Lazy Weekend, FaceBook and FOX "News"

I woke up extremely late today, and was quite surprised. I woke up at 7 am, fed the cat, and went back to bed "for a little while." Then I woke up at nearly noon. Weird. I guess feeding the cat removed her "alarm cat" function, and she just let me lay there. Ack! Now, my whole day and sense of time is wrecked.

So, I got up, logged in to FaceBook, which is something of a new phenomenon to me. It's been a lot of fun in the last two weeks, but a time-eater if ever there was one. I decided to do a couple of posts listing what I've been up to over the last 25 years (and the previous 18 as well), to have a handy reference for old friends who ask, "so what have you been up to?" Logging a yearly retrospective of your life takes a lot of thought, and more effort than I would have thought.

While doing this, I put on FOX "News," which is something I can only stomach if I'm also doing something else (much like watching American Idol). Otherwise I feel guilty. FOX "News" on the weekend is something of a train wreck. While on weekdays, their shows are manned (or womaned) by seasoned--if outlandish--personalities, their weekend shows are staffed by second- or third-stringers. And while the weekday shows acknowledge (barely) their political bias, the weekend shows are for the most part news. Allegedly.

While watching America's News HQ, something you'd expect to be actual news, I was taken by the naked, right-wing slant. Sure, MSNBC has a leftward slant on weekdays, as FOX does in the opposite direction. But to be fair, MSNBC's slogan is "The Place for Politics," and "news" is nowhere in their name. FOX claims to be both "Fair and Balanced" AND has "news" in their name. Bull pucky to the former and the latter.

America's News HQ sounds like a straight news program, right? Then why were hosts (a pleasant looking, brunette man/woman combo; no idea what their names are) so overtly right-wing? On the subject of health care reform, they were scarcely better than the "deathers." Sneers all around, scary what-if scenarios, skepticism abounding. I can't get into more detail, because as I said, I was busy. But there was absolutely no question about where the hosts fell on the issue, and on others as they came up.

It was something of a surprise to see that they aired a President Obama town hall meeting in full. It was unsurprising to see the commentary afterward, flat-out calling Obama a liar. Nice. Fair and Balanced my pale white rear end.