The DTs
After much warning, and the heartfelt concern of friends and family, I have decided to proceed slowly and with caution. The hardest part is the immediate and dramatic change in my routine. I have had to eliminate all temptations that are a regular part of my daily life. No checking the NY Times first thing in the morning. No HuffingtonPost.com on my itouch. No NPR. No Morning Joe on MSNBC.No Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, or Rachel Maddow. No DAILY SHOW!!! Damn you, John Stewart and your liberal bias!!!
It was tough, I had to fortify myself with extra cups of tea, put down the iTouch, delete all my liberal news source apps, and steel my nerves for the day ahead. I can't think of the full 28 days. Right now I feel as though I'm in a really horrific 12 step program, and taking my conservative introduction ONE DAY AT A TIME.
I spent a bit of time trying to convince myself that MORNING JOE was fine. Afterall, Joe Scarborough is a self professed Conservative and former Republican Congressman from Florida. I will say-- as much he and I do not see eye to eye on all topics-- his show is "fair and balanced" where others pretend to be. But, conservative or not, the show is on MSNBC, and would not stay true to the spirit of the experiment. For the month of February MSNBC is the enemy camp.
The end result... I am watching, listening to, and reading far less on this first day. Perhaps, when not updating the blog, I will get more writing done.
Side note: Last week I ran out of coffee and, in need of a caffeine fix, brewed a cup of tea. Well, I quite enjoyed it, and have switched over to tea for a while. Seems to be pretty ironic timing. Could I be well on my way to becoming an actual TEA PARTY member?
Diving In
Maybe not quite"diving", because I began the day by gently dipping my toe into the FOX NEWS pool through their morning show FOX & FRIENDS. I get the sense that this show is struggling for an identity. They seem to use "friends" in the same way they use "fair and balanced"-- as though if you report the words and phrases often enough, people will believe it is the truth. Despite the hair, make-up, and teeth the hosts do not often come across as anyone's friends. The show seems to straddle the line between standard morning show fare/light-hearted news items and banter, and forays into more hard-edged news and commentary.
The three hosts( Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Alisyn Camerota in for Gretchen Carlson)were perky enough, but there was a snarky edge in their voices every time they mentioned President Obama, the administration, or the "liberal media". I started to play a morning drinking game, and took a sip of my tea every time they used the term "liberal media", but quickly ran out of tea. Thank God this was not in the evening, and I didn't have a bottle of bourbon.
I watched about 45 minutes of the show, and saw a few news segments and two interviews. The first interview was with former Whitehouse Press Secretary, Dana Perino-- and I'm no expert on such things, but someone might point out that Botox is not always our friend-- who I believe spoke about terrorist trials, the Obama administration, health care, and "the will of the people". Honestly, I was so distracted by how little her eyebrows and forehead moved that she started sounding like a Charlie Brown adult to me. Though, I know there was lots of talk about the "liberal media". I will try to pay closer attention in the future.
At 7:13am I learned that the Glaciers aren't melting, so-- you know-- wink-wink, nudge-nudge...Global Warming --hah!
At 7:17 am I learned that the Obama administration is not being as open and transparent as he had promised. I prevented myself from screaming at the scream, "Yeah! Like the previous administration!!!" See... baby steps.
Then there was an interview/ grilling of Peter Orszag, the current Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This was when I started to see the three hosts for what they genuinely were. All three took terms reading "hard-hitting" questions from a teleprompter or index cards. The interview was about President Obama's recently proposed spending freeze-- at one point Kilmeade referred to it as a a "fraud", and showed a clip of a "respected and award winning journalist" backing up the claim of fraud. Orszag addressed them calmly, and pointed out that the journalist was "just wrong". Since the hosts appeared to reading their questions(all of which had a very negative take on the freeze), when Mr.Orszag refuted any point they made-- they had nothing. There was no follow-up. They did not appear to have enough background information, and knowledge of the subject matter, to conduct a genuine interview. So, they just moved on to reading the next question. There was no ability to for these guys to move "off script". None. Zero. Nada.
I am not sure how much I need to watch Fox & Friends--even as part of this experiment-- though I will give it a few more viewings. I have to watch something with my breakfast. I am pretty sure they are going to contribute little to nothing in my quest for conservatism. There wasn't enough there for me to get really angry about, but I do see a distinct and agressive Fox bias to everything they air.
That was it for the first day. I have set up the DVR to record Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, so I do not have to subject Deb to them.
