I have been in a huge debate with a co-worker about the merits of NPR and public broadcasting. What can I say, I love NPR even though I thought I was a conservative, which apparently is not compatible.

Why do I love NPR? No commercials. Common Sense. Humor. Very little news about Charlie Sheen. Global news. I find it to be pretty fair and balanced, atleast in the news department. The talk and entertainment leans towards the liberal side.

Today as part of an experiment I listened to 2 hours of Fox News. Here is what I learned.

1. If you listen to conservative talk radio you have to endure 5 painful minutes of commercials for every 9 minutes of talk.
2. Those commercials are extremely annoying commercials for buying gold, foreclosed homes, and magic pills which will help you lose weight, get rid of varicose veins, and grow hair.
3. You would have to be awfully gullible if you believe you can just swallow a pill and cure any of those problems. The people who pay for those ads think the listeners of talk radio are gullible enough to do exactly that. Why not? The rhetoric the pundits spit out gets repeated ad nauseum by their listeners as if it were the gospel truth. — The money says Fox’s listeners believe whatever they hear on the radio, as far fetched a claim as it is.
4. If you don’t like profanity don’t bother. The reason I stopped my experiment before the day was over was because I couldn’t stand listening to Spencer Hughes say that everyone on unemployment are lazy @$$es. If I can’t listen to it with my kids in the room. I don’t need to listen to it.
5. Every 10 minutes they try to remind me how “fair and balanced” they are.
6. The host says “when we get back I’ll give you my two cents worth” then the announcer in the commercial tells me that “We report. You decide.” All afternoon they told me what to think and they believe that by telling me that all they do is report and they let me make the decisions is going to make me believe it. No way, I’m smarter than that.
7. On Fox “News” you get 4 minutes and 30 seconds of news at the top of the hour. One story repeated during every commercial break and a bunch hot air telling you what you should think about one insignificant story.

Here is what the hourly news update covered today: 75 seconds about 2 budget bills not passing. 30 seconds about Libya. 15 seconds about the Space Shuttle. 30 seconds about a Pakistani national from Buffalo, NY who killed his wife in New York. (Why is it important that he is a Pakistani living in the U.S.?) 45 seconds about Iran pursuing nuclear weapons. 15 seconds about Iran supporting the Taliban. 30 seconds about a British Sex Ed Shocker. 15 seconds about Mel Gibson facing charges of battery. 15 seconds on the Dow and oil prices.

Here’s how my day went: For 40 minutes I listened to John Gibson discuss a gentleman (I use the word loosely) in Rhode Island whose son was killed in 1975. The killer was convicted and served 28 years of his 40 year sentence and is now set to be released early. The father has come out and said publicly that if they release his son’s killer early he will kill him. Mr. Gibson asked what we would do. Caller after caller said the father is justified in his statement. Several callers even suggested ways in which the father could commit the murder. One of the guests suggested he hire someone to do the job and the only mistake he made was to tell the world what he was going to do. Is this hateful and immoral discussion? In my opinion yes. There is never a reason to take the law into your own hands. There is nothing resembling self-defense here. I hope the boy’s father can find it in his heart to forgive his sons killer and return to living his life. We have a justice system for a reason. Whether or not you think the killer should be released a revenge killing is not the legal, ethical, or moral answer.

The next hour was spent listening to John Gibson talk about Jessie Jackson Jr’s recent speech on the floor of congress calling for constitutional amendments to give American’s the right to a decent home, an education, and health care. Of course if you listen to the entire sound bite, which Mr. Gibson did not air, you would know that Jesse Jackson was quoting FDR. I don’t know Jesse Jackson. I don’t follow Jesse Jackson, but is it possible that he was using sarcasm or exaggerating to prove a point about the ineffectiveness of the right wing tactics? That’s how I interpreted what I heard. Nevertheless, for an hour (minus the 20 minutes of commercials) they discussed this one topic. It wasn’t much of a discussion. Mr. Gibson’s favorite argument seems to be a chuckle. i.e. The democrats said “X” - ha, ha! While I sometimes would agree with his statements he was so poor at backing them up I wanted to not believe. At least he was civil, if not eloquent.

My last 20 minutes were spent listening to Spencer Hughes who re-hashed Jesse Jackson’s comments and relished in the firing of NPR’s CEO and head fundraiser. The following comments from Mr. Hughes are neither intelligent nor convincing arguments. If somebody on NPR spoke like this on air, they would probably get fired. Oh, and please let me know if you consider the following to be “fair,” “balanced,” or just “reporting.”
Quoting Mr. Hughes as best I can: “Jesse Jackson, Jr. is just as stupid as Jesse Jackson, Sr.” Jesse Jackson is an “ignoramus” and a “brain dead liberal.”

Last lesson of the day. According to these pundits the only possible way to decrease the deficit is to cut programs (decrease spending.) They ignore the other side of the argument which would be to raise taxes (increase revenue). If you are poor and unemployed and in need of more money the only possible solution is to find more work. (increase revenues.) The best way to encourage this sort of behavior is to cut off all aid from the government (decrease revenues).

It’s not the ideas that turn me off - except with that first tale of the day. It’s the endless repetition with no evidence to back up the arguments. It’s the hateful and bigoted speech.

I’m going back to NPR