laughingatlife

By Tim Bearden 

The Emancipation Proclamation has nothing to do with the current civil war going on in America. And if you think there isn’t one, turn on the news, read a newspaper, blog or a good book and wake up because it’s happening as we speak.

This war is not being fought with guns, but with words and a state’s color (red or blue). It was once that these ugly teeth were only shown during election years, however, this pointless arguing and fighting has expanded beyond the campaign trail and into the lives of everyday Americans.

It all started with Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The Drudge Report, a conservative blog before it’s time, unveiled the lurid affair between the president and his intern. That particular blog was the beginning of the boom for blogging in general. It made people realize again that one person could make a difference. That one person led to an impeachment proceeding. Now everyone has opened their uneducated mouths to talk about politics.

Citizen journalism is what the papers and colleges are calling it. That term is joke in of itself. Being a journalist requires research and getting the facts. Something most bloggers forget to do. Bloggers are the biggest evidence of this civil war.

It’s no longer North vs. South, it’s Democrat vs. Republican. Liberal vs. Conservative. And the ideals are six to one and a half dozen to the other. I know people who read blogs actively, believing blogs can inform them of what is going on in the political arena. And they’re technically right. But they also tend to forget that a blog isn’t a newspaper. It isn’t fair and balanced. It’s opinion, for the most part.

Blogs are more like columns in a newspaper. While they’re entertaining to read and somewhat informative, you’re still getting a skewed view of what’s really happening. AnnCoulter.com is a blog by everyone’s favorite woman conservative, Ann Coulter.

Coulter was upset over a ruling by Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Guantanamo Bay detainees. She said on her blog, “But now, even aliens get special constitutional privileges merely for being caught on a battlefield trying to kill Americans. I think I prefer Canada’s system of giving preference to non-citizens who have skills and assets. If Justice Kennedy can review the procedures for detaining enemy combatants trying to kill Americans in the middle of a war, no place is safe. It’s only a matter of time before the Supreme Court steps in to overrule Randy, Paula and Simon.”

While she is technically right, these detainees are getting constitutional privileges, she’s also exaggerating the situation in a campaign called “propaganda.” I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It’s the same thing Thomas Paine used to help fuel the fire to the Revolutionary War in his pamphlets Common Sense. It’s also the tactic any political leader uses to persuade people believe what they’re saying is true. Bush used it, Roosevelt used it, Churchill used it and even Hitler used it. It’s not a new concept. But propaganda is just that, persuasion, not fact.

However, citizens take these words as straight fact and nearly gospel. These columnists, as I’ll continue to call them, can do no wrong.

Blanca DeBree, a conservative blogger on the popular blogspot.com, posted a blog entitled God Smites Tim Russert. She said, “It looks like God was not happy enough with Tim Russert’s obsequiousness to the Bush Administration and has decided to strike him dead, of an apparent ‘heart attack’.”

She goes on to call him “gun shy with follow-ups.” In reference to his tough question interviewing. She does give him credit for being fair and balanced, but she won’t recognize him as a journalist and calls him a “shyster.” Clever play on words wouldn’t you say. For those of you who think I’m taking this out of context here’s the post http://blancadebree.blogspot.com/2008/06/god-smites-tim-russert.html.

On this you’ll also see the comments. One person called her “uninformed” and she responded in rebuttal with websites such as—www.AnnCoulter.com. However, I don’t rememeber her ever speaking poorly of Tim Russert. If I’m not mistaken, there were very few people calling Russert’s death deserved. I even think Bill-O felt remorse over the death of Russert. And he’s one of the most conservative people on the news talkshows today.

Although this is only one piece of a very large and complicated puzzle, it’s still an example of an internal war. A new civil war. The new face of war is political, electronic and less violent, however, just as heated.

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