Palin disses President on Today! How dare she?

Out of curiosity, and I must be a fool with masochistic tendencies, I tuned into the Today Show.

It took about five minutes of Sarah Palin's high-pitched, whiny voice that said nothing of substance, to make me return to Good Morning America which for years has been my early morning news standby. Five minutes of commercial advertising caused me to turn that off too. 

As a side note: I did watch GMA yesterday. I found the addition of Katie Couric to be a breath of fresh air. Together with George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper doing the news was the kind of professional programming I want to see more of. 

Too many advertisements detract from the programming however, so if I want news, the internet is and will remain, my medium of choice. 

There, I can watch what I want and ignore that which I don't. Fortunately, I am smart enough to choose to read and/or watch even some things I disagree with. To me, the internet is a learning tool. It is not just an entertainment resource, although it does an admirable job of that as well. 

This morning, I saw a clip of the Today Show. To see what I missed, I listened as Matt Lauer interviewed Palin just prior to her taking the seat as his co-host. He asked her if she was happy that Mitt Romney would be the GOP nominee. She stonewalled him, just like she did Katie Couric so long ago. Lauer pressed her. Not only did she refer to the "lamestream media," but she referred to any GOP candidate when she said, "anybody but Obama." 

Palin's blatant rant really annoyed me. Perhaps it is because I once did news reporting for a living. When I interviewed someone, I always put my personal feelings aside. They have no place in professional news gathering. It wasn't always easy, but to me, credibility was much more important than simply spouting my opinion. (Perhaps this is why I love blogging.) There is a big difference between news and commentary. To me, both my personal opinion and news requires credible research, but that's just me. 

NBC, which was once a credible news outlet now has stooped to the level of Fox News, which is not news at all. It does little or no research on its news stories and obviously its television personalities require no credibility for which to derive their opinions. 

Back to Palin, the Fox News transplant to NBC's Today Show, I was appalled to see a co-anchor diss the President of the United States that I plan to erase NBC from my programming lineup.

It is frightening to think there is a relationship between the mundane NBC and the brilliant MSNBC, which is chock full of news and opinion that is really worth listening to. The difference here is that opinions on MSNBC are backed up by real facts, rather than the kind of made up stuff, like what is on Fox. 

The good stuff must come from the Microsoft portion of the arrangement. The NBC side must be the one that requires advertising for the Keystone Pipeline and the beauty of natural gas extraction or fracking. ARG!!! I feel as though my senses are being assaulted by these greedmongers.

If NBC wanted to have better ratings, which is obviously why it pulled this stunt to put Sarah Palin on the morning news, why didn't it just put out a better show?

I suppose eyes affixed with dollar signs simply cannot see what is plainly in front of them. 

The bottom line isn't really making money. The bottom line is earning money. Put out a good product that is worth buying and people will buy it.

Dancing With the Stars invokes anger

The results of this week's Dancing With the Stars results made me so angry it took me three days to write about it.

I was about as angry as the dude who shot up his television set, but my anger is more of the seething variety. I'm not the shooter type. Fairness has always been fundamental in my behavioral arsenal. There is no denying fairness was violated when Bristol Palin was chosen to go on to the dance finals over R & B singer Brandy Norwood, an excellent dancer who garnered perfect scores.

I have been watching ballroom dancing for years--dating back to the days when Juliet Prowse hosted the championship dancing on PBS. I had no idea that Dancing With the Stars would be a fixed popularity contest. But it appears that is just what this has become.

I was a little leery when the show invited Tom DeLay last season, but then to invite Bristol Palin this season should have shown the handwriting on the wall. This is a political venue rather than a dance competition. It is tainted. Bristol should have been voted off that first week because she clearly lacks the talent. Yes, she has improved over the course of the show, but her dancing is clearly not of the same caliber as any of the others who were voted off in her stead.

I was sickened at the judges' positive comments about Palin too. They clearly did not hold her to the same standards as other dancers. Were they issued a directive? Just what are the politics in play at the upper echelon of ABC television? Len Goodman is a tough dance critic, but clearly he let Palin slide. Carrie Ann Inaba was also overly kind, as was Bruno Tonioli.

The results show was in such stark contrast to the previous night when Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough performed the most elegant waltz I've ever seen. It was enchanting to watch the two of them dance so beautifully, as they captured tremendous emotional intensity. I cried as I watched them move effortlessly. Watching a beautiful dance can be as moving as listening to  a symphony or gazing upon the colors of a sunset.

Yet just hours later, it was all tainted, lost in the scandal that so often takes over all that is good and innocent, perpetrated by cheaters.

This example of entertainment television does a disservice to all: absolutely short-changing the viewers of real dance competitiveness; ultimately the show which has lost all credibility; certainly to Brandy Norwood who was far more deserving of a chance to move to the finals; and even to Bristol herself, because she has been made to look like a fool, not to mention a spoiled brat child who has been coddled for a lifetime by her over-bearing mother. Sadly, Bristol might even believe she deserved to win this competition. What an injustice. One day, she will have to stand on her own merit in a real scenario, without her mother's influence over her self-made reality.

What kind of a mother is it that encourages her daughter to compete way over her head? What kind of a mother fails to teach her daughter humility? What kind of a mother throws her own child under the bus to gain popularity for herself?

It is pretty clear that the Sarah Palin factor influenced the initial choosing of Bristol Palin for Dancing With the Stars. Bristol is not a star. She is an unwed mother whose life is controlled by her over-bearing mother. Is there no limit to what Sarah Palin will do? But worse than that, she seems to have the same kind of following as the Rev. Jim Jones and other 'leaders' who prey upon those around them. 

I'm so sick of lying, cheating, and stealing. Yet that is just what happened when voters admittedly gamed the system, giving Bristol her way, most likely at her mothers' urging.

The rapid decline of Dancing With the Stars which began as a fun entertainment venue is is no longer fun. This is serious--symptomatic of where our humanity is going. And that scares the hell out of me.