Marissa,
We miss a lot from our short attention spans. Most people never sing more than the chorus of "This Land is Your Land", either. But the best part (for lefties like me) are the last two:
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Patrick,
I agree about "America the Beautiful". I was not familiar with any but the first verse (and I considered it pretty bland and uninspiring), but after 9/11 last year, I heard some group on TV singing the whole song. When I heard the particular words
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
I broke into tears myself.
It may have been satire, but it isn't too far-fetched. My former employer was:
-- A brilliant mathematician who believed in Astrology and reincarnation and rejected evolution and relativity.
-- A Jew turned Buddhist who became a millionaire working as a defense contractor.
-- A vegetarian, right-to-life Reagan Republican.
As for honesty, well, if you really think routinely calling people "fascists," "traitors," and "terrorists" is honest, I doubt we have much to talk about...But if we just use the words as synonyms for "doodyhead," we don't have 'em when we need 'em.
I consider it "inflammatory rhetoric" or "exaggeration for rhetorical effect". Calling it dishonesty is an example of the same sort of thing, isn't it?
Sorry if I'm making a nuisance of myself here, but I would like to say one more thing about Oliver vs. Patrick here. If Spinsanity's point (or yours) was "MWO is dishonest" rather than "MWO should tone down the rhetoric" then I have an even bigger disagreement. That's a pretty strong accusation, and I think it is completely false. At least, I haven't seen anything dishonest about anything that they have written, and neither you nor Spinsanity has pointed out anything that I would call dishonesty.
Patrick,
What I read were the words. What those words appear to say is that it's stupid and reprehensible to be dishonest.
I don't see that Spinsanity is accusing MWO of dishonesty. Instead, they say
They also make a relatively small number of outright factual errors relative to many of the pundits we write about, though I caught them in one recently.
Most days, however, the site simply presents angry, partisan spin and quotes from articles, transcripts and reader emails that bolster its viewpoint. Readers certainly understand what they are getting from the site, and the editors usually link to their source articles when making substantive claims (to their credit), making it easier to evaluate the information directly. Still, that's no excuse for some of the most aggressive jargon on the Internet.
It seems to me that their complaint is with the "aggressive jargon" and "angry partisan spin".
MWO may be harsh and aggressive, but they aren't the left-wing equivalent to Limbaugh and the dittoheads. The issues brought up by Spinsanity and other MWO critics are discussed openly and thoughtfully on the MWO site by MWO and its readers. Yes, sometimes angrily, as well, but anger sometimes is a legitimate emotional response.
I have questioned the MWO tone, too, but I find most of their criticism of politicians and the media to be accurate in substance. MWO is certainly not balanced in its views (although politically they are actually more moderate than extreme liberal). But I think that they help make the political discourse as a whole more balanced by giving voice to views that are often ignored in more polite mainstream outlets. For MWO to become more "balanced" by including editorials reiterating what is already said in the mainstream would be redundant.
Even if they are to everyone's taste (and I'm not 100 percent sure that they're to mine) I'm glad that MWO exists.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 3 |
| 2002 | 15 |
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