The PCTC Blog

If the Mainstream Media Wants a Bigger Audience, Real Journalism Might be a Good Start

Okay, I admit it; I'm geeky.

Over the course of the last several years, I have actually read much of the Project for Excellence in Journalism's "State of the News Media" reports. Okay, not all of the reports, but the ones about cable, network and local television news, radio and newspapers. And there is one unmistakable trend in all of them.

 

Fewer and fewer people are relying on the major media for news.

 

I knew this without reading the reports, of course. It's not hard to figure out that fewer people are relying on journalists for their news. I look at the relative ignorance around me, even from people who claim to be "news junkies," and I realize there's a serious problem. Even though the population has grown tremendously over the last 20 years, the number of people who watch the news daily has shrunk significantly. And yes, I know; I've heard; many people get their news from the Internet. But so many people share some of the  most ignorant crap ever, it makes you wonder how many are reading it and understanding what they're reading.

 

It's also pretty easy to see why so many people don't bother with the news media anymore, although the idiots who run newsrooms will never admit it; the idiots who teach journalism classes will never admit it; and the idiots in suits who have no clue how to make money from the media will never admit it.

Some Far Left "Progressives" Handing Elections to the Right Wing; It MUST Stop!

Don't forget! My blasphemous new novel, "Not Another Savior!" is out and on sale... religion will never be the same. I hope. 

First off, I am a PROGRESSIVE. A real progressive, not one who merely talks a great game.  I have been a progressive since I was a young kid.

I want social justice for everyone. I think all people are basically the same at their heart, regardless of skin color, hair color, sexual orientation or religion. I don’t believe that respect is earned; but that disrespect is. I believe in complete freedom, up to the point that it starts affecting others negatively. To that end, I believe that all people and businesses should have the right to make products and sell them, with as little interference as possible from the government, but with as much regulation as is necessary. I think the “drug war” is a complete joke, and an affront to the Constitution I hold dear. I also think reproductive choice should be guaranteed, for the simple reason that free people can’t allow the government to make medical decisions for them, and the government has no right to force a woman to stay pregnant against her will. Everyone should have the same rights, regardless of sexual preference, as long as what they’re doing is completely consensual. I respect all religious beliefs, but I also believe that religion and politics must remain separate for the protection of both.  I believe that everyone within our borders should be able to see a doctor and receive treatment when they’re sick, and that no one should lose everything they have worked for all their life, because they happen to develop a health problem.

I am a true-blue, died in the wool, hard core liberal/progressive. I have spent my life trying to do my little part to move this country in that direction. That’s last part is what makes me an actual progressive. Having all sorts of high ideals doesn’t make one a progressive; the desire to move the system in that direction – THAT is what makes me progressive. Got it? Good.

Oil Prices and Gas Prices; We're Being Screwed. Time to Unscrew.

Jesus... are you as tired of the bullshit as I am?

The last time gasoline soared to $4 per gallon, we were told it was because the price of oil was being driven so high. And when we questioned why the price of gasoline at the pump was soaring past $4, even though the more expensive oil wouldn't hit the pipeline for several months, we were told that the oil companies needed the money now, to buy the oil later.

And we were told that the reason the price was going so high was NOT because of the "Enron loophole," but the soaring demand.

At what point does the average American's "bullshit detector" go off? 

As I write this, the price for a barrel of oil is right around $99 a barrel. That's down from the $114 high this time around. Coincidentally, that peak was hit the same day that President Obama ordered the DOJ to look into gas prices. Now, the average price of a gallon of gas is currently $3.95 a gallon, pretty much unchanged in the last couple of weeks, even though the barrel price has dropped more than 10%. Of course, the peak of $114 hit during this price bubble is about 24% less than the $150 peak it hit about 3 years ago. And the current price of a barrel of oil is 33% less than that.

Cutting the Crap on Intelligent Design or, Why Do Wingnuts Hate Science?

Don't forget! My new novel, "Not Another Savior!" is out and on sale... religion will never be the same. I hope.

A couple of friends of mine recently watched one of the most asinine "documentaries" ever filmed; Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." The film lamely attempts to make a case that Intelligent Design (ID) should be considered alongside other sciences in schools, primarily because the field of scientific research seems to be controlled by "elite" (his word, not mine) groups of scientists.  Essentially, because scientists are "elitists," goes the argument, they should be forced to accept the concept of Intelligent Design as just another scientific theory.

 

First of all, I want you to imagine if scientists made the opposite argument. Imagine that scientists called priests, nuns and preachers "elitists" and demanded that they be forced to teach evolution alongside creationism in a religion class. Can you imagine religionists sitting still for that? People like Ben Stein would be hopping mad, and rightfully so. Religion and science are two different disciplines, and should be treated as such. 

Why the death of bin Laden matters -- and why it doesn't

I heard commentary earlier today, on our local DC news radio station, that bin Laden really didn't matter anymore from an operational standpoint for al Qaeda.  The fact that his compound didn't have modern communications, this analyst said, demonstrated he wasn't really in charge, and was only a "spiritual leader."

I disagree with this analysis.  Bin Laden had not, in fact, employed advanced communications since the mid- to late-1990's, after he discovered NSA was tracking his communications and whereabouts thanks to his use of satellite phones.  Yet, he signed off on and played a pivotal leadership role in planning and training for 9/11, from tents and caves in Afghanistan.

If anything, I think bin Laden's living conditions demonstrate that, far from being hunkered down, too fearful, bombarded and cut off to have involvement in al Qaeda's operations, he was in fact living in comfort and likely continued to serve a pivotal and active role in that organization.

So, in my opinion, the death of bin Laden will serve as more than a "feel-good moment" for the Western world.  It is a critical and damaging blow to al Qaeda.

How to School An Astonishingly Arrogant Right Wing Kool-Aid Drinker

A self-described “Big-Picture Conservative” Tweeted the following earlier today:

Fact: if you believe the average American was better off 30 years ago than he is today, you're astonishingly ignorant.

First of all, for someone like this to call anyone who doesn’t believe the same bullshit he believes “astonishingly ignorant” without supporting it fully with numbers constitutes “astonishingly arrogant.”

As someone who was a young adult working hard for a living 30 years ago, and still do so today, I can tell you, I not only “believe” that the “average American” has a tougher time these days, but the numbers back me up. What is it about people on the right, that some think just because they say something, it has to be true?