I went to the gym today and spent about an hour on the treadmill (yeah, I know, good for me) and from where I was I could see the CNN-playing TV and the Fox-playing TV. I usually position myself so I can’t see Fox because I find it disturbing and annoying, but the gym was crowded so I did not have that choice.
One of the main news stories that cycled through the CNN show was this one:
Former President George W. Bush was forced to cancel a planned trip to Switzerland this week over concerns of protests linked to the Bush adminstration’s treatment of detainees.
…
Activists also planned to file an official criminal complaint against Bush with Swiss prosecutors, nine years after he ordered that the Geneva Conventions would not apply to “enemy combatants” arrested by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or elsewhere around the world.
Meanwhile Fox News cycled through a number of stories that had titles like “Breaking News” and “Murders still a mystery” and “gunman kills one, self” and “OMG” and so on and so forth, without mentioning the fact that our ex president is a suspected war criminal and won’t be able to do that presidential thing like Carter and Clinton do, going around the world and promoting peace and democracy and stuff.
The people who watch Fox News live in a world different from the rest of us. They are captives of sensationalism, tied up in loathing, guided by a ring attached to their nose that stands in for thinking. A commentator on Fox News could tell the listeners to jump off a bridge and they’d start looking for a bridge. They do what Michele Bachmann tells them to do. Seriously. I was annoyed.
Then the Indigo Girls version of All Along the Watchtower came on my iPod and I heard this:
… your hatred is rooted in your fear
And your paranoia and insecurities
Well they don’t belong here
You got to take someones hand
You got to learn to make your stand
And it’s one two three four
Look at the sky you can open the door
And I thought, “They should sing THAT at the beginning of the freakin’ Superbowl.