I love CSPAN
Sep 22nd, 2007 by Colin
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This is Colin again. I know, two posts in a row… I just have to say how much Bethany and I love CSPAN. It is the only place you can get uncensored information on most stories. If I want news on the Jena Six or Blackwater, my options range from Rush Limbaugh to Al Sharpton, and truly very little in between. Neither side has a stated purpose of telling me the truth, but of stirring up their audiences to keep listening. Neither is a real source of news–fundamentally because neither can afford to use soundbites longer than a few seconds. Which seconds are chosen entirely based on each show's advertisers and audience, with little to no regard for how long the context of the quote is. So in the end there cannot be news. If you think you've somehow circumvented capitalism by getting your news from NPR or The Wall Street Journal, you're just another corporate pawn.
The closest thing to unbiased news is the raw feed of CSPAN, which means CSPAN needs to be a part of every American's diet. Again, if you think you have a grasp on democracy, that you're an intelligent voter simply because you listen to neutered news, i.e. your local CBS-radio affiliate, or read The New York Times, you're being controlled. Neutered does not mean neutral.
I'm the only person I know who knows, to this day, that the "boxcutters" of 9/11 weren't ever thought to be utility knives–why? because I watched the 9/11 hearings. I heard, in context, Barbara Boxer saying her goal was to proactively destroy the Californian economy solely to make Bush look bad. I've seen the President of the National Organization of Women say, candidly, that she commonly makes up stories with no basis and phones them into the newspapers using "secret phone numbers," because there is not a major newspaper in the country that is allowed to even ask her for sources–they will all print exactly what she tells them or be shut down the next day. And my opinions of Donald Rumsfeld and his policies don't stem at all from the cartoonish anti-news of Michael Moore, but from watching hours of Donald Rumsfeld talking about his policies. I don't know how the average American expects to be able to choose a Presidential candidate without ever having access to seeing the Presidential candidate outside of 30 second soundbites and 1" pictures in the newspapers.
So go watch CSPAN. CSPAN.org is like a giant TiVo, and you can watch old videos with one click. So click here and get educated, yo.
