rant

one thing that irritates me about journalistic integrity as a concept is that not only is it bullshit but it demands in a way that is severely misguided that the journalist suppress their natural human reaction to an event--to put on this act of pretending to be neutral, which in and of itself is ridiculous since true objectivity is pretty much impossible. since when was it bad to have an opinion on something? why can't people (especially liberals) take a stand on an issue--defend their positions intelligently (or, hell, they don't even have to do that--conservatives don't seem to have any trouble presenting their argument as brazenly sensationalist as possible)? do people really need to hear the most neutral version of a news story involving actual human beings and human experiences?

this whole thing with james o'keefe infuriates me. not only is his so-called "scoop" completely sanctimonious (how hard would it be, really, to make a case that right wing newsgroups like fox news are slanted in their reporting? i mean, haven't they already done this with documentaries like outfoxed? isn't it more or less common knowledge that the right can get away with being horribly biased and not having to make apologies for it or make cowardly public good-faith gestures like firing their staff after these accusations are made because everyone knows that arguing with the right-wing is like talking to a stubborn two year-old?) but it pretends to expose this great truth--to uncover this scandal--that is sort of irrelevant. everything schiller said was true. the tea-party are a bunch of ass-backwards politically uninformed morons, abrasive and destructive and obtrusive in their supposed ideologies, which, on the whole, are really nothing more than xenophobia and racism and sexism dressed up in a gaudy suit of twisted morals and biblical half-truths. it's not that schiller indicted himself in any way that pointed to his left leanings. he just called a spade a spade. conservatives are racist. they are stupid. why should he or npr have to apologize? i mean, grow some fucking balls. jeezus.