I'm really liking my philosophy class, especially since it seems a lot of students get involved with the discussions. In most other classes I've had the teacher directs where everything goes to and there isn't a whole lot of flexibility in a question-answer forum. With this class, one question leads to another, which leads to another, and everything just evolves from there. Students respond well to this and many people have input on what we talk about. Today, one thing we talked about was how to be an agent of change. Or rather, who has the most power to promote change in the world. I forget the start of this, it was kind of ambiguous, but those are narrowed down topics. Even with everyone being from a different background, different party affiliation, you can see similarities in grievances people have with the government. Not just this current one, but government as a whole. The issues brought up by the media are not always the ones cared about by the people. This is contrary to what you would think the media is there for. They should to be there to appeal to what everyone's interests are, find out the facts and lies that companies/politicians say, HELP people be informed citizens. When you sit a bunch of students all in a room together for a serious discussion, those are points most agree on. Then why is it that the news can get such good ratings when most people seem do dislike what is shown day after day. How if you watch the news for over 20 mins it will loop hour after hour?

I think people are different as a society than they are individually. When it comes down to it, I think most people(even incuding myself many times) are quite hypocritical. Society thrives on drama. Who just wants to be informed? We want to be entertained!! BUT, in a classroom setting(mind you, my class is diverse in age/gender/race) everyone claims they want to hear the facts. They don't care about about all the tabloid BS, they want reporters who do their job and aren't out just to ruin someone's career because it would make great ratings. Those reporters are only doing what everyone who is tuning in wants. If they weren't.....they would be out of a job. In todays media, the pundit that is the loudest is the most right. If you can shut louder than your opponent then you win. It's almost as if Jerry Springer is back on the air. They put such crap on TV that I wouldn't put even close to news-worthy but everyone eats it up. It's disgusting.

I used to watch the news all the time, I genuinely hate it now. Politics is one of my interests too but I can't stand watching news anchors report on it any more. I'm not going to point fingers at the liberals or conservatives in media as one being more dominant than the other, because no matter which side you go they become incredibly biased. It's from this black or white mentality. There is no gray. In addition to that, you have people who can never admit being wrong, they suddenly become an immovable wall. Any argument can be deflected with obvious bs. Some things that come out of a person's mouth.....you just got to say "they can not be that stupid to hold that position". In the face of all evidence against them some will continue to push their failed logic over and over again like if they say it enough people will forget its wrong. Or by saying it louder will validate it.

Speaking of bias.....I like watching Hannity and Colmes for the shear commedic value of it. You have a show on Fox news, the same station that picked up Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee as contributors to the station, as well as their obvious bias in every other thing they do. Now this show is supposed to be 2 sided, you have Sean Hannity as a Republican and Allen Colmes(think thats his first name....) as a Democrat. This would be fine for any normal show. They could tell both sides of an argument, give differing points of view, debate, but no. Ever watch it? Hannity pretty much dominates the show for one. I think Colmes must hate his life because he is shut up over and over. I can see the frustration in his eyes when Hannity interrupts everything he says and doesnt allow a rebuttle. He kind of got smart though and now throws his rebuttles in the moment before a subject change or commercial break so Hannity won't put him in his place. This is what news is reduced to. There is no debate, there are no new ideas presented, just the same shit over and over all day. And what do we get out of it? The news only reports on important issues around election time. Where was the Immigration and Healthcare crisis before then? Suddenly politicians care too? No, they just realize now that their asses are on the line since people suddenly decided to pay attention.

I wonder how many people actually look at voting records. I wonder how many people actually fact-check what they hear on the news. Incorrect statistics are spread all over and everyone takes them as facts. My parents tell me things they've heard, most recently about how bad obama's voting percentage in the senate is. They were way off from what it really was and Mccain's was actually worse....a little bit of information left out by whoever said it. Statistics can be easily manipulated, especially when used alone without context. That's how someone can push their agenda. I hate Micheal Moore because of that reason. "Facts" in his movies are so carefully twisted in order to show what he wants you to see. If you need to make up things or completely use information out of context for a movie, you can say that your point of view is wrong or at least completely misrepresented.

I have a lot to say.....but it's getting late and I need some sleep.