Temple of DOOOOOOOOM!!

So I was browsing through The Huffington Post when I came across a media article about The Daily Show. Jon Stewart was on Bill O'Reilly's show the other day so O'Reilly decided to come on The Daily Show. I found the entire interview to be very entertaining overall, but what is more interesting is the fact they came together in agreement on something!

The started out by referring to Fox News as the Temple of Doom which I have to agree with. Everyone on that network seems to feel the world is about to end and that is how they talk to their audiences. Stewart gave O'Reilly a compliment by saying he was the fairest when speaking of Obama and his agenda out of anyone on the network, and I also agree with that.

But what the both agree on is that corruption has to end. Corruption in politics and the MEDIA. In order to campaign they have to raise money. When asking for money they are told basically "If I support you, I want this and this" which puts the campaigner in a tight spot. But to get the media on your side costs a lot of money. O'Reilly said upwards of 150million just to run for president! That is absolutely ridiculous when media is supposedly "free". Both Stewart and O'Reilly agreed that the corruption was a major issue and they mentioned it within the media several times.  The link to the article with the videos is here so you can feel free to watch it. I highly recommend watching it. I was very interested and the after interview "analysis" that Stewart did was hilarious!

On a side note about the Temple of Doom here is something funny. I have always disliked Fox News and I have never hidden that fact. In an interview with Rolling Stone's President Obama expressed his view of Fox and he also (for good reason) dislikes him. That can be found here.

Wait....what?

So, I am going out side the political ring a bit because I want to discuss a story that made me go, "wait, what?". I was listening to HLN a few weeks ago and they mentioned a woman named Bethany Storro. Storro was in the hospital being treated for acid burns on her face. She told police that an unknown woman had come up to her and randomly thrown acid in her face. Of course, when I heard this my heart broke for the woman because that is so unfair and appalling! The fact that a stranger would do that took me some time to wrap my mind around. No one should have to deal with that. Well, turns out there was more to the story.

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The grisly details can be found here, but the jist of it is her story didn't sit well with police. Storro told police that her eyes were left uninjured because she was, thankfully, wearing her sunglasses. Well, the issue with that is it was evening....so why did she have her sunglasses on? Then the police followed the splash pattern and determined that she had thrown the acid on herself!!!!! Once confronted, Storro admitted that she had thrown it on her own face.

Not only is it odd that she did it to herself, but she had also received donations to help pay for the damage done! Yes the money will be returned, but will she be held accountable for anything else? Rumors that she will be charged with fraud are circulating, but who knows what the police will do. I'm just trying to figure out why someone would throw acid on their face. Can you say "OW"?? 


*The picture shown above can be found on the New York Daily News' website here

Gas Explosion: Why did this happen?!?!

I wanted to discuss the recent gas explosion that occurred in California. The story can be found here and it's pretty basic. A gas pipe burst for some reason that has yet to be determined. The pipe has been shipped to Washington to be examined so the reason the pipe burst can be determined. I think this is a great story that NEEDS more hype. This explosion leveled an entire neighborhood, killed some, and injured many others. Pacific Gas and Electric needs to be hung by the media since there was concern over the pipe in 2007! There were also reports called in that the people smelled gas the day before the explosion. The fact that the pipe still burst is 100% PG&E's fault in my opinion. This is 2010, 3 years after a budget request to replace that pipe and others that were also deemed dangerous. The reason the media needs to continue to hound the gas company is the make sure of two things. 1) The people who lost their home or family members need compensation from the company if the company is found to be at fault (which is highly likely) and 2) to make sure they replace the other dangerous pipes.

The media does have the power to make sure those things occur. They can keep this in the light and make PG&E do those things or lose face in the people's eyes which may get them pressure from the government as well. This incident does matter. There is no reason this should have occurred.

Rachel Wade Murder Trial

I find this to be very interesting news. The entire story can  be found here, and all over other major news networks. Basically Rachel Wade and Sarah Ludemann were in love with the same man. Wade couldn't handle the competition so she was found guilty of stabbing Ludemann through the chest and killing here. Wade's trial was all over news and her sentencing was an even bigger deal it seems. I find it to be a very sad ordeal overall, but what I find interesting is the level of coverage it received. It's not the only murder that has happened in the past year, so why is everyone talking about it?? In fact, HLN showed the sentencing live for a majority of the day on September 3rd, yet did it need to be shown? I realize it was a very upsetting ordeal, and my heart goes out to Sarah Ludemann's family, but is it hard news? Does CNN, CBS, and the other major networks need to give it so much coverage?

In my opinion this is another aspect of the media showing what will grab viewers. They showed Ludemann's mother's testimony of why Wade should get life in jail over and over. It brought tears to my eyes to hear Ludemann's father speaking of his daughter. They wanted that. It's a different type of murder so it got a higher level of coverage since people want to hear about it. It's not a story that will affect us in our daily lives, such as a tax hike, but they still showed it over and over. Why? Does it matter? Is it an important story that we need to know about? I'll leave that to you to decide.