[General Battuta]

Most politicians in the USA run as upstanding happily married men.

Nice unintentional disclosure of your politician prototype.

This, my friends, is where implicit sexism comes from. Statistically accurate, mind, but nonetheless the root of so many problems.

Also, I will admit that Fox runs a lot of editorial type programming.  But they're actual news programming is typically fairly honest and reliable.  I suspect the people who don't like it, wouldn't like CNN if Larry King didn't let Liberal/Democrat operatives control the talking points and flow of the interview.  That's the main reason O'Reilly is hated by the left, he won't let them get away with clouding the issue, he asks a direct question, usually yes or no, and gets 5 minutes of prevarication on a completely different topic.  And when he tried to pin them down, they run off at the mouth like a toddler.  As the sub-title says, "The Spin Stops Here".  Is he always right?  no  Does he allow prevarication to cloud the subject at hand?  no  Lastly, like any respectable newsman, of which there are few left, he very clearly labels commentary separate from news.

So, let me untangle the puppet strings from your statement and translate:

Bill O'Reilly can find a simplistic point and repeat it constantly while ignoring more intelligent people who try to explain the true complexity and multilateralism of the world to him?

[Mobius]

BOOOOORING. I just wish our politicians had affairs with style like they do in Europe. Did Berlusconi apologize tearfully for having nude teenage girls sunbathing at his place? No-- he demanded that his wife apologize to him for being angry about it. That's entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yNBcER_eAE&feature=sdig&et=1245909108.38

That's not a good example. Italy is pretty much like North Korea, China and Iran when it comes to press and stuff like that.

[Blue Lion]

Nice unintentional disclosure of your politician prototype.

This, my friends, is where implicit sexism comes from. Statistically accurate, mind, but nonetheless the root of so many problems.

We're talking about politicians who cheat. Even if it implies sexism, (he said most) it has nothing to do with this argument. Unless I missed something.

[General Battuta]

I'm pretty sure everyone's politician prototype is male, mine included, so I shouldn't be too harsh on liberator.

Still, saying that 'most politicians in this country run as happily married men' means that a lot of women must be undergoing gender reassignment surgery before running. 

This is not about political correctness - it's about the availability heuristic. We have to be careful about stuff like that if we want to alter our stereotypic associations.

[Blue Lion]

In a discussion about a male married politician, someone brings up that most politicians are married men.

To me it meant "most politicians are men, who are married and use that to connect with voters who like that".

Voters like their politicians as "family people" and most of them are men.

[General Battuta]

That's an alternative parsing of the sentence, sure. Nonetheless, I believe it betrays prototypic associations indicative of sexism, associations which everyone (myself included) shares to a certain degree.

Carry on.

[Turambar]

Too bad that most politicians who try to connect to constituents as a "family man" usually has the goal of denying people their rights, usually women, gays, and transsexuals, you know, the ones who tend to lose with the "family" stereotype.

[TrashMan]

**** you Fox news. How the Republicans can still claim to stand for 'traditional family values' and 'the sacred institution of marriage' blows my mind.

What? Just because one or two say one thing and do the other, does that mean everyone does?
Well, in that case we should never trust ANY group claiming to stand for anything.

[iamzack]

**** you Fox news. How the Republicans can still claim to stand for 'traditional family values' and 'the sacred institution of marriage' blows my mind.

What? Just because one or two say one thing and do the other, does that mean everyone does?
Well, in that case we should never trust ANY group claiming to stand for anything.

HAH. "one or two?!" Are you serious? He's the latest in a very, VERY long string of Republican hypocrites. Hell, even Bill O'Reilly isn't as morally upstanding as you'd think from the foam spewing from his face. Remember when he got exposed sexually harassing and stalking one of his female coworkers/employees/whatevershewas?

At this point, I'm SURPRISED when I haven't heard about some Republican scandal in over a week.

[colecampbell666]

And more in general, I fail to see what relevance the little letter next to the guy's name in parentheses has to any of this.  Last time I checked, people with any number of little letters next to their names have been pulling stunts of equivalent immorality, no matter what they professed to believe publicly.  Hypocrisy and disingenuousness don't have party loyalty.

It has relevance because the man is a republican, however they denoted him as a democrat so as to leave the republican reputation "Untarnished". They're saying he's a democrat when he's not.

