tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post1385705352952818504..comments2024-02-14T11:00:03.180-05:00Comments on Tom McLaughlin: Objective PretenseTom McLaughlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07691546351143209227noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-6362646776537263172008-11-13T12:56:00.000-05:002008-11-13T12:56:00.000-05:00Mr. Cote failed to mention the media perception of...Mr. Cote failed to mention the media perception of John Edwards as bright and fresh. He had almost no experience when he was nominated in 2004.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-38143824040549994932008-11-13T11:37:00.000-05:002008-11-13T11:37:00.000-05:00Tom,I always enjoy your columns in the Conway Sun....Tom,<BR/><BR/>I always enjoy your columns in the Conway Sun. I think you gave your class a good lesson on bias but it extends beyond the news media and into popular entertainment. Some comedian gets a laugh by playing on the early perception of a [usually Republican] politician and everyone else runs with it including the news media. I'll bet many of your students get their news from Comedy Central.<BR/>Ask your students about the following pols (some they have never heard of) and see if you get the same responses that I list. <BR/><BR/>Ford - Good natured, yet clumsy jock. <BR/>Reagan - Dottering old man on the verge of Alzheimers.<BR/>George H.W. Bush - Likable but goofy Yalie, in over his head.<BR/>Dan Quayle - Dense pretty boy.<BR/>James Stockdale -- Senile old man<BR/>Bob Dole -- Grumpy old man with a chip on his shoulder.<BR/>George W. Bush -- Idiot son of a former president.<BR/>John McCain - Old man with a chip on his shoulder who doesn't understand the modern world<BR/>Sarah Palin -- Empty headed bimbo with a funny accent prone to use colloquialisms in her speech.<BR/><BR/>Ask them about others:<BR/>Bill Clinton -- Intelligent womanizer<BR/>Al Gore -- Intellectual who cares about the planet<BR/>John Kerry -- Intelligent with a focus on the world<BR/>Barak Obama -- Intelligent savior of the country<BR/>Joe Biden -- senior statesmen.<BR/><BR/>Then have the students research the education and work experience of these pols and have them develop their own opinions not parroting Stewart or Colbert (who claims to speak the truth as it is in his opinion). <BR/>Sorry about the soapbox spiel, I get tgat wayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-26200243159135775042008-11-13T06:46:00.000-05:002008-11-13T06:46:00.000-05:00Anonymous:The next two to four years will be inter...Anonymous:<BR/>The next two to four years will be interesting. How long will it take for the love affair with Obama to cool? I predict very soon. It's much harder to govern than to campaign. Democrats control everything now and there's no one to blame for what happens.<BR/><BR/>Nathan:<BR/>Thank you for the kind words. I do like teaching, very much. I'll go on to other pursuits in a couple of years, but I'll miss it. What I'd really like is to do it part-time, but it's not structured that way.<BR/><BR/>Frontline produced a documentary a few years ago called "Merchants of Cool" which made many of the same points you do. They are malleable and they're also hungry for something beyond what we offer in public schools. They devour fantasy novels about wizards and vampires to satisfy a yearning for something transcendent. There's a vacuum out there that we don't fill.<BR/><BR/>As for issues? Well, they have to be dealt with now, don't they. The Obama cult of personality will be tested when he makes tough decisions required of the chief executive.Tom McLaughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691546351143209227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-56353393795958221132008-11-12T21:14:00.000-05:002008-11-12T21:14:00.000-05:00Tom, My dad was a math teacher and high school pr...Tom, My dad was a math teacher and high school principal in eastern maine for 30 years. He loved teaching young people. In your columns in which you talk about your students I see the same love for the job as that which I saw in my dad. Money is a necessity but his main motivation was love of teaching youngsters. <BR/><BR/>Coca Cola, Disney, MTV and many others have discovered how malleable youngsters are and have used it in, to my mind anyway, in unseemly ways in order to enlarge profits. Since the proof is in the pudding, the vast profits are proof that it can be done. What the media did to Americans in general you have easily pointed out in relating how it worked on your students. <BR/><BR/>The saddest part of all of this is that rather than a debate of ideas it is the selling of a personality based on nothing but hype. Dennis Rodman, Oprah, Dale Earnheardt jr, and Hannah Montana could be sold just as easily. And even sadder is that many American adults are just as easily manipulated as our youngsters. The main stream media should be ashamed but rather are proud as peacocks of their accomplishments. <BR/><BR/>What does the future hold I wonder.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-82104629085805920142008-11-10T08:50:00.000-05:002008-11-10T08:50:00.000-05:00Gee have the networks announced that Rules for Rad...Gee have the networks announced that Rules for Radicals have just replaced the bill of rights? It has got to be true, after all A "former" ACORN member is running the Coleman/Frankenfreak recount where they have already "found" 100new pre-dated votes for the alleged comedian.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-22678481198307044902008-11-10T05:56:00.000-05:002008-11-10T05:56:00.000-05:00Good point. Nixon, Ford and Carter were a generati...Good point. Nixon, Ford and Carter were a generation ago. Today's new block of voters need to learn all over again that leftist methods of dealing with recessions and depressions only make them worse.<BR/><BR/>Hold on tight. Going to be a rough ride for a few years.Tom McLaughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691546351143209227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20524196.post-90138963595016023232008-11-09T20:42:00.000-05:002008-11-09T20:42:00.000-05:00Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics at MIT and ...Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics at MIT and co-author of "Manufactuing Consent," can give chapter and verse of media manipulation by the Republicans during Nixon and Reagan administrations, but seems to be sitting this one out when it comes to how biased the media was for Obama.<BR/><BR/>My guess is, it's a pretty cushy job over there in the "Peoples Republic of Cambridge" and why rock the boat when you're considered by liberals to be the final say in political thought control.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com