:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Thursday, November 06, 2003 ::

Self Professed Newspaper addict Steve Earl is cool, always liked him... only heard a couple of songs but have always liked what he's had to say. Should do myself a favor and go get an album just cause I like the guy.

"You think the media is now swinging to the right?

Earle: It's not that it's right-wing or left-wing, it's just that they're doing the same thing radio is doing -- doing market research and pandering to a market they've identified. I'm ready to do the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox this month, but equating that with a real political discussion is like believing pro wrestling is real. It's just pandering to our worst instincts, and it works. They've just identified a market and can sell to it. It sells more beer.

I don't have a problem with the existence of the right, but the right has a problem with my existence. We just have a different definition of patriotism. One day this country will be remembered maybe for rock 'n' roll, maybe for baseball, and a few other things, but our Constitution is going to be like Hammarabi's code. It's a hipper document than its framers intended it to be.

The people that I've pissed off were all people I was trying to piss off. And for the most part the press that I read, and trust to some extent, was pretty good on the "John Walker" thing. But I think it has eroded to the point where it is not about bias but under-reporting things that are real important. For example, the real story in the 2000 election in Florida was not hanging chads but the thousands thrown off the voting rolls for having the same last name as some criminal. And it's not as if people who write about politics were not aware of that."

:: Jim Nichols 11/06/2003 11:59:00 AM [+] ::
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