After much warning, and the heartfelt concern of friends and family, I have decided to proceed slowly and with caution. The hardest part is the immediate and dramatic change in my routine. I have had to eliminate all temptations that are a regular part of my daily life. No checking the NY Times first thing in the morning. No HuffingtonPost.com on my itouch. No NPR. No Morning Joe on MSNBC.No Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, or Rachel Maddow. No DAILY SHOW!!! Damn you, John Stewart and your liberal bias!!!
It was tough, I had to fortify myself with extra cups of tea, put down the iTouch, delete all my liberal news source apps, and steel my nerves for the day ahead. I can't think of the full 28 days. Right now I feel as though I'm in a really horrific 12 step program, and taking my conservative introduction ONE DAY AT A TIME.
I spent a bit of time trying to convince myself that MORNING JOE was fine. Afterall, Joe Scarborough is a self professed Conservative and former Republican Congressman from Florida. I will say-- as much he and I do not see eye to eye on all topics-- his show is "fair and balanced" where others pretend to be. But, conservative or not, the show is on MSNBC, and would not stay true to the spirit of the experiment. For the month of February MSNBC is the enemy camp.
The end result... I am watching, listening to, and reading far less on this first day. Perhaps, when not updating the blog, I will get more writing done.
Side note: Last week I ran out of coffee and, in need of a caffeine fix, brewed a cup of tea. Well, I quite enjoyed it, and have switched over to tea for a while. Seems to be pretty ironic timing. Could I be well on my way to becoming an actual TEA PARTY member?
Diving In
Maybe not quite"diving", because I began the day by gently dipping my toe into the FOX NEWS pool through their morning show FOX & FRIENDS. I get the sense that this show is struggling for an identity. They seem to use "friends" in the same way they use "fair and balanced"-- as though if you report the words and phrases often enough, people will believe it is the truth. Despite the hair, make-up, and teeth the hosts do not often come across as anyone's friends. The show seems to straddle the line between standard morning show fare/light-hearted news items and banter, and forays into more hard-edged news and commentary.
The three hosts( Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Alisyn Camerota in for Gretchen Carlson)were perky enough, but there was a snarky edge in their voices every time they mentioned President Obama, the administration, or the "liberal media". I started to play a morning drinking game, and took a sip of my tea every time they used the term "liberal media", but quickly ran out of tea. Thank God this was not in the evening, and I didn't have a bottle of bourbon.
I watched about 45 minutes of the show, and saw a few news segments and two interviews. The first interview was with former Whitehouse Press Secretary, Dana Perino-- and I'm no expert on such things, but someone might point out that Botox is not always our friend-- who I believe spoke about terrorist trials, the Obama administration, health care, and "the will of the people". Honestly, I was so distracted by how little her eyebrows and forehead moved that she started sounding like a Charlie Brown adult to me. Though, I know there was lots of talk about the "liberal media". I will try to pay closer attention in the future.
At 7:13am I learned that the Glaciers aren't melting, so-- you know-- wink-wink, nudge-nudge...Global Warming --hah!
At 7:17 am I learned that the Obama administration is not being as open and transparent as he had promised. I prevented myself from screaming at the scream, "Yeah! Like the previous administration!!!" See... baby steps.
Then there was an interview/ grilling of Peter Orszag, the current Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This was when I started to see the three hosts for what they genuinely were. All three took terms reading "hard-hitting" questions from a teleprompter or index cards. The interview was about President Obama's recently proposed spending freeze-- at one point Kilmeade referred to it as a a "fraud", and showed a clip of a "respected and award winning journalist" backing up the claim of fraud. Orszag addressed them calmly, and pointed out that the journalist was "just wrong". Since the hosts appeared to reading their questions(all of which had a very negative take on the freeze), when Mr.Orszag refuted any point they made-- they had nothing. There was no follow-up. They did not appear to have enough background information, and knowledge of the subject matter, to conduct a genuine interview. So, they just moved on to reading the next question. There was no ability to for these guys to move "off script". None. Zero. Nada.
I am not sure how much I need to watch Fox & Friends--even as part of this experiment-- though I will give it a few more viewings. I have to watch something with my breakfast. I am pretty sure they are going to contribute little to nothing in my quest for conservatism. There wasn't enough there for me to get really angry about, but I do see a distinct and agressive Fox bias to everything they air.
That was it for the first day. I have set up the DVR to record Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, so I do not have to subject Deb to them.
I think you are very very brave! Honestly, I agree with you that the hardest part is that you have so many outlets for viewing liberal media! All this technology is not helping your cause one bit.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!