “some might disagree”, the response would be different. Repugnant is a charged word, guaranteed to generate a response. I suppose that has worked, but I’ll never watch CBS News anyway, so it isn’t working for me.

Network news is dead, and it’s these people and these types of actions that make that an absolute lock. I know they still get ratings, but those are mostly from people with set-top Neilsen boxes that are eating dinner or watering the lawn and forget to turn the box off. I know I, personally, haven’t watched network news in a few years, at least…..

Well, not true. I did watch Tom Brokaw’s last broadcast. I’ve always liked Mr. Brokaw. But I never watched the daily stuff, just that last one.

I watch cable news, and yes, mostly Fox News. I used to watch CNN before I had access to Fox, which brings up another question…. is it any real coincidence that once FNC started kicking ass over the others that CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, etc. all went WAY left in their commentary shows ? If NBC was smart they would shut down one of their networks and not split the pie. CNN has Glenn Beck on Headline News, but that’s the only real conservative on their entire lineup. MSNBC tried Michael Savage…. come on. He’s a friggin nut-case. Thankfully he was quickly gone. No serious conservative takes Michael Savage seriously.

Fox News works because the country realizes that the networks, CNN, and MSNBC are as liberal as the day is long. And STUPID ! Miles O’Brien is using movie plots as scientific evidence, and Chris Matthews doesn’t know the difference between a text message, an instant message, and an e-mail. Katie’s staff means to say “something talked about a lot that means nothing”, and makes references to the vagina. (by the way, Katie, hun, you might want to hire a person or two that knows slang- or at least an editor)

The media has a “better than thou” attitude that they think works, because they are engrossed in the idea that the American people are sheep to be led. Of course they never hear anything else (or didn’t) until alternative media came along (talk radio, FNC, alternative mags and newspapers).

But the major media just talks to and listens to itself. The rest of us just shake our heads and wonder how much more out of touch these people can actually get. Case in point- Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, the left’s favorite attack dog lately, has about 100,000 more viewers a night than I do, and I don’t have a show. (I know, 100,000 sounds like a lot…. it’s about 1/30,000th of the population…. He names Bill O’Reilley “The Worst Person In The World” about every other day…. in reality, he should name whoever talked him into leaving SportsCenter)

From Bush’s DWI, to the Foley problems (which are turning out to not be as illegal as we thought, but still…. to borrow…. repugnant) the media gets whipped up into a frenzy, and pat themselves on the back, while the populice realize the liberal slant, and goes to other media daily, and to the other candidates in the voting booth. Liberals just can’t be trusted.

The truth about Foley came out, and he resigned immediately under pressure. The GOP doesn’t want that slime in the party.

Gerry Studds got re-elected 1/2 a dozen times. Barney Frank is still there. Clinton…. well, we all know. But in the dead of night Clinton pardoned Mel Reynolds, who had already nailed a 16-year old girl, and wanted desperately to nail her 15-year-old friend. The Dems cheered all this. No move to fire everyone who might have known. Studds got standing ovations, for the love of God !

I said this would be short….. sorry.

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