Reply #24: Not nit-picky at all!

[redqueen]

This is what we should be DEMANDING from media, because without it people think that whether bush has done a good job or not is a matter of opinion. It's not. It would have been before 9/11 and before Iraq, but now it's clearly a matter of record - he's a failure. Either incompetent or negligent. It's the media's job to sort this out, and they're not doing it, and haven't been for quite a long time.

We need fact checkers. Have one rightwing and one leftwing if we need to, for balance and acceptability. But we need them desperately. It's one thing to want to try to give the appearance of balance, I understand that -- however when that impacts the delivery of factual information (see the Howler breakdown of the 'ad watch' analysis of Kerry's and Bush's ads), then it's directly threatening to democracy.

I think they should have them on C-Span as well, since so many times what is said there is so easily checkable ... I think it does a lot of damage to have false claims repeated endlessly (think 'Gore said he invented the internet!')

We deserve more from the media - it's the only way the public can be informed enough to maintain this republic.