Rachel Maddow & Bill O'Reilly - "Opinionists!"

Rachel Maddow & Bill O'Reilly - "Opinionists!"

Rachel Maddow & Bill O'Reilly are profoundly alike!

In a world where there is no longer a Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow ...
... in a reality of un-real reality TV shows
... in a broadcast media that is now always biased.

Gone are the days of real fair and balanced reporting.

The news is no longer news. Reporters no longer report.

CNN, MSNBC, FOX - are opinionists -

Some claim to be reporters - but alas, they seem to be unsure or unaware what a reporter actually is or was ...

A reporter does just that - reports the news. Unbiased - straight facts - and in simple terms - lets the viewer decide.

When you used to see the news - you saw just that. It was "happening now" it was filmed footage. There was no commentary, no opinions.

Now, cable TV has brought us opinion shows. Just because you say you are fair and balanced doesn't make it so.

AND just because you are on TV or cable does not make you smarter than your audience. Or, maybe it does. You are getting money to express your opinions.

O'Reilly looks down at his guests and holds court ...

Maddow ... talks down to her viewing audience - think as I do - or be damned sort of attitude.

She tries to be cute and coy - but those deliberate and over-rehearsed attempts come across as phony.

BOTH are arrogant beyond words.

BOTH are opinionists.

BOTH are keeping their jobs by expressing the beliefs of their corporate employers.

They are politicians, too.

As politicians are keeping their jobs by enacting laws and regulations to "pay-back" their benefactors.

Politicians get "donations" from special interests, therefore, the tit-for-tat is so profoundly like all the opinionists on TV it is surreal.

TV opinionists swipe at certain political parties - political parties swipe at certain opinionists.

There is no doubt and no dispute that many of their opinions are valid and they are shared and supported by their viewers ...

BUT - the truly wise men on this earth - past and present, historically, philosophically, spiritually - NEVER, never talked down to their followers, their readers, their believers -

for the wise man teaches, shares their opinions, expresses their values - and if they ring true - then others to will start to believe. Others will start to examine what has been said and heard and will formulate their own opinion, their own hypothesis.

But arrogant opinionists usually find themselves being dismissed.

The audience is wise.

By a student a teacher is taught.

Arrogant leaders, opinionists are so wrapped up in what they are saying, so taken in by their own cleverness - they lose sight of their own values, their own truths ...

Being clever, making sure they are always right or insisting to others they are right
become their main focus and objective.

Maddow and O'Reilly are so much alike.

And some of the time - they are uncannily right on the pulse of the American.

American people are just that. All striving for that dream, the piece of that pie in the sky.

People are not put into groups or maybe they are.

Republicans and Democrats still eat , sleep, drink ... as do lesbians, thespians, scholars, priests, Mothers, Dads, Nuns, daughters, sons ....

Opinionists enjoy dividing people into camps.

They put down one group to elevate another ...

Instead of realizing that life is a compromise.

Opinions are just that.

Opinion sometimes are fact base intertwined with emotion, rationality and irrational thoughts, speculation, fear and anger ....

They are opinions. No one person has an opinion that is more valid, less valid, more true, less true ...

o·pin·ion   
[uh-pin-yuhn]
–noun
1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
2. a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

And just because you are on TV ... and no matter how many times you say it, or how loud you say it ... are how clever or cute ...

It is just your opinion. It does not make it true.

My late pal Miss Lillian Gish once said: "If you say your faux pearl necklace is real long enough to yourself and to your friends - then it becomes real. But in the end, the truth is no one really cares and it didn't matter after all."

And if you always believe your opinion is right - well, that seems to be arrogance.

And arrogance tends to erase relevance and validity.

Opinions are cool.

WE all have opinions.

But journalism and journalists are profoundly different than opinionists.

Journalists tell a story as it it - opinionists tell their side of the story, as they believe it should be, could, ought to be ... it is clouded by their own beliefs.

Journalist: The damn has broken. I am standing in 3 feet of water.

Opinionist: The damn has broken. I am standing in what looks like 3 to 4 feet of sludge that most likely was caused by the pollution from an oil company.

FACT: Damn has broken - there is 3 feet of water.

Opinion: Damn has broken - but I'm more important than the story - so here is my opinion ....

Everyone has an opinion.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Just because you are on TV - doesn't make you right.

And sometimes - your righteousness turns to arrogance ...

and everyone can be replaced.

Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck ....

soon, people will forget they ever were on TV.

But real journalists - Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Barbara Walters - remain forever in the history books and are mentioned frequently in college courses and dissertations ... of a reminder of days when there was a higher standard that current television is missing and sorely in need of ....

O'Reilly and Maddow are never mentioned. Like Jersey Shore ... they are just passing through the airwaves and hopefully they will be replaced with journalists.

We have oh so many opinionists on TV ....

And what is this - alas, just another opinion.