After getting his daily fix of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, my husband occasionally switches to Fox News to hear what the "other side" is spewing. Although, he tends to spend more time yelling at the hosts and who they’re interviewing (or interrogating) than passive watching. In spite of Fox News claiming to be "fair and balanced," their reporting is usually skewed and incomplete.
Last night, Greta Van Susteren was attempting to further tie Barack Obama to terrorism by associating him with Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, who twenty-five years ago was a spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). She kept pressing National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams to concur with her allegation. Visibly perturbed, Williams blurted out that John McCain as chairman of the International Republican Institute had helped fund Khalidi’s and other Middle East studies to the tune of almost $500,000.
Greta quickly cut to a commercial, which squelched any further discussions on McCain’s past affiliation with Khalidi.
Every night Greta holds court, chattering on what she deems important and most damaging to Obama. Her focus tends to be on tired and vaporous controversies and fabrications ranging from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright and now Rashid Khalidi.
While my husband screamed at Greta (he thinks TV is interact), I wondered how someone like Greta could become so biased and myopic. A quick trip to Wikipedia revealed that Greta "paled" with Joe McCarthy as a child. Her father, Urban Van Susteren, was a longtime friend of McCarthy. During his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1946, McCarthy lived with the Van Susteren’s when he wasn’t in Washington.
Joe McCarthy. What a role model for becoming a fair and balanced news reporter. No wonder why Greta is so quick to question Obama’s patriotism and conjecture that he’s a Communist!
*****
Last week, I saw Ronald Reagan, Jr. speak. I didn’t know what to expect because the only thing I knew about him is that he was a dancer. He’s definitely not the "Reagan" that would excite the conservative basis! I found him wildly entertaining and engaging with his keen observations and sharp wit. Afterwards, I kept thinking how different he is from his father.
Evidentially, you can’t turn into your parents even though you share the same genes and are influenced by them during the formative first years of your life. Yet, infers Fox News, shake hands with a former terrorist, PLO-sympathizer, criminal or other miscreant, and you’re instantly transformed.
The problem is that acts of violence and enraged rhetoric can be perpetrated by the "person down the street." Consider two teens, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who amassed weapons then walked into their local high school or the horrors committed by Timothy McVeigh, Theodore Kaczynsk, Terry Nichols, and Eric Rudolphf. And what about Charles Carl Roberts IV who walked into an Amish one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and killed five little girls?
If Fox News is truly interested in America’s best interest, perhaps they should spend some time rooting out the psychopaths that walk among us.