Pat Sajak, game-show host and man of common sense writes that “Slanted Journalism is Everywhere”—and for that, he wins a trip for two to beautiful Ottawa, Canada, and a year’s subscription to Canada’s state-run CBC Newsworld, by satellite (if there is such a thing)!
I awoke Sunday morning wanting to know what was happening in the Terri Shiavo saga, and here’s what one of the major news services had to say:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush cut short a holiday to return to Washington and be ready to sign a bill that may keep a brain-damaged woman alive in a case pitting Christian conservatives against right-to-die activists.
That sentence is just one of dozens of examples you can find almost daily of what’s wrong with the press. First of all, it is inaccurate. The notion that Christian Conservatives are the only ones on one side of this issue is ludicrous. Most of the discussions I’ve had this past weekend happened to be with Jewish friends who were appalled by the notion of starving an innocent woman to death. There are millions of people on the side of life in this case who are neither Christian nor Conservative, but it is a convenient bit of stereotypical shorthand that the press uses with regularity.
Second, if the Christians are Conservative, why aren’t the right-to-die activists Liberal? There is a very limited spectrum that the press generally uses to describe a person’s politics. There are Conservatives and then there is everyone else. “ Conservative Senator so-and-so debated Senator what’s-his-name today.” In the world of the press, a Liberal rarely exists unless he or she is so identified by those hateful Conservatives.
In the Reuter’s example I cited, why not “Christian activists” or “right-to-live proponents”? No, they are Christian Conservatives, get it? Christians (and we know how closed-minded they are) and Conservatives (scary, huh?). The other side favors the right-to-die (giving people rights is always noble) and they are activists (caring, involved people). No contest here. Neanderthals vs. The Enlightened.
[… Read on (30 seconds) …]
Come on up to Canada, Pat, where the rules of the game were written by the cheaters. And nearly all the players cheat, and nobody cares.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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