The State of the Union

The room was spinning... I couldn't breathe. My experiment had failed; there was no real way to get straight, down-the-center news. I thought that by flipping back and forth between Fox News and MSNBC I would get be a balance view of politics, but instead I got vertigo. While I was spinning, however, I did jot down a few notes...

"Equal Representation"
During ever discussion, both Fox and NBC would use two pundits, one a republican and the other a democrat. This sounds "Fair and Balanced" in principle, unless you are pitting Karl Rove against some no-name democratic strategist. MSNBC did the same using David Axlerod for their speech analysis opposite... [some random republican strategist].

"Pundits Say the Darnedest Things"
Did Chris Matthews really say he "Forgot Obama was black"? Come on Chris... you can't be that forgetful. Matthews also stated that his speech was "More seductive than the 'Rope-a-dope'", a boxing tactic used by Muhammad Ali. Somethings pundits say are hyperbola... obviously, these were two of them.

The Speech
During the State of the Union, I thought Obama handled the speech well; I would have messed myself under similar circumstances. He addressed everyone: the Supreme Court, Republicans, Democrats, etc. I liked the speech so I agreed with MSNBC's analysis (to a certain extent). They said he was "reasonable and commanding," with great poise. I flipped the channel to Fox only to here the exact opposite. "Obama had 'flat rhetoric' with smacks of 'Clintonianism'." At one point Fox pundits even called his speech tone deaf. that's a little much. How could two viewpoints of the same speech yield such different responses? Were they not watching the same speech?

Zero Sum Game
If we subscribe to the notion that Fox is conservative and MSNBC is liberal, we could have guessed their responses. Fox can't afford to give Obama an inch, nor can MSNBC give up a chance to praise him. What MSNBC calls witty, Fox calls smart-ass. We need a news station that we can trust to be as critical and probing... I flipped the channel.

Comedy Central: We have to laugh to keep from crying...
I'm going to be quite honest... when I'm not reading my news in the paper or online, I go to the Daily Show for my news. What's the difference between the Daily Show and the other news stations? They all cover real events. They all use sound bites. Every station has the same anchorman format, but the Daily Show has something special- Humor. Because they value humor over partisanship, the coverage "feels" more straight-forward. According to Jon Stewart, the State of the Union was good speech, a conclusion I came to myself. In his interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin they had a real political conversation. They said Obama has great words but it's about action. The room stopped spinning and I came to my senses.