I had an interesting assignment this past week for a government class. I was assigned to watch three hours of FAUX, er, I mean FOX news and three hours of MSNBC. Trying to keep an open mind and objectively compare networks proved a bit challenging. Most painful of all was having to listen to Glenn Beck - a flat out demagogue if ever there was one.

I have always been a bit of news and politics junkie. I remember watching Walter Cronkite in the latter part of his career when I was a kid. I watched Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather for pretty much the entire time that they were the leading anchors for the big three networks.

One thing where I think there is wide agreement is that the nature of journalism itself has changed drastically over the past 15 years or so. For the most part, I have not been pleased with the changes that we have seen. Journalism used to be much more about reporting the facts and trying to maintain some semblance of neutrality. The FCC had the fairness doctrine in place up until 1987.

I've got some real mixed feelings on the fairness doctrine. I think there are some very legitimate concerns about free speech and free press rights being violated under such a mandate. However, I look at the state of journalism today and I wonder if such a thing isn't necessary after all.

I think responsible journalism means trying to report the facts rather than being the propaganda outlet for one political party or the other. A free press is vitally important to the functioning of a democracy such as ours. The vast majority of us do not live in D.C. We do not personally know our elected representatives. We do not sit in on the hearings and meetings that go on in formulating policy or legislation. We are dependent upon the press to tell us about these things. The press plays an enormous role in shaping public opinion and so indirectly, they influence elections.

When I look at news that is biased either to the right or the left, I see dozens upon dozens of examples of hyperbolic speech. To listen to FAUX news, one would think that the passage of healthcare reform would transform this country into the Soviet Union. Such an assertion is, of course, laughable.

I think such coverage, whether you be on the right or the left, is a bad thing. Most people will tend to watch the news network that slants their stories to their liking. Unfortunately, this means they have no exposure to other viewpoints or their rationale. So with regards to the healthcare debate, critics have nothing at all to say about the real problems with regards to affordability, the effect that healthcare spending has on the deficit, the growing number of uninsured, etc. To them, the issue is merely about Obama and his supposedly insatiable desire to take over private enterprise.

Basically, such slanted coverage only tends to reinforce our prejudices rather than opening us up to other considerations.

Incredible. Simply incredible. I really can't say it any better than Cenk Uygur does here. This should make anybodybody's blood boil. It's funny to hear people decrying the anti-capitalist sentiment that exists in this county right now and crying about the onset of socialism. Socialism?!?! We've been heading AWAY from socialism for the last 30 years. We aren't anywhere even remotely close to socialism. Ah, but that won't stop the hyperbole whores.

Yes, but if we can get people to fear socialism, then maybe they won't ask too many questions about what the capitalists on Wall Street are doing.

Let's all pretend there is no such thing as robber barons. We should be far more concerned if Barack Obama was really born in the United States or if he is actually a foreigner that is part of an elaborate international communist conspiracy. Hmmm.......(cue the spooky music).