Liberal Media and Blogs

Is anyone else sick of the liberal slant on all media these days? Of course I watch Fox News because I'm obviously a conservative... but I still check out other stations and mostly read blogs now and then. But lately, politics has started to creep into my social media and my celebrity gossip blogs -- and I'm almost about to abandon these things.

Facebook -- I'm just as bad as anyone on this, but my liberal friends are becoming 'fans' of Obama and posting status messages that are mainly attacking Republicans -- I'm still waiting to hear good things about their candidates. And I don't mind people posting status updates related to politics..because I do it. But when I do post a politically motivated status, within minutes I get attacked with comments to my status by one of my liberal old high school friends. And it's always an attack -- McCain's 'values' and how Republicans this and that. And I'm just like -- you know, this is a free country and the greatest thing about America is that we can express our political beliefs.. so why are you attacking my status updates? You haven't talked to me in almost 10 years and now you find the urgent need to leave me three comments on my status update attacking the party I affiliate with? Why?

Twitter -- I'm new to Twitter, but it's growing on me. I love it. It's like Facebook statuses without anything else. I enjoy it mostly for the randomness of people's tweets and more importantly the networking aspect. I am following about four or five Intranet professionals and get links to great industry articles. Once I posted about RSS feeds and SharePoint and it caught the eye of one of my followers - who then used the idea for his company to implement RSS feeds from SharePoint. So there are lots of benefits to Twitter professionaly and for fun. However, last night I had to avoid it. Evidently the majority of the people I follow are Democrats -- I'm not the norm I guess. So, everyone was tweeting about the Republican National Convention and Sarah Palin. Ugg. It wasn't necessarily insightful, fact based tweets. It was attacks, sexist remarks, just pure unintelligent banter about Sarah Palin and McCain. And no one was left untouched...Cindy, Bristol, even the poor downsydrome baby. There's even a Twitter account for a girl posing as Sarah Palin trying to be funny, and she posts updates as 'Sarah Palin' basically making fun of the whole thing. Can you imagine if someone created a Twitter account pretending to be Obama and jokingly updated as him? Can you imagine how fast that person would get attacked through Twitter, and attacked by bloggers, etc.? So yeah, last night I turned Twitter off for the first time since I signed up. I just couldn't take it. I like the people I follow, so I didn't want the babble about politics to ruin my opinion of these professionals and fun people. I left an update before I signed off saying as much -- and one follower agreed with me. He said social media should carry the same rules as a bar - no politics and religion in conversations. Agreed!

Perezhilton.com -- Ok, so grudgingly I admit I read his blog every day. It really saves me money because otherwise I'd be suckered into buying the trashy gossip mags in the grocery store. I visit daily and catch up on all the nonsense that is going on in Hollywood or hear great new music. So lately I've decided I'm going to have to wait until after the election to read it again. Perez has taken it upon himself to follow in the footsteps of US Weekly (did you see their cover on Sarah Palin? So unnecessary of them!) and blog about politics -- but with a spin -- a very, very liberal spin. Not only is Perez obviously pushing Obama in his posts (which is funny because he used to trash him when he supported Hilary in the primaries), he's also attacking McCain and most recently Sarah Palin. It's just wrong. He even posted about her 19 yr. old son being hot and made a really disgusting remark about a hole being a hole if it's dark. Gross! Keep that to yourself please! He keeps calling McCain and Palin liars, and then using articles from MSNBC and other obvious liberal media outlets to back him up. I just can't take it.. Now, most of his posts are related to bashing the Republicans and maybe I'll see one or two posts a day on new music or celebrity gossip. So I'm signing off of Perez also. I know I post politically slanted blog posts, but I don't have millions of readers, and I'm not known for being a celebrity gossip blogger. And I don't have millions of dollars from huge sponsors paying for my blog. Perez posting about politics is like Home Depot blogging about I-pods. The funny thing is, after browsing the comments of one of these such posts I noticed that the majority of people commenting were expressing my same sentiment, and most were anti-Obama. Interesting.


Ok, so I understand that the beauty of this country is that we can post our opinions and views about politics. I get that. But isn't anyone the least bit nervous about how bad the media is right now? It's scary how slanted everything you watch on TV is. I even got upset with one of my favorite TV shows this past year - The L Word. Obviously placed in the dialogue were jabs at President Bush and the Iraq war. Ugg.. It would be a conversation like,
"Oh, I haven't seen you since last week. Great to see you. How are things?"
"Things are great. Started a new job. President Bush is a hatemonger and all Republicans should die!! Arrg!! Evill!!! Down with USA!!"
"Yeah, I started a new job too. You want to go grab a movie?"
"Sure, let's go!"
Just as casual and nonchalant as that with blatant political messages thrown in. So let me ask you this? If you have strong political beliefs and values, when has a movie star or a tv show or even a blog changed your opinion? Do you really think commenting and slamming my facebook statuses is going to make me 'see the light' and vote for Obama? Do you think your biased blog posts 'exposing the truth' about McCain and Palin is really going to sway my vote or my beliefs? Let's leave the politics to the politicians. Obama doesn't need your help (or does he?). Let Obama convince people they need to vote for him. Let Palin convince you she's qualified. It's like you trying to convince a smoker to stop smoking -- they can't quit until they are ready and willing to quit themselves. "Hey, smoking is bad for you - you should quit right now this minute!" "Vote for Obama because I think you should!"

By the way, small experiment I've been conducting lately....next time you meet someone who is voting for Obama, ask them two things:
1) What makes Obama qualified to lead the greatest country in the world?
2) What is Obama's stance on [insert important issue (immigration, Iraq, guns, etc.) here].
$10 says that most people can only answer one question. $10 says that most people can't answer both.
I had a friend go on and on about how great of a speaker Obama is and how he brought her to tears once -- then I asked her, "What is his stance on illegal immigration?" And I genuinely wanted to know because I didn't know. She stopped. Paused. Looked up in deep thought. "Hmm, I don't know. I guess I'll have to look into that." Did you see on the news when the reporters would step into the groups of protesters and ask them what they were supporting or protesting against -- and most either had blank stares, walked away, or flicked off the camera. Nice. Do people even know what they are supporting anymore? Don't attack me for this... just a notation... but Hitler made it into office because he was an excellent speaker and dazzled German citizens. Just saying.

So that's my rant for the week. You can agree or disagree, or agree to disagree with me. Just because I support a different candidate than you, we can still be Internet friends. And please people...please... don't believe everything you hear or read on the Internet. And please, please educate yourself on the candidates and their views before you vote.

Update: Just went to an article on Ragan (Communications organization that holds conferences I go to, posts articles, etc.) about Palin's speech. It wasn't political, it simply addressed that it was a well written and well executed speech -- no pro Republican or pro Liberal slant -- just a basic communications article about speechwriting and lessons learned. Well, this article has the most comments I've ever seen a Ragan article have. And they were all bashing Palin! Personally and professionally! Arrrgg!!! Now it's creeping into my work! Liberals!! Enough with the attacks!!! I'm not going to every blog and Web site on the Internet that even mentions the word Obama or Biden and leaving tons of hateful comments. And the people on Ragan are working, educated professionals -- and all you have to do is mention something related to politics and they are ranting lunatics! Please make it stop!