Posted on 05/01/2010 12:52:26 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama: Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck Fans - Check Out Huffington Post By Noel Sheppard Created 05/01/2010 - 15:26
"If you’re a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website."
So said President Barack Obama in his commencement address to the University of Michigan 2010 graduates Saturday.
"If we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we will become more polarized, more set in our ways," ironically said the President.
"But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and our beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from."
Obama then gave some examples to the audience (transcript follows, partial video available here [1] courtesy our old friend Ian Schwartz, photo courtesy AP):
Today's twenty-four/seven echo chamber amplifies the most inflammatory soundbites louder and faster than ever before. It has also, however, given us unprecedented choice. Whereas most Americans used to get their news from the same three networks over dinner or a few influential papers on Sunday morning, we now have the option to get our information from any number of blogs or websites or cable news shows. And this can have both a good and bad development for our democracy.
For if we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line with our own, studies suggest that we will become more polarized, more set in our ways. That will only reinforce and even deepen the political divides in this country. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and our beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.
Now this requires us to agree on a certain set of facts to debate from; that is why we need a vibrant and thriving news business that is separate from opinion makers and talking heads. That's why we need an educated citizenry that uses hard evidence and not just assertion. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Still, if you're somebody who only reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in awhile. If you're a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website. It may make your blood boil; your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship. It's essential for our democracy.
"[T]he practice of listening to opposing views is essential for effective citizenship. It's essential for our democracy."
Really?
Is THAT why he basically boycotted Fox News during his campaign, has largely boycotted it since being elected, and has had numerous members of his Administration INCLUDING HIMSELF bad-mouth the network as not being a news organization?
To give readers an idea of how Senator and President Obama have "listened to opposing views," let's look at a smattering of NewsBusters headlines from the past two years:
* Obama Blames Fox News for Likely Loss in Next Week's Kentucky Primaries [1] * Obama Blames Fox News, Greta Strikes Back [1] * Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs: Hannity, Fox News ‘Anti-Semitic' [1] * Obama Attacks Fox News, Tea Parties at Town Hall Meeting [1] * Obama Blasts Fox News: 'I've Got One Television Station that is Entirely Devoted to Attacking My Administration' [1] * White House Defends Attacks on Fox News: 'They Will Say Anything' [1] * White House Says Fox Is Not A News Network [1] * CNN: White House Attacks On Fox Help Its Ratings, Hurt Democrats [1] * Rahm Emanuel: Fox Isn't a News Organization Because it Has a Perspective [1] * Helen Thomas Warns White House to Quit Attacking Fox News [1] * Obama Escalates Feud: Administration Attempts to Exclude Fox News from White House Pool [1] * Obama: Fox Operates More Like 'Talk Radio' Than As 'News Outlet' [1] * Obama Advisor Tells CNN Fox Is Biased, Won't Comment On MSNBC [1]
Should anyone associated with those headlines and stories be telling college graduates they need to "actively seek out information that challenges [their] assumptions and [their] beliefs?"
Well, certainly not with a straight face!
I grew up in California, buried up to my ears in hard-Left politics in my family, in my community, at school, everywhere I looked- for forty years.
I'm here, because it was (an is still) a complete load of crap.
Why don't you try practicing what you preach?
Does this bum think that we don’t know that HE is the most closed-minded, totalitarian radical that ever set foot (illicitly) in the White House? Why doesn’t the punk call Glenn Beck and explain to him why he’s not really a criminal deserving of a life term in prison? He and Algore could take turns in the same cell! Bob
Not only that, I get the daily "newsletters" from all the moonbat sites delivered straight into my email box.
Those who post on Huffing-'n-Pissed, et.al., all parrot the same talking points.... INCLUDING Obama's "spiritual advisor", Jim "God's DemocRAT"-Wallis
*
I check Huffington, DU and NPR to see what’s being covered...
Do the left check out Rush and Glenn? Don’t think so......
When I ask a leftist if they ever listen to Rush or Glenn they say “NO”. When they counter the question if I listen to NPR, etc. it’s a 100% Yes....(keep your enemies closer)
Guess they though it wasn't worth marketing—but then socialists aren't capitalists,are they?
...so now Zero is pushing clicks to a website started with funding from Soros? Talk about demeaning the Presidency.
Marxist punk.
My problem is the opposite. Its hard to find anyone in the press who agrees with me. I became an expert in the bad old days at sifting through news articles, comparing one to another, looking for what has dropped down the memory hole, watching as formerly inconvenient factoids reemerged later once they had become politically useful. Reading the press was like “kremlinology”, looking to see what had been air-brushed out and what had been air-brushed back in. I used to haunt the out of town newsstands reading alternate accounts, foreign newspapers looking for those little details that would be the loose thread that would give me a handle on what was happening.
I’ve always found that the best time for truth in the news is in the first hours of an event when the reporters don’t yet know what the political import might be, before their front desk is able to impose conformity in the coverage. And then way, way later once the political consequences no longer matter.
In the world of FR and online news, its so much easier. I can line these newsstories up side by side and I never even have to leave the house to do it. Any news story is followed in minutes by a correction, the loose threads are being sought and picked at by people just like myself. I think thats what I really appreciate about FR, which is that I am in contact with news-junkies just like me who love nothing better than picking at the inconsistencies in news articles and looking for the dog that didn’t bark, digging for the missing pieces.
Obama pulls this crap in front of students. We can disagree . The same week many of his supporters called the Arizona Legislature nazis, police statists, can I see your papers at the drop of a hat. When the legislation is US Immigration code applied to local officials.
It seems to me that San Francisco, Chicago, New York and the other sanctuary cities have dealt with immigration policies on the local level. Of course they were never taken to court. This should be the countersuit filed now.
that should work both ways...but you know it won’t
I wonder if his next job will be at Mickey D’s
Not without a Haz-Mat suit.
FU, Kenyan Tyrant Enemy.
There is no doubt in my mind that average conservative is miles more familiar with Huffington Post, Daily Kos, the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and NPR, etc. than the average liberal is familiar with any conservative talk show, blog or website like FreeRepublic.
We know a lot more about them...than they know about us.
Howdoya like them apples, Mr. President?
Obozo probably thinks we on the right get our news the same way he gets his: By only reading things with which we agree. It’s called projection.
If the moron would drop by Free Republic, he’d see we often read - and dissect - leftist bilge. Daily, in fact.
I also watch Beck, listen to Rush and Levine (usually about three time a week for each). I check out Gateway Pundit, Instapundit, Hot Air and New Republic.
It is after doing these things that I consider myself a conservative!
It is a bit much to hear this from a man who when he was in college made it a point NOT to be see with (besides talking with) anyone who was not a left winger. President Obama maybe the most close minded man every to hold the office and he dares tell me I should have an open mind. I am not perfect but, when he gets the beam out of his eye then I'll worry about the splitter in mine.
“We’ve (conservatives) have always wanted nothing more
than fair and balanced news.”
Bravo
It is my contention that basically conservative media
was inadvertantly invented by what used to be considered
standard information sources, i.e. major papers, alpha-
bet TV networks, and the national news magazines. Had
they always been doing the job they claimed to be doing
there would not have been millions of us scratching
our collective heads wondering why it seemed we were
only getting one side of a story.
Personally, while working in Sacramento in the mid-80’s
I would listen to this local guy on the car radio who
actually tapped into my thoughts at the time. It was
spooky but cool to know that there were others who
thought they were getting cheated by traditional news
sources. Too bad for all the old school news sources
that they had to go from presenting the news to brain-
washing. Too bad for them but fortunate for that local
radio guy. I think is name was Limbaugh......
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