The Fromson File

Time is running out before we’re robbed of our sanity. Long ago in World War II, there used to be a patriotic poster that hung on many walls. It read, “loose lips sink ships.” Today, our ship of state is in mighty danger of being sunk because of the reckless violation of one of our treasured liberties: freedom of speech. Reckless free speech. It pains me to say this because I’m a First Amendment fanatic with a strong belief in free speech, no matter how reckless it is sometimes. But we should remember that freedom is not absolute anymore than it is allowable to yell fire in a crowded theater.

What can be said of the public when the loud mouths of Fox News enjoy some of the highest ratings of any cable television programs in the country? Fortunately, we can thank Jon Stewart for keeping us awake most evenings by poking fun at O’Reilly and Beck who are the Abbott and Costello on a ship of fools. Rush Limbaugh, talk radio’s schlockmeister, also gets a few seconds of attention from Stewart, but fortunately not much.

It is no wonder that Rupert Murdoch, who claims to have voted for Barack Obama last November, hasn’t checked his commentators even mildly. He and Roger Ailes hide behind the myth of presenting news that is “fair and balanced.” But as long as the ratings and ad revenues remain high, O’Reilly and friends no doubt will stay right where they are. It is when Limbaugh, the corpulent commentator, goes on the radio airwaves to liken the president’s tactics to those of Adolph Hitler, and Beck, a former CNN polluter and more recent inductee in Fox News, claims that our president hates white people, you know it is time to put the brakes on their charade. This is not a call for censorship, but a demand for accuracy. These guys need to be policed by tough-minded editors or the kind of executives who used to be in charge of program practices on the television networks.

The talking heads paid by Murdoch and other cable operators are not as serious as they 0are dangerous. Their language is inflammatory, and they arouse the worst instincts in human beings. They raise the emotional temperature when the level of America’s anger, frustration and even desperation has never been higher in recent memory. The number of Americans faced with losing their homes or jobs is alarming. Some people are genuinely skeptical of the Administration’s health plan, if only because they do not understand it, and President Obama has yet to spell it out clearly. But to ignore the rate of spiraling health costs that could bankrupt the country is just plain foolish.

Here’s where the cynical tactics of Republican leaders in Congress come in. They’re not interested in any kind of health care reform. To them, this issue is part of a strategy that is no strategy at all. It is gutter politics by a party that seems to have lost its way and its dignity. How else can Newt Gingrich truly endorse the absurdities of Sarah Palin and the attempt to use her Down Syndrome child as a prop to attack the President?

The most vocal opponents of health care reform have been recruited, either by the GOP or the health insurance industry, to disrupt town meetings.and instead of appearing to be concerned citizens, they’re acting like nothing less than thugs. They’ve been brainwashed into thinking that what they have is good enough without realizing that the employer-paid benefits they have or had are going away, never to return. The unions that ensured their continuation or the institutions that did so before ( because it made good corporate sense) may not be able to sustain them in the future. But the nasty tone of the opposition can be traced significantly to the Fox commentators and Republican congressmen like John Boehner of Ohio, whose appearance on television suggests that he is suffering from gallstones or permanent cramps.

The number and tone of irrational and hysterical letters to the New York Times is frightening. The failure of the Republican Party to control rather than exacerbate extremism is depressing. Its mantra for the past half century or more is that government and taxes are the evil enemies of the middle class, when in fact the government is us. We elect its participants in the House of Representatives and Senate all the time. We vote for state legislatures and city council routinely. They add up to what we know is representative government. It is no amorphous “thing” lurking out in the woods ready to devour us. As for taxes, we have been against them since the days of the Boston Tea Party. Everyone has to pay them, but every politician acts as if they are poison that must be purged from our system vigorously. California voters are still suffering from the foolishness that was deposited on us by Proposition 13.

With the exception of the nation’s major newspapers, the mainstream press in general does little to inform its reader of the realities of life. What’s worse is the absence of civic responsibility in local broadcast journalism. It is appalling to be exposed to a drum-beating video version of the police blotter every weekday evening. The silence of the political and business elite also is bewildering. Moreover, there is the failure of American institutions to warn citizens everywhere of just how much danger ignorant, ideological and ill-informed rabble-rousers pose to our nation. Need we be reminded of the consequences caused by these reckless critics? They are frightening because their appeal is to the lowest common denominator.

We need to applaud, not disparage, the most intelligent leader in the White House we’ve had in years. He is doing his best to lift the country out of the economic mess he inherited. Abroad, he is restoring America’s image that was tarnished by the Bush Administration. To demean Barack Obama with the language his critics have employed is to demean us all.

Tags:   Bill O'Reilly · CNN · Fox News · Glenn Beck · Jon Stewart · Roger Ailes · Rupert Murdoch · Rush LimbaughNo Comments