[Inquisitor]

What? Just because one or two say one thing and do the other, does that mean everyone does?
Well, in that case we should never trust ANY group claiming to stand for anything.

If we were talking about rank and file republicans sure. This guy is "leadership" and supposedly one of the pinnacles that "represents" (well, perhaps now past tense) that group.

The second such "leader" in as many weeks. Its not hard to jump to that particular conclusion. Then again, it never has been.

like I said, at least Bill had the courtesy to be near the phone while getting blown. You know, in case someone needed the executive branch of government for something important.

Do important things happen in SC?

[Turambar]

Do important things happen in SC?

It's the #1 place for people in North Carolina to get fireworks of significantly higher power than are allowed by North Carolina state law.

Also, they have Myrtle Beach.

That's pretty much all I can think of.

[Sushi]

It has relevance because the man is a republican, however they denoted him as a democrat so as to leave the republican reputation "Untarnished". They're saying he's a democrat when he's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

[Turambar]

It has relevance because the man is a republican, however they denoted him as a democrat so as to leave the republican reputation "Untarnished". They're saying he's a democrat when he's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

but they've made that same "R becomes a D" mistake so many times in circumstances where the R has committed some offense.  Why haven't they ever accidentally turned an R into a D when something good happens?  Why haven't they accidentally listed someone as a (F)?

President Bush (F) Declares Victory in Iraq

Such a typo has not yet happened, but turning an R into a D where the R was involved in some negative press has happened at least 3 times.

[Scotty]

I've made it a general rule to not watch and/or care about the news that much.  If I want to see stuff like that, I'll turn on one of the trash channels.  Just about the only news I get is from Daily Show/Colbert Report.  That, however, is barely better than no news at all.

(Are there any truly even [/i]mostly[/i] unbiased news sources?)

[Sushi]

(Are there any truly even [/i]mostly[/i] unbiased news sources?)

[philosophical]
If there were, how would you be able to tell?
[/philosophical]

I really don't mind "bias" in the sense of news reporters having an opinion and making it known. What I mind is a lack of journalistic integrity, whereby through either malice or laziness reporters omit critical parts of a story. Sometimes, it's neither: I don't believe that people like Glenn Beck or Arianna Huffington are malicious or lazy, but perhaps spending so much time supporting a specific point of view can make you a bit myopic.

Either way, I agree that it's hard to find trustworthy news sources these days.

[Liberator]

Multilateralism...

I suppose the Governor should have multi-lateral talks with his wife to save his marriage?

Or how about multi-lateral talks to decide the outcome of the NHL Championship or the Superbowl.

These are weak analogies I realize.

It's just that, contrary to what I see being portrayed in the media, there are only two sides that actually matter in this discussion.  Not republican or democrat, not the role this has in the Government of SC, the only two positions that matter are the governor's and his wife's, and they're none of our business.  There's too much digging into the personal lives of public figures to try and generate scandal.  This is a tragedy for they're family and I'd have him left alone so he can deal it.

Let me be clear, I'd want this guy out of office whether he was a Democrat, a Republican or a Socialist operative for the Giant Spaghetti Monster who works for the Basement Cat.  As a leader in society(not of society necessarily) he's in a position where he should provide a firm moral and ethical foundation for others to look at say, "He's a good man, I want to be like him."  Politics are ****ing this world over and dragging us away from whats important.

Also, I was going to write this long post about how there's actual Good(white) and Evil(black) in this world and painting someone who idolizes Hitler in action if not voice some shade of gray is counterproductive and down right dangerous.  By the same token, painting someone who's trying to do good some shade of gray because they stumble is also counterproductive and dangerous.

Reply to Sushi since it was posted while I was typing:
Mr. Beck is a commentator and a Community Organizer.  He reports on political, fiscal and social Insanity and tells people what they can do to stop it.  He gives voice to what a lot of people in the USA are thinking but are too afraid to say because of the people perpetrating the insanity have done an excellent job in adding a fairly powerful social stigma to speaking out against them because it's unpatriotic or bad in someway.  He, I and many others have grown weary of not being able to call a spade a spade and deal with it as such.

[Blue Lion]

Glenn Beck is a comedian.

[colecampbell666]

Glenn Beck is not a comedian.

Fixed. He's not funny.

[iamzack]

Isn't Glenn Beck just Bill O'Reilly, except he cries on tv?