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Yeah, right. Do the cable news stations really think they still have credibility? Have they managed to convince themselves that the crap spewing from their gaping maws is actually untainted fact? They've misreported, embellished, and twisted so many stories over the past couple of decades that it's almost impossible to tell what's real and what isn't. I can tell you right now that CNN doesn't give a rat's ass about holding BP accountable for the Gulf oil spill. All they care about is their bottom line. They will report this story whichever way nets them the most viewers and the most money.

I've largely stopped watching the news. I get my information as factual tidbits from raw Internet news feeds. And why not? When you think about it, the BP story can be distilled into a single headline: "BP oil rig explodes, oil leaking into Gulf of Mexico, problem yet unresolved." Done. It's not necessary to have a stone-faced reporter, with a pulsing forehead vein, speaking emphatically into a camera while clips of black sludge belching from an underwater vent loops in the background. What the hell does this do for the average US citizen? Nothing. It just whips people into a frenzy, sows fear & panic, and gets them to keep watching.

News, in it's pure form, is dead, folks. The days of Walter Cronkite are far behind us. No longer does television news seek to educate. Instead it seeks to stir up emotion and draw forth primal reflex - a task that is best left to the fiction wizards in Hollywood.

I have no problem with someone announcing that they want to expand the death penalty to include misdemeanors or that they blindly support socialized medicine regardless of the facts, but only if they post about it once or twice. When they turn their status updates into a virtual pulpit and preach about it multiple times per day, my irritation increases exponentially. The only thing that keeps me from posting a snotty remark on their profile is my steadfast policy of keeping my political views off of Facebook.

In modern America, friendly political discussions are becoming far more polarizing than ever before. I used to post about it all the time on my blog, but I've seriously scaled back. I only talk politics with my closest friends now and only after we've agreed to drop the topic entirely if the discussion becomes too heated. That's not to say I don't enjoy a good political discussion (which, thankfully, most of my closest friends are intelligent enough to maintain). In fact, I enjoy hearing opinions that differ from my own... which is probably why I have so many liberal friends. That's not to say that I'm conservative, as I sit more in the middle. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being extreme liberal, 10 being extreme conservative), I probably sit around a 5.5 - 6.0. If you averaged all of my views together, I'd probably come out slightly on the conservative side of a moderate stance.

I don't appreciate extreme views, which is probably why I don't belong to a political party (hang with me, my point is coming up in a second). I feel as though I should be flexible enough to take a little bit from both sides of an issue. There is no right answer anymore. Political issues have become far too complicated to allow for black and white thinking and, in my opinion, it's dangerous to take an extreme stance. Not only does it pigeon-hole the person, but it polarizes people who have not yet formed an opinion. When someone preaches to the extreme, it's a turn-off for me. The person comes across as being crazy, forceful, and ill-informed. My initial reaction is to take an opposing viewpoint to create balance. I don't like being strong-armed into supporting something.

This is exactly the kind of reaction that Facebook political preachers elicit from me and the reason I keep my politics off of Facebook. I've also decided that I will no longer post political opinions on my blog. If someone wants to know my stance on something, they'll have to first earn my trust, show they can make an informed decision, and then talk about it in a calm and controlled manner.