“Turn Off Fox News!” the bumper sticker on a car parked in front of our library proclaimed.
The owner of that SUV must have been a regular at the library here in Cheyenne, like I am.
I never saw the person who owned that car. Only the bumper sticker. And I haven't seen it in a while.
But, it tightened my jaw ever time I saw it.
Because those of us with high mileage on our odometers remember what the news media was like in the days before Fox News. The nightly news was all put together by dedicated liberals. And that was the only option.
That was back when we had the three networks, and got our news at dinnertime from Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and some others that don't come to mind.
While most were smart enough to keep their personal political beliefs under their hats (unlike today), we found out after they retired that all of them were liberals – ABC, CBS, NBC, all run by liberals. PBS was worse, and we funded it with tax dollars. And CNN evolved into just another liberal option.
To get the conservative slant on anything back in those days you had to watch William F. Buckley on “Firing Line.” That was about it until Rush Limbaugh came along.
And that's apparently what this guy parked in front of the library would prefer today, if we would all just “Turn Off Fox News.”
Like with the Supreme Court, everything is fine as long as the liberals are winning. It's only when they aren't dominating that suddenly the world has changed and we have to add more justices, invoke judicial term limits, abolish the Senate.
And Turn Off Fox News.
My critics on Facebook often accuse me of getting my news exclusively from Fox. But that isn't true.
I start my day rotating between CNBC, CNN, Fox, and even the Joe and Mika train wreck over on MSNow. It's kind of an early morning combination plate of the good with the just plain awful.
CNN tends to be knee-jerk liberal, and I call morning host Kate Boldaun “Scowling Kate.”
Whenever a story is about some Republican - most notably our president - the scowl appears. It's unmistakable. But it's still worth dropping in for a visit, because CNN pollster Harry Enten is wacky, but interesting.
And conservative Scott Jennings in the evening is wonderful. So even crusty old goats like myself shouldn't just Turn Off CNN.
CNBC, the business channel, is great these days, where conservative Joe Kernan mixes it up with liberal Andrew Ross Sorkin. (Kernan boiled over last week in an interview with Michael Lewis, whose latest book lionizes the bureaucracy. Kernan was awesome.)
And Becky Quick is great when she interviews moguls like Warren Buffett.
So don't Turn Off CNBC, either.
I used to watch “Morning Joe,” just to see what the crazies were up to. But they're so angry lately that it might be OK to Turn Off MSNow. No great loss.
The network morning shows are pretty much a lost cause these days.
They used to be essential, but have turned into mush and celebrity news.
My wife watched “The Today Show” for decades, ever since Dave Garroway and J. Fred Muggs, but gave it up years ago.
Same with “Saturday Night Live.” Way too hateful and one-sided.
I suspect some of the people who don't like Fox confuse the opinion shows in the evening with straight news “Special Report” in late afternoon, and “America's Newsroom” with Bill Hemmer and (Wyoming native) Dana Perino in the morning.
Brit Hume was the host of “Special Report” for years, and now serves as senior correspondent.
A veteran of ABC News for years, and before that an assistant to Jack Anderson, Hume is a solid newsman, as is Brett Baier, who succeeded Hume as host.
If you let the opinion shows that follow Special Report – Ingraham, Watters, Hannity – put you off on Fox, well, you should be switching to “Gunsmoke” reruns after “Special Report” anyway, like I do. A guy can only take so much opinion.
“Special Report” and “America's Newsroom” are the babies that shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.
Another thing in defense of Fox: They employ a lot more liberals on their shows than you'll ever see conservatives on the liberal news/opinion shows.
There's Juan Williams, Leslie Marshall, Marie Harf, Jessica Tarlov, Harold Ford Jr., Mara Liasson, and a host of others.
All kind of predictable, if you ask me, but lending opposing viewpoints nonetheless.
So don't Turn Off Fox News. And give “News Nation,” “One America News Network” and “Newsmax” a look as well. Suddenly we have options.
Play the field. Savor the good. “Hate watch” the bad.
It's kind of like an old Chinese buffet we used to go to. The sweet and sour pork was great, the won tons were to die for.
But sometimes they forgot to de-vein the shrimp.
Dave Simpson can be contacted at DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
