Friday, August 27, 2010

Opinions about the "Terror Mosque"

I was looking at an interesting study from the folks over at Pew concerning Americans' opinions about Islam as a whole and the building of the mosque near Ground Zero.


This graphic above I found to be most interesting. Opposition to building the mosque correlated with political conservativism, lower education, and increased age. There are still sizable percentages of liberals, young adults, and educated individuals who oppose the mosque.

I personally have now problem with it, but given my demographic that should be no surprise. My good friend Jon Stewart probably sums up this whole should-we-or-shouldn't-we debate best: "One side says our weakness emboldens jihadis. The other side says our strength embitters jihadis. How 'bout we try a new system where we don't give a fuck about what they think."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Fox commits journalistic suicide

I thought MSNBC's deal with Starbucks was a horrible decision, and it was, but at least it only compromised the integrity of one show -- Morning Joe -- not the entire network. Rupert Murdoch's call for his News Corporation to donate $1 million to the Republican's Governor's Association is simply mind blowing.

I don't understand how the News Corporation -- the media group that owns Fox News and The Wall Street Journal among others -- can even claim any level of journalistic distance, objectivity, and/or integrity after this one. Unprecedented and unreal.

The only question I have is whether this is just the beginning, not only for the News Corporation but for media conglomerates in general. Is this what happens when news outlets eventually fall under the ownership of a handful of companies with narrow agendas? Say it ain't so.