The seminal book on media written by Marshall McLuhan was an inspiring and prophetic view of media in the world. But right now it is no longer, The Media Is The Message but The Media Is The Mess. I mostly mean the TV media, cable mostly but not excluding some networks. Where in the entire history of the world could we have found as many morons at one time, who deliver the news or actually deliver their opinions on the news than now? From Wolf Blitzer, gruff, insinuating, ramblings and never asking the right questions and repeating the same set quotes, to Bill O’Reilly’s, total lack of any kind of since of reality bravado, to Chris Mathews’ misogynist rants and really not knowing anything about playing hardball but interrupting anybody that has an opinion that doesn’t agree with his, to Lou Dobbs, the self proclaimed defender of all that America is and should be and really doesn’t know what America is or will be, to Glenn Beck, who is totally incoherent in his ramblings; and that’s just a few of the cadre of the stupendously idiotic news presentation group we have been forced to deal listen to (and I know you can turn the channel or turn it off).

And not to be forgotten are all those talking head pundits that are rolled out to give their opinions and keep getting it wrong on every twist and turn in this political season none of them who have a clue what America wants or needs because they’re too busy reading newspapers so they can actually comment on something instead of going out and investigating the news. Most recently the brave Scott McClellan, who has been burned at the stake by the Republican smear machine, called the media complicit in creating this albatross of a war that we are mired in in Iraq. Complicit to say the least, the news media might as well have tied a bow on everything the Bush administration said and did without investigating the lies, smoke and mirrors that they were presenting.

The news media basically jumped though hoops for George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the Neo-Cons. Katie Couric said she felt pressured to not report negative about what was going on. So, I guess our forefathers created freedom of the press so the press could be pressured not to tell the truth? And it seems to get even worse with each passing day. The other day I was watching a news analyst commenting that some Americans still think Obama is Muslim and went onto say “he will have to prove to them that he is not”. I sat there thinking why don’t you say he is not, you know he’s not, I know he’s not, so why don’t you set the record straight, but he said nothing, just nodded a nod of innuendo. It’s sickening.

And then the recent slanders on Fox news border on full-blown yellow journalism. First they light up the screen with a headline “Outraged liberals say stop picking on Obama’s baby mama!” a racial slur so disgusting if defies reason. And then this episode that reminds me how out of the loop the media really is, a Fox News anchor, E.D. Hill reported that, the Obama’s excited fist bump at his victory rally in St. Paul was “a terrorist fist jab” and then the wonks afterward kept asking what that fist bumb meant and who does that. Haven’t they seen Tiger Woods make a good shot or any athlete celebrate a great moment, do they know what a high five is? It’s excruciating how these people and I’m not saying all of them because as I am writing this it was just announced that Tim Russert died of a heart attack, he was one of the few good ones. Unlike Russert, who represented common Americans by asking the right questions, these days most newscasters and people who comment for the news don’t represent anything but themselves and in doing so make the media and themselves look like the biggest losers of all time…