For years now, I have been told -- by both sides of the political spectrum – that the media is supposed to be the one entity that can be above politics.  The ones who can report the news as it happens.  Well, I say, “phooey,” to that.  Last time I looked, media outlets were all owned by people.  And I challenge you to name one person you have met that didn’t have an opinion about something or other.  Really… how egotistical of anyone to say they are above the fray. 

Each of the different major news outlets claims independence -- Fox, NBC, ABC, CNN.  All of them claim to deliver fair and balanced information.  But as I said before, that’s a load of hogwash.  Now that the obvious has been stated, let me pose my question.  Why shouldn’t they be biased?  I would much prefer a news outlet that fully proclaims its standing as being to the left or to the right.  At least that way I could choose which point of view I would like to read or hear. 

Now I must admit, media hasn’t always been totally biased; as far as I can tell, during the 50’s and 60’s, media was to the point, lacking the typical bloviating of today’s news.  Before then, I have noted that there seemed to be a sense of competition in the news, and two papers would slander each other.  One would endorse one candidate, and the other would endorse their opponent.  And each would dig up as much dirt as they could on both persons running for elected office.  This was a good thing.  It kept elected officials honest.  (Or, well… more honest, at least.)  It helped make government accountable to the public which it was created to serve.

I once read a couple of amazing quotes by Thomas Jefferson:

                “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."  He also went on to say, “Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.  I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.  The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”  I believe these statements by our 3^rd President truly speak to the utterly biased nature of the media, even as it was observed in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.

Today, media has warped into a new entity all together.  They no longer report the news as it happens;  they have succumb to opinion politics, turning the Op Ed page into The Gospel According to the New York Times, all based on the sole purpose of selling advertisement space.  No longer do they endorse the candidate they believe is best for this country, but they push the one who will sell more papers, or draw more viewers.  Of course, they won’t come right out and admit it.

So media, please don’t tell us you’re fair and balanced; everyone has an opinion which inevitably affects the way they present facts.  Please don’t tell me you’re above the fray, and are here to tell us mere humans what happens in today’s world.  I don’t believe media is dead, as Fox News host Sean Hannity does, but I do believe that it has hidden its true identity under the guise of unbiased journalism.  The real media now exists in the blogosphere, where people write on the basis of conscience, and not on the prospect of a paycheck, or at the command of their advertisers.

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, capitalism has taken hold, and bloggers have entered the media market as budding competitors.  Now, if NBC or Fox refuses to air a politician’s dirty laundry, bloggers feel no guilt over performing full exploratory surgery.  The funniest thing I’ve seen in years has been the interesting articles of today’s media, not based on their own research, but on individual blog sites, or second-rate tabloids like the National Inquirer.  Well, I suppose it’s only natural for a gossip paper to scoop the nationally-syndicated news media on love affairs.  Sorry, John Edwards; we’ll see you in 2012 for your next run for office.

So I say to both sides of the political spectrum, stop crying, “foul” when it comes to media bias, as it has been around since before the newsreaders of the Roman forums.    Instead, just go write a blog.