So much has been written and commented upon during the 24 hour news cycle regarding President Obama's statements about the building of the mosque in Manhattan that it points out clearly how poorly educated we have become thanks to a lazy media that avoids at all cost reporting facts when relying on opinion is so much cheaper and easier on the ankles.
When President Obama said that the Muslim community had the RIGHT to build the mosque/community center in Manhattan, he was addressing the FACT that they are legally within their rights to do so. He supports the law and the law says they have that right.
When he refused to comment on the "wisdom" of their doing so, he was not backtracking or ratcheting back...yadda...yadda...yadda. He was refusing to inject an opinion that has no relevance given that the law and tenets of the Constitution are what he is encharged to uphold. I just don't understand the incessant need for so called "journalists" to put their own interpretations on what he said or why he said it. Just as I don't undersatnd how any member of government sworn to uphold the Constitution can stand before the cameras and disavow the laws he/she is sworn to uphold. Their "opinions" don't trump fact. And the law is very clear on what the facts of this case are.
I join this administrations' frustrations with the cable media, as well as the "professional Left", in this country who seem to believe their job is to mine his every statement and move in order to find some darker, hidden meaning. The man speaks quite clearly.
I know many will point out that Rachel Maddow and Josh Marshall fall into that broad category of the Left. However as with every rule, there are exceptions. I just find it sad there aren't more like them.Unfortunately for the most part we are stuck with the unwatchable blowhards like Ed Schultz, Dylan Ratigan and Chris Matthews, and "Drudge" wannabe Huffington Post, all of whom regurgitate the same drivel from Politico as if it is actual "journalism" and not just gossip and spin meant to make them appear relevant and "in tune with the people". Rachel and the journalists at TPM deal in facts rather than gossip.
For example, TPM has an excellent story regarding a group of Muslim clerics from the US who took a trip, organized by a Republican former member of Bush I and Reagan administrations, to see the concentration camps and witness first hand the history of the Holocaust complete with a meeting with a 90-year-old survivor. The clerics, many of whom have said very controversial things in the past, have had their hearts and minds changed after seeing clear evidence that the Holocaust was no hoax. The experience has been a profound one that may just have an impact on relations between the Islamic and Jewish communities down the road. A seed was planted. And ironically, it was a German foundation that stepped forth to finance the trip----after several Jewish organizations turned it down.
This is an important and hopeful story that I have yet to see reported anywhere today though I watched all the news shows this morning on both cable and regular media. But Josh has it front page and headlined. And I have no doubt Rachel will have it on as well. But the Sunday "news" was pretty much devoted to analyzing what the President said about the mosque. And if I had a penny for every time a talking head misquoted and/or misinterpreted what Obama actually said I could buy a Congessman, maybe even a Senator. Only Christiane Amanpour actually played the tapes from his comments, yet still the analysis went on ad nauseum. Any wonder he hates dealing with what passes for press nowadays.
I was taught from an early age to never accept one source for any story but to read diverse sources before forming an opinion. I don't need my news filtered through pundits and parrots who mine their material pretty much from the same source. For years, even before the Internet, I subscribed to foreign newspapers after living overseas and realizing there are often many layers to the same story that we don't necessarily get over here. Of course now that so many of the newspapers I used to read have been gobbled up, as is much of the media, by guys like Rupert Murdoch, the ability to get unfiltered news has been made all the more difficult. Yet it is out there.
But I am not suggesting everyone needs to go online to read foreign papers. My job allows me that kind of time. However, when it comes to things like what the President says and how he says them, for example, to allow his words to be interpreted for you by people with obvious agendas is plain lazy. Every word he mutters to the press and every speech he makes is available on tape online so you can listen and decide for yourself. And don't just listen to the clips. Listen to the entire statements.
I know it is difficult after eight years of sipping from a shallow well to actually take the time required to drink it all in.
However you may find what you hear far more refreshing and ceratinly more palatable than the backwash from the pundits.