femminista: thoughts of a feminist rhetorician

Will the news stations start reporting the news instead of promoting debates as though they were promoting a wrestling match? I turn on MSNBC tonight and I'm appalled within the first minutes of listening. Am I appalled by deaths in Iraq, embassies being bombed, people starving? No. Because none of those things were mentioned. Instead, I hear about the "face-off" between Barack and Hillary. I read "which Clinton will show up." I hear about how the election has already been decided. Oh, yeah, and I've been exhorted to watch the "post-game" show. Wait a second. In what way does choosing the future leader of this country seem analogous to a football game? To whom is this a game? We have men and women dying daily in a war initiated by our current "leader," people loosing their homes because of the mortgage crisis, and a nine trillion dollar deficit. What, pray tell, about that seems trivial?

I realize that we've come to expect this from tv news stations--the sensationalism and ratings-pandering--but why? Why can't we get news that is even a little bit balanced? Is it really too much to ask to hear facts on candidate platforms instead of blind, empty speculation? Have the news stations not learned from their previous erroneous speculations? New Hampshire, anyone? And as someone who believes in the potential of both candidates and who struggles with choosing who to support, I am horrified by how anti-Hillary MSNBC is. As though calling out the details from previous boxing matches, the voice over is "She has ....." enumerating all of the things that Hillary has done to Barack. [Hopefully, they will post video of this later so that I can get the correct quote and link to it, because my description simply cannot convey the absurdity of these announcers/commentators. Or perhaps I should say carnival barkers.)

And perhaps one of my favorites: "is she tough enough to be commander in chief?" Because all women are sweet and gentle and incapable of strong decision-making. They criticize her for being too cold and then for being too emotional, that is when they aren't questioning the authenticity of that emotion. This isn't to say that no one is criticizing Obama, but right now they are reporting on how others have criticized Obama and not actually criticizing Obama himself while they take aim and fire at Hillary.

When did MSNBC become FoxNews?