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Ok, so I’m finishing out my last couple of classes before I graduate college. One of my classes is a 100 level Intro to Mass Communications course. I took it because I had some extra time and I may potentially work in media relations or another media field after I graduate.
Much of the course criticizes the media. It’s largely focused on how corporate ownership is affecting news content. We spend a great deal talking about bias. We watched “Outfoxed,” the documentary about how bullshit Fox News is in class. That’s all well and good. It was informational and it covered a lot of topics we’ve discussed in class.
However, this week they were talking about pundits and how influential they are and the possible dangers they pose. They mentioned Bill O’ Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Rachel Maddow in a Power Point Presentation. These were the two pictures that were on the slide:
The lecturer went on to talk about how biased reporting can influence people’s opinions drastically when they know very little about politics. At this point I raised my hand.
Me: While we’re on the subject, isn’t it a little biased to post a good-looking picture of a Rachel Maddow next to a picture of Bill O Reilly who looks like he’s…um…about to vomit?
Lecturer: Uh. Yeah. I just thought the O’ Reilly picture was funny. Rachel Maddow doesn’t really have many bad ones. Uh, I guess I could have found one of her looking bad, too.
Realistically, to keep the lecture balanced, she could have used this one.
Or she could have just used pictures where both pundits look like human beings. Either way, in a lecture about bias, she certainly tried to make her viewpoint’s pundits look better.
Now I’m as liberal at the next middle-class college student. I voted for Obama, I like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, and I think Bill O’ Reilly and Rush Limbaugh are cocks. But when I step back and look at how the lecture was presented, it probably wasn’t fair to demonize conservative pundits and not mention anything about liberal pundits. Fox News engages in the very practice of posting unflattering pictures of liberals. Why play that game in the classroom? Let’s not sink that low.
I’m all for calling people out, but what pisses me off about most of the loudest right-wing voices is how they demonize everyone on the left. We can call our opponents out for their bullshit, but let’s not become cocks ourselves in the process.
Because really, the only thing worse than a bunch of cocks is a bunch of cocks who are hypocrites.
