Having an opinion about media bias

So, I think it's important for any democratic society to show strong support for freedom of the press. I'm not a big fan of the 'war' the White House has waged against FOX News, but that is potentially a blog for another time.


I wanted to discuss people's opinions about media bias. I have a lot of friends that would consider themselves die-hard conservatives and many friends who consider themselves staunch liberals. I consider myself to be a moderate who leans to the left. I really didn't give too much thought to my political leanings until college. My dad was a career foreign service officer and I think not outwardly aligning yourself with a particular political party came with a job. A lot of career military officers also subscribe to this thinking because you could be serving a president of a different political party every four years. Career government officials would hate to have their judgment and advice called into question based on people's perceptions of their political ideology. I found out that my parents both consider themselves Democrats, but didn't raise us as Democrats. I'd like to believe that I chose to identify with the Democratic Party only after understanding the basic framework of both of America's two dominant political parties.

I just love it how a lot of my conservative friends flat-out consider anyone who has a show on MSNBC or CNN to be a hard-core liberal. On the flip-side, I know plenty of people who consider anyone who has a show on FOX News to be a pretty hard-core conservative. Whereas most commentators on MSNBC may be left-leaning and most commentators on FOX News may be right-leaning, I wish more people would actually tune in to these shows (more than just once) to actually listen and make informed decisions. For example, Glenn Beck is not really a conservative. I think he readily identifies himself as a Libertarian. But, many people just assume he's a conservative because he's on FOX News. He certainly doesn't say too many nice things about President Obama or his administration, but he had plenty of criticism for former-President Bush and his administration. I watch bits and pieces of Glenn Beck almost every night. I usually switch between his show and Chris Matthews' show on MSNBC. I really can't stand Beck, but at least I watch him enough to make an informed opinion.

The same goes for news reporting on the internet. I don't outright consider anything written on http://www.foxnews.com/ to be right-leaning. I usually scan the headlines of the online news sites operated by the major players, and then compare-and-contrast the information presented regarding the same and/or similar news events. I think it's important not to rely on just one website or one cable news channel to make informed decisions about the bias that may or may not be present in news reporting/commentating.

The catch-22 of our prison system

I've always been a fan of watching documentaries about prison life... the ones you find on National Geographic and MSNBC. One of the recent shows mentioned something that I had not really considered before. Based on my own views on the general public, they want people convicted of serious crimes to go to jail, serve length jail sentences, and not have any avenues to better themselves in prison. With many people complaining about the current level of taxes, who would advocate for more taxpayer money to be sent to our jails and prisons to aid inmates in bettering themselves (learning technical skills; finishing high school; getting college degrees, etc). Remember the movie The Shawshank Redemption? Tim Robbins' character asks the warden if he will assist in getting more money for the prison so a library can be built. The warden's response was that the taxpayers only want to see their money help pay for three things in the prison system: more bars, more walls, and more guards.

For inmates not convicted of rape, murder, and other very serious crimes, they will one day be released from prison. They'll be forced to reintegrate into society. For those convicted of felonies, there are already a number of laws on the boooks that prevent them from certain types of employment and assistance that could more easily help them reintegrate. We're pretty much branding them with their own "Scarlet Letter." But, if they come out of prison no better then when they entered, do you think they're all going to just magically seek a better life? If we give them no additional skills, no additional education, no additional coping mechanisms with dealing with the outside world, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to get mixed in with the same crowds they were part of before; get right back into gang life; restart their drug-addiction habits; commit the same crimes they were committing before being locked up. A lot of these behaviors directly impact John Q. Public living in his house with the white-picket fence in his suburban neighborhood. If these recently-released parolees aren't robbing John Q. Public's house or assaulting John Q. Public on the sidewalk, they're selling drugs to John Q. Public's neighbors and relatives. I could belabor this, but I think you get the point. Let's help inmates better themselves so they are less likely to return to old habits once they're released.

Obviously, in times of economic hardship, we need to prioritize where taxpayer money goes. Maybe enhanced prisoner education and skills training opportunities is not at the top of the list. I don't really know what the right answer is. I don't really know if there is a right answer. But I'm certain taxpayer money can not only be directed to the prison system in three ways. It's got to be comprehensive than "more bars, more walls, and more guards."

What will become of this blog?

So, I created this blog last week and I thought about what I wanted this to become over the weekend. I've really thought about it and am not sure where this will take me. Do I write about things only in my personal life? Do I write about my political views and my observations about current events? Do I try to find a happy medium? I still don't know.

Until I answer these questions, I think I'm going to keep this blog anonymous while the first few posts take shape. I don't plan to link this to my facebook page or send an e-mail out to my friends telling them to start reading just yet. I wouldn't say that I'm paranoid, but like anyone else who uses the Internet will tell you, once you shoot something out into cyberspace for the world to view/read/listen to, it is very difficult to erase its existence (if you ever need to down the road). Until I figure out what will become of this, I'll just enjoy the madness. If you happen to stumble upon this by accident, I hope you will enjoy watching this evolve.

I have always considered myself a writer and remember even as a young child writing in a journal about life's daily adventures. When my parents first bought my sister and I a word processor, I remember writing in depth about family vacations and sightseeing adventures. During the first three years of my career, I would write in an online journal on my personal website about things mainly in my private life. I stopped writing in it for a variety of reasons, but I do enjoy going back, even years later, and reading my entries again. Maybe in 5/10/15/20+ years down the road, I'll enjoy reading these entries again, remembering what it was like to be alive at these totally random moments in time.

So, until next time...

My first blog

Welcome to my blogspot site. I've been thinking about blogging for a while, but have just never started. I'm still not sure how this blog will evolve, but it could be interesting. I'm planning to start blogging and just see where it takes me. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.