opinions influenced by the media?

[elSicomoro]

Yes Jenni! To the slammer with you and your little art-nazi friends!!!

(Man, I have been on a roll all night. Probably b/c I'm feeling damned good about leaving my job Thursday...and the Rams are currently up by 7 over the Saints. )

Originally posted by dhamsaic
Problem being that you read it in the Washington Post, which is a great big shitbag newspaper.

The Washington Post, liberal as it may be, is probably one of the best newspapers in the United States. Period. Besides, if you live in the DC area, what the hell else are you going to read besides the Baltimore Sun? Certainly not the Moonie-run Washington Times! Heh...

In any case, all newspapers/radio/media/whatever are guilty of sensationalism. I remember when the big bonfire pile collapsed at Texas A&M 2 years ago. I happened to be reading wtop.com around that time, and the headline read something like this:

"Several students in bonfire collapse were DRUNK"

Just like that. "DRUNK" in capital letters. Just that word in caps. Man, was I pissed! So, I fired an e-mail to them saying how I felt that was in poor taste. And the response?

Reply-to: Stephen Dolge <sdolge@wtopnews.com>
To: syc75@springmail.com
Subject: wtop website

Terry,

You shold know I absolutely agree with you on your point about DRUNK being in poor taste.
That's why I personally changed it the minute I saw it.

Hopefully that won't happen again. If it does, let me know personally.

Thank you.

Steve Dolge
Managing Editor, wtopnews.com

SDolge@wtopnews.com

Now that's action baby!

O'Reilly is a moron.

Seriously though, Americans find it hard to warm up to something that is not considered "normal." So right away, it's considered "strange." Then, something bad happens where these "strange" things happen to be involved (e.g. the Columbine killers' like for Marilyn Manson and KMFDM), and right away, "they" are the enemy. I mean, heaven forbid that these kids were merely just fucked up...we need an excuse! A scapegoat! Because that's one of the greatest things about being American...the ability to blame others for bad situations.