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Libertarians: Trying to get people to
mind their own business since 1971.
The Freedom Files

As Rush Limbaugh likes to say, it's entertainment....

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I'm Proud I never Voted For Bush!



PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT

Such a thing is not only possible but desirable. It would look like - facts. It is far easier to find in media outside the US. Next time you go aborad, look at CNN International. They really do a damn good job of it.

As for Rush et al - they are all pundits. To get you news from a pundit is to live on Crispy Cremes and soda.

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Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
- Robertson Davies

I want reporters to be flawlessly impartial/unbiased. The old "just the facts." Leave the opinionating to the editors and talk radio and the television equivalents.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I'd rather see straight news reporting without bias. Once bias enters the equation, it stops being news and becomes propaganda.

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"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

We will never get back to the point where people want just the facts. Everyone demands that whatever they see, hear and read be entertaining. Facts are not entertaining. Look at how many shows and publications are dedicated to celebirty gossip and rumors. And with an atmosphere as charged as it is right now how can people have a netural opinion? You may have a writter that is netural, but the editor may not be. And above the editor you have the president, owner or board of directors calling the shots. On top of all of that you have the peoples expectations. People expect Fox to be full of "right wing warmongers" and the NYT to be full of "liberal hippies". You can have someone read a unbiased article and unless they have an open mind to the topic at hand they will surely come out of it with a skewed perspecitive.

Why would the addition of straight news necessitate the elimination of pundits?

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Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
- Robertson Davies

Who ever said that the news without a viewpoint was just the facts?Who then determines what is and isn't facts?Many news items have not yet been substantiated one way or the other as fact.The media has become such an issue hungry ratings machine that they become their own news stories.Sometimes just the topic that a news media chooses to run is somewhat imposing of an opinion.The listeners can't even decide for themselves as to what is or isn't fact.We need to hear it from some other individual or group of individuals who have been deemed worthy of determining what is and isn't fact.And that's a fact.I think.

In order for something to be fact it must necessarily be without bias. It must be substantiated. It must not be spun in such a way as to get the viewer/reader/hearer to draw specific conclusions. Otherwise, it is not fact.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

That is not what I was saying. Pundits are fine, anyone listining to Rush knows where he stands. So the people that listen to his show would have to be a fool to think he is being 100 percent un biased.