Learned watching cable news, #6

Week of February 20, 2012

When asked about the “big picture” for the 2012 election (Hardball, 2/24/20120), Major Garrett said:

If Obama wins re-election, he consolidates that which he has put in force his first two years, the health care law, Dodd-Frank, the architecture of a new relationship between the federal government and the American people.

Cut the Crap

Really?  If Obama has created a new relationship between the federal government and the American people (a new architecture), shouldn’t Garrett explain how it came about and what it looks like, what it feels like?  I must have missed it.  My relationship with the federal government is the same as it was before the Obama election.  Can Garrett point to one thing that is different?

Dodd-Frank has not affected my life.  The new health care law covered my 26-year-old son under my policy for an extra year.  And, because my wife is employed as a health care consultant, she has worked around the country.  Just think of how many jobs that has created for airlines, restaurants and hotel people.

These talking heads just make things up.  “New architecture?”  “New relationship between the federal government and the American people?”  If you search on the National Journal website for explanations of this new relationship or architecture, you won’t find any because these descriptions exist only inside the talking heads’ heads.

The O’Reilly Factor, 2/24/2012

Later that night O’Reilly claimed California is a “nanny state.”  Radio personality Leslie Marshall likes some of California’s rules and regulations, but radio personality Janine Turner moved from California to Texas to avoid them.

Cut the Crap

I boarded a flight for California the next morning.  It was delayed out of Asheville, NC, because the pilots arrived late the night before and had to complete the required rest period.  I was happy for the federal regulation that made me leave 3.5 hours later than scheduled.

When I arrived in California, it felt the same as in North Carolina.  Maybe I didn’t feel California’s oppressive rules and regulations because I was still grateful for having rested pilots on the first leg of my journey.

Our 24-hour cable stations have to talk about something, so they make up phrases like “nanny state.”  O’Reilly, Marshall and Turner are just like Dennis Miller, John Stossel, and Ron Paul. The Libertarian rally cry seems to be, “We like the rules we like! We don’t like the rules we don’t like!”

Without public airwaves, libertarians could not hear John Stossel and Ron Paul rail against oppressive government ownership and rules.  I love irony.