The Faux News shows that I have watched include Bill O'Riley's "Massacre's of Reality" and their incessant commentary broadcasts about daily events. It is amusing to watch the people on Faux Pas News demolish the weak and febrile liberals that they usually run by their audiences. It is amusing even to me, and I am somewhere to the left of Chairman Mao when it comes to social issues. However, when it comes to fiscal issues I am far to the Right of most of the money jockey's in government today. I am certain that those varied views make me fair and balanced too, but only in the aggregate of the positions not in their individual cases however meritorious they might be. Within the range of Republican views espoused on Faux news, which seem to be excessively narrow and dedicated to holding a party line of "liberals are bad and conservatives are good" their balance is impeccable. They come down on the side of the party line every time regardless of the merits of any individual case.

I seldom see the world in the original versions of black and white that were taught me so long ago in Parochial School. Parochial, now there is a word to reckon with, it implies a viewpoint restricted by training and belief. I could easily see Faux News in the light of parochial influences, regardless of their self-congratulatory pronouncements of how fair and balanced they are; that is if I bothered to watch them at all. Most of the news channels are "news less" most of the time. The rest of the time they are all reporting the same event, over and over and over again. News is not news after it has been played over and over and over again, it may be "olds" but it ain't news any more. Furthermore most of the stuff they tout as news is the same old story wrapped with new names and faces. Faithlessness in business, faithfulness in love or faithfulness in business and faithlessness in love are not news. They may be interesting enough to hold our attention but they are not new in any sense of the word that is meaningful. The idea that news is a service to the audience has been replaced with the idea that everything should be packaged to entertain and titillate the audience. The real news is that Faux news, like all of the other news channels, relies on its packaging of the news to draw a particular audience. It is the wrapper, not the substance that matters in the Cable news business and it always will be as long as the news is so boring. Wrappers are neither fair nor balanced, they are intended to appeal to our prejudices, not our ideals.

The "Good Guy", "Bad Guy" scenes acted out in daily life are less focused and sharp than those in All Star Wrestling so it is necessary to wrap them up in viewpoints that titillate the audience a little. The fact that those wrappers help people make their minds up without the process of thinking intruding on their lives is merely coincidental according to Rupert and others who want to help us define our society. Propaganda isn't propaganda any more it is a fair and balanced view of life, just ask the ideologues on both sides of the fence. Now I am not a fence sitter, I range far and wide on both sides of the political spectrum. I think we ought to pay for the government we use to make our lives better than they would be otherwise, not pawn the cost off on future generations. On the other hand I think a government that intrudes less on the individual is better than one that legislates our morals and restricts our activities for our own good. The major abuses of drugs in this nation are the use of prescription drugs to control our children and our elderly, not the use of a joint to relieve loneliness or fear of human contact.

Al Franken is a monster only if you lack a sense of humor about your own lack of a fair and balanced agenda Faux Fox. It is the aggregate of our experience that has to rule our lives regardless of what we see on Television. Who is right and who is wrong about the key issues of our time is important enough to transcend your wrappers. No one is fair and impartial when their job depends on fulfilling others fantasies of witty repartee' or verbal dominance. Neither the good guy nor the bad guy in All Star Wrestling is fair or balanced, nor are the commentators on Faux News. Nor is Al Franken's book, I am sure. I only know what amuses me is not necessarily true, nor is it ever fair or balanced. God bless and keep you all safe from the propagandists and the humorists alike, myself included.