Truth

I can’t be anything but fair and balanced, maybe Fox News means it as a pun, but I still believe there are 2 sides to every story, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle- not on the left or right.

Take Van Jones. You can see Hanna’s post on Jones for the right side of the story. After he resigned, Arianna Huffington wrote an column called “Thank You Glenn Beck.” The Jones Huffington knew was completely different than the one Beck painted. And I think you can find the most honest portrait by looking at them both.

Beck’s Jones was a compilation of sound bites and warnings about what he’d do, while Huffington is friends with Jones, she calls him “a thoughtful leader” and actually recounts the time she asked him about the 9/11 truther thing.

So much information has been rolling around in my head about Beck, his followers, the administration, the truth, but this morning something connected: Republicans stand for small government- they want their freedom of choice, to live their own lives how they want, to face whatever consequences come with those choices, but when Beck essentially lets loose big brother, no one speaks up about freedom?

When Beck pulls a Minority Report and predicts what someone is capable of through one clip (like Cass Sunstein) then tells his viewers to look up videos of his chosen prey, why aren’t you adverse to that? All he needs are 2 or 3 sound bites, mistakes, videos and he washes his hands before calling an entire life corrupt.

If you recognize a tax on Coke could lead in a direction towards taxing many other “sin” items like Hanna’s choices “cookies, cream, candy bars, and cakes,” Why can’t you recognize where this new form of one sided journalism could lead?

It could be you. They can turn your life into a single sound bite to discuss, criticize, and speculate on without asking you a single question, without interviewing one of your friends or neighbors. They’ll talk to people who only know you through a 45 second clip and dismiss that there’s any other truth.

By this method, I have no doubt that every single living person could be taken down.

If you are worried about our future of freedom, then I don’t see how Coke prices rank higher than the future of honest, unbiased journalism.

Glenn Beck Project: Day 4

Day 4: ummmm….

Wed, Beck kept warning me about today’s show. With this strange grin on his face, he kept saying, “The tide is about to turn” ….

Well, I have to say that I don’t think any tides will/should turn over this video except for the two women employed by Acorn.

Two women who work for an Acorn facility in Baltimore, Maryland were taped by two young people posing as a politician and a prostitute trying to get a house and get help with taxes. The women helped her despite the girl disclosing what her business was.

It was wrong of those women to give the advice they did to the girl. Illegal advice really. They told her not to file and the woman who wasn’t Tanya told her to be proud that she makes money. But I wasn’t shocked. Prostitution is legal in other countries, there are commercials on late night TV to reach women to “talk” to, (like they are not advertising phone sex).  Basically, I’m not fooled into thinking the world is a clean place. It’s not. And I think these women have probably seen way worse than I.

However, it was morally reprehensible when they brushed off the idea of bringing over under-age, illegal immigrants working as prostitutes.The women kept saying, “I don’t hear this.”

Distracting from the story he was telling, Glenn pouted over the lack of coverage, lamenting and scolding the media and other journalists over and over again for not covering this story that broke this morning. That he broke. His question 1 today: “How does the media sleep at night?” But what Glenn doesn’t get- these are minor players. And what he does isn’t journalism.

I’ll tell you why. Two “corrupt” lower level employees do not mean the entire organization is corrupt, but that’s the way Beck sees it. In journalism, you need actual proof. Documents, quotes, corroborating sources from people higher-up than Tanya to publish a story taking down Acorn. but with Beck, if you have 2 bad employees, you’re out!

Acorn released a statement saying that the two undercover “journalists” tried several Acorn facilities before getting what they wanted. Beck didn’t say whether that was true or not.

And despite my annoyance with Beck’s whining, I did come away from the program wanting to research and read more about Acorn, which probably was the goal of the show. You got me there Beck.

“Will the U.S. citizens unite on this story?” -Beck’s last big question today. I don’t know, but I have a feeling there are two unemployed women in Maryland tonight.