Baby Julia

Welcome, Baby Julia! We waited a long time for you to come, but it was worth the wait--you're beautiful!

Fox "News"

So I write this little short letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer about Fox News and their treatment of President Obama's administration. And what do I get? An earful. My inbox runneth over with the vitriol of Fox News watchers who wrote " Oh grow up!" "see a shrink, they do have medications available to help you," and "you are where you belong in the world of academia." So many of them brought up MSNBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times as evidence of media bias, and they are right. But it's a matter of degrees. When Rep. Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" to the President, Wilson was factually wrong. How do we know this? Because newspapers reported what is actually in the bill. Fox News never clarified this point.

As consumers of news, we Americans have a responsibility to get as much information as we can. This is how we develop good citizenship. Some emailers did point out that hosts such as Hannity, O'Reilly, Olbermann and Maddow do not deliver news; they do have, however, a platform by which they can explore ideas and present them to an audience. So long as viewers know what they are consuming, then it's fine; when they don't bother to get the facts, then we're doomed to make terrible decisions.