Still in the Arena

This column marks a new beginning in many ways. After four and a half years of writing for the same news site, I am now in several different venues.

Stuff happens and things change. However, some essential things remain constant even as they become shaded and textured.

Duty, Honor, Country … honestly, integrity and loyalty are (or should be) valued principles. These things should be (and to some of us still are) axiomatic. They should not be bargained away in a coatroom or compromised for some temporary expedient.

Some things are more important than material gain. You can make and lose money but "do overs" on compromised principles are kinda like buying a new crystal vase to replace the gift that was broken. The original is history. You can buy a new one and it will look the same … but it isn't.

For those of you to whom my work is new, I offer some background to provide some insight into what I hope you will be reading.

Although some will attempt to pigeonhole me as a "conservative talk show host and writer," that is (and always has been) inaccurate, I focus on WHAT, not ever WHO, is right or wrong.

I am, and will remain, a nonpartisan, equal-opportunity offender. I will praise a liberal Democrat if or when they ever do good as quickly as I will eviscerate a Republican when they abandon principles and fold like a house of cards to some political accommodation.

I think Ronald Reagan was the best contemporary president in the history of the republic … but I routinely violate his 11th commandment.

Teddy Roosevelt once said:

The New Media morphing which is taking place (I hesitate to call it a revolution) is really a function of physics. Nature abhors a vacuum. The mainstream media giants have created a vacuum by their malfeasance, complicity and arrogance. The refusal of the major networks and daily newspapers to report the "politically incorrect" news embarrassing to their corporate masters has allowed the symbiotic synthesis of talk radio and the Internet to fill the vacuum unchallenged.

Almost five years ago, I wrote, "Notwithstanding the obvious liberal bias of mainstream media, many of us continue to wonder at what point will either embarrassment or territorial imperative compel the dominant media to return to the journalistic foundation of actually reporting Who, What, When, Where, rather than obfuscating the Why and the How, and/or committing mortal sins of omission."

I have used a line that has become an annoying refrain about fairness, and the ability (or inability) of people to "... not want to be confused with facts which contradict their preconceived opinions." People incorrectly assume that the mainstream media are reporting objectively. In fact, the mainstream media are neither fair nor balanced.

For over 10 years I have asked every mainstream journalist and media type (as well as several 'outside the mainstream' types like Matt Drudge) the same questions. "When will the networks and mainstreamers get hip to the open field talk radio and the Internet has? When will they offer their audience (which is eroding like Georgia clay in a flash flood) what the audience obviously wants?

Without exception, EVERYONE (Jack Germond, Bob Novak, Dave Barry, Matt Drudge, William McGowan and Bernie Goldberg) said, "Never!"

The mainstreamers are in terminal denial … despite overwhelming statistical evidence AND the remarkable success of Fox News.

If, or when, any of the networks were to offer programming to take on Fox, they would BURY the cable outfits … quicker than a minnow can swim a dipper.

And still they don't and apparently won't. Go figure?!?

Confucius said, "To see what is right, and not do it, is want of courage, or of principle." Frankly, it is both.