Newsworthy

I was surprised by what I saw on Friday night as I surfed the major network’s evening news and then glanced at CNN. Here are some highlights of what I heard:
· NBC – Brian Williams actually had a piece that was positive towards big business. He and a couple of MSNBC hosts discussed the economy saying “if there is no government figure with towering amounts of credibility on this…” then added that big business CEOs should step forward to help out. Imagine that. First, did they just imply that Obama doesn’t have a lot of credibility? Secondly instead of saying the economy is the fault of big businesses (i.e. Republicans) they are actually looking for a corporate CEO to save the day!

· CBS – I was very surprised to see a segment on ACORN. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/10/cbsnews_investigates/main4514429.shtml?source=search_story) They first interviewed a voter registration official who showed the top of his desk overflowing with false forms. He blamed ACORN employees for massive cheating which was encouraged by ACORN management. They followed this with a woman who is the chief organizer for ACORN. She said of the recent raid in Las Vegas “It was purely politically motivated.” She also denied that they had quotas which would force employees to sign up so many people every day. However, CBS said they interviewed dozens of employees who disagreed with her and CBS went back to the registrar who again said falsifying forms is a major problem. No surprise that the ACORN employee was an African American but to my amazement the voter registration Registrar was also black! And they ended this piece by saying this could cause questions and problems in key states in this election.

· ABC – I didn’t see much change in this network’s tone or point of view. But when interviewing supporters of the two presidential candidates, McCain’s supporters discussed his policies and plans to help the economy while Obamas’ supporters admitted they were voting for Obama but didn’t know anything about his policies. I am not use to that kind of editing which made the supporters for Obama look bad.

· Larry King – I didn’t watch him but I did see that King also did a segment Friday night on ACORN. The right wing fear that this story would be buried turns out to be misguided as the main stream media (MSM) is finally investigating ACORN.

The polls show Obama with a 7-11 point lead so it will be difficult for McCain to catch up. Yet I believe there is a slight shift in the support for Obama. I doubt if anyone from the media would actually turn against him but I think the magnitude of the economic quake that rattled the world this past week is having an unintended reaction. I could be completely wrong but here is my take on what might be happening.

I think many Liberals truly believe that they want to help the poor and disadvantaged, and protect them from big business. Not only does Obama support these causes near and dear to liberals but simply voting for a black man is a symbol of their progressive ideals. So when the Stock Market first started its downward trend, liberals were quick to blame Bush, Republicans and big business and Obama skyrocketed in the polls. Then to fix the economy they did what they always do – have government throw a lot of money at the problem. But the Stock Market continued to fall and fall and fall into unimaginable levels.

Major corporations found their stocks cut drastically, some to levels not seen in over 50 years. Democrats always viewed the corporate world as the home of Republicans and the stereotypical white, wealthy businessman. They demonized companies to the point where it was an “us vs. them” mentality. The left saw themselves as the benefactor helping the poor and less fortunate “us” against the mean Republicans and big businesses.

This week we watched corporations crumble and names you thought would always be there are now disappearing. It was one thing to mock corporations or even make sarcastic docudramas about them but to have these companies disappear completely? Sure the liberals have continuously hampered corporations with taxes and minimum wages, OSHA laws and Sarbane-Oxley legislature, yet they still expected the corporations to continue functioning. As in the past, big business was supposed to take whatever the liberals did to them and somehow keep producing their goods. They are not supposed to stop no matter what was done to them. Besides, how can you champion the downtrodden “us” if there is no longer a “them” out there anymore?

Plus, liberals are now being personally affected by what is happening with businesses on Wall Street. They, too, are watching their portfolios and 401k’s take a nose dove and are also trying to reassure elderly parents who are no longer as comfortably fixed as they were just a week ago. Suddenly these wealthy liberals are becoming fearful about their future as it is their wealth which is affected when these major corporations finally buckle under the weight placed on them by the liberal laws.

On top of all this is the specter of socialism. Since the Great Depression this country has slipped more and more into socialism. Yet this movement to the left has always been cloaked as policies to help the poor and disenfranchised or even simply buried under other laws. Now, though, we are blatantly discussing government taking over businesses and even talk openly of redistribution of wealth. A line has been reached and I think people are having second thoughts. Some liberals are realizing that it is our democracy that is at stake and are beginning to move back slightly from crossing that line.

In this new economically challenged world many liberals are now taking another look at the two candidates. I think that they are beginning to question the wisdom of electing a first term 47 year old Senator with little to no experience. These journalists and other liberals might be asking themselves if they can trust America to this young man and more importantly, wondering if they can also entrust their own personal future to an inexperienced politician surrounded by radical advisors. Speaking of radicals, in the past anyone who brought up Obama’s associations with various radical groups and people were either ignored or mocked. Today, though, the main stream media is beginning to take a closer look at these relationships, starting with ACORN.

It is all probably too little too late for McCain. And there are still the far left supporters such as Chris Matthews who will never change. Yet start to watch the news for not only what is being said, but also how it is presented and of course what isn’t being said. Maybe some in the networks are belatedly trying to be fairer but I wonder if perhaps some are beginning to fear turning our damaged country over to someone so young with such little experience and yet with such questionable taste in wives, friends and pastors…