Something to complain about

This blog is no longer a requirement for Urban lobbying class, but since I want a place to put my political opinions out there I'm keeping it :)

A friend on my personal journal made a post talking about some relatives of hers that she finds to be very smart people, but mainly take their news from Fox, outwardly refusing to listen to NPR even when my friend was going to be on the air reciting something she had written that was completely and utterly politically neutral because they say NPR is liberally biased.

Note this isn't a rant against two people that I've never met in my life but more one towards people who don't know how to look to multiple media before they form a real opinion. Let's face it, people who say the news media are biased are probably right, but different media are biased in different directions. Fox news is fairly notorious for being conservative, but a lot of the other news networks are liberal. NPR is generally seen as being biased liberal, but low and behold, most talk radio is generally conservative. So let me see, what is one to do to make sure that they hear both sides of the argument? Oh yeah, LISTEN TO BOTH!!!

I think I've mentioned before that it is more a duty to me than a right to vote. I think being a well-informed citizen falls into those duties as well. Issues, candidates etc. are far too important to walk up to the voting machine and pick the name you recognize or simply vote against an issue because it will cost you money. If an informed citizen would read the stuff with that issue they would find out that they have just voted about giving medication to someone that lives next door to them that has a terminal and highly contagious disease and can't afford it themselves. The same person who voted against it would then be asking why no one did anything about it, why no one told them. The answer is simple, we tried, we asked you for money and you said no because you wanted to keep your premium cable and watch 3 football games at the same time rather than 2. Just an example mind you, I have no clue if that happened.

I guess my point is this, in order to be able to say you definitely think X, you need to have heard liberal and conservative opinions on it, not just one or the other.