Asleep on the Right

The most eye-opening thing about this season of soul-searching and unbiased looking at right and wrong in the different parties is just how biased the conservative media has become through years of towing the party line.

 A striking - and disheartening - example came yesterday after listening to Obama’s “A More Perfect Union“ speech.  I heard the speech during lunch yesterday and was struck by it’s clarity and truthfulness.  It was the best commentary I’ve ever heard regarding race relations.  My wife is pregnant with our first child, a daughter, and I’m already thinking every one of my children needs to eventually hear this speech. 

Then I’m driving home and turn on KTTH “the truth” AM.  David Boze is on and he’s agreeing with this caller who’s saying Obama isn’t sincerely religious, that it’s all an act of political expediency, and that Obama made up the speech because he’s caught in a bind by the pastor’s offensive words.  Excuse me?  I have to believe Boze had at least listened to the speech or read it, but he and the caller must be blind or dead inside to believe the speech wasn’t sincere and directly on target.  By the way, if you’re reading this right now and you haven’t read the text of the speech, please stop and take a moment to read it right now.

Then I flipped to KVI and The Commentators with John Carlson and Ken Schram.  John admits the speech was brilliant but is still skeptical because Obama’s not outright disowning his pastor.  Schram, who I find myself agreeing with more and more these days, was absolutely correct in his observation that the speech was brilliant and sincere.

Then this morning I read the conservative commentary and blogs at www.realclearpolitics.com and I’m shocked by what I’m reading.  To only listen to the commentaries - which sadly most conservatives do and I would have done six months ago, too lazy to read or watch the speech myself - to listen to them you would think the speech was bland and delivered in a shallow, off the cuff manner.

Is this blindness on the part of the right?  Is it apathy?  To display such a jaded inability to see truth is entirely unbecoming for a movement which claims to be built up on morality and religious conviction. 

I guess that when you silently allow corporate interests to shape your media and don’t take the time to research things for yourself, this is what happens.  If you have any questions about corporate interests shaping conservative media do a search on Fox News, Investigators and Bovine Growth Hormone.  You’ll be shocked if you actually take the time to research this.  (Did I mention that KTTH is owned by Fox News?)

This is the same type of phenomenon wich leads to compassionate, rational people defending things like torture, holding people without due process - or any process at all - and using phone companies to abridge the 4th ammendment privacy rights of US citizens.