Talking Heads.

I'll admit it, I'm a news junkie. If I turn on the television, I’ll switch to a news channel first. I have always been a very trusting person, and I’m very likely to believe whatever I hear someone say, because why would they lie to me?

I’m very likely to believe someone that looks me right in the eye, person to person, and tells me something. That feeling of trust goes away to a certain extent when I’m watching the news on TV. After all, they are getting paid big money to put the news on the air, and they are more likely to slant the news toward the most favorable sponsor.

This political season I’ve become very confused by what I’ve been hearing on TV, and I wonder why is there this huge disparity between what one station says and another, and one newscaster and another? When was the last time that you ever really trusted what a newsperson was telling you?

Do you trust the news coming out of Iraq? Real news out of Iraq is life or death decision making information. How could anyone with a conscience lie to us about what is happening in Iraq? But, the news you hear from some reporters directly conflicts what others say.

Without going into which channels “sponsor” which candidates, I will tell you that it is apparent to any but the most naïve person that there is an obvious bias toward “their candidate”. Bias to the point that I keep expecting the candidate to end the news broadcast with; “This is So and So, and I approve this message”.

I think that what offends me the most, is the self righteous defense of the first amendment by the talking heads. They blather on endlessly about their right to present the news without interference from anyone. They pontificate that, never, never, whatsoever, should anyone even hint that they should change their stories for any reason. I’ve have always honored that right. I think that to receive the truth, our reporters should not be interfered with, no matter how much we don’t like what we are hearing. One would think that it would occur to these people that with great privilege comes great responsibility. Seldom do you hear them say that they try hard to bring us the truth, and say it in a context that we can believe.

What distresses me most, is that what we hear in the media today is so diametrically opposed to what ever else we are hearing, that it just can’t be truth, and we lose faith in all of what we are hearing.

These are some of the most trying, and troubling times that we as Americans have ever been in. Sadly, we can’t get our news from trustworthy sources. How will we decide how to vote, how to honorably end the war? How to provide healthcare to the people that need it, bring jobs back to America? Make working for a living honorable and good paying again?

Sometimes I think that the people on TV should have their mouths washed out with soap. Maybe they could do it on Saturday Night Live, sadly, probably one of the more honest TV programs on television today.