The Podcast Patriot

There are a lot of passionate people out there, but are they right? I am talking about are the Hannity-Limbaugh ultraconservative goose-steppers AND I am also talking about the Olberman-AirAmerica super-liberals. No one is being honest with America, but why should they be?

Why should our information be honest, factual, and accurate? The industries that are out there to provide us information—THE NEWS—has no incentive to do so. No one is willing to pay for quality investigative journalism; no one has time to read it, and no one cares when there are much more entertaining sources to get our news from.

According to Newser.com, “Nearly 39% of under-40 Americans say satirical shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are keeping viewers politically informed, and 21% believe they influence public opinion” … the Huffington Post reports, “The numbers are higher (32% vs. 42%) for the 30-to-39 set”.

But let us not blame John Stewart. The entire industry of news has shifted to “infotainment.” There are 24-hour news stations that must fill the day and keep the attention of its viewers with soft news. It has been a trend that has been increasing for almost 20 years. According to a 2001 report by Thomas Patterson, soft news increased from 35% of news content in 1980 to over 50% in 2001. Some reports claim that with the increased shift to the Internet as a primary news source, the percentage of infotainment news (which includes Op-Ed, single-source or no-source reporting, and punditry) has increased to over 70% of the average American’s news source.

In short, America doesn’t read news—it is reading opinions from smooth talking people who appease our uninformed and biased opinions. And as the world of opinion, punditry and agenda camouflages as honest and factual reporting (from all political position) the American people either lose confidence in the Fourth Estate (aka the news industry) or slip it under the table to the puppy like asparagus for the more palatable sweets lies of schlock news.

So what can our Senators do to fight back and bring honest discourse to their constituents? How do they contend with Astroturf protests and Obama-sycophants?

Simple, print up bulletized versions of the healthcare bill, and ask everyone attending to spend their two hours going through the bill with the Congressman together.

Let them rank what they like and don’t like. Give them a chance to ask questions to the words in front of them, instead of the talking points provided them.

At the moment, all we have are people who haven’t read the bill screaming to the people they voted for “you didn’t read the bill.” We have people on Medicare complaining they don’t like government health care. We have people who WANT government health care fail to understand that government money doesn’t come from a magic money tree but from tax payers.

I work in health care. I lived overseas and dealt with health care in other countries. I see the good, bad, and truth in each argument. But the solution is not to “shoot from the hip” and support a position based on ignorance or to trade in “verbal terrorism” and disrupt the democratic discourse of open-minded debate to find a solution rather than push an agenda.