I spent a couple of decades covering the news as an independent video journalist and, for once, I have an opinion as a journalist. The media are biased.

This is not to say commentary should be avoided. Commentary can be useful in spurring healthy debate. But, commentary is not news and commentary is all that is currently available.

I don’t care whether you are talking about the liberal main stream media which Trump constantly blasts, or Fox news that is constantly in the liberal crosshairs. When you are watching the broadcasts, you are watching commercials which break for other commercials. This is similar in the print and radio media. Just like the political parties, these are folks who believe members of the general public are not bright enough to assess facts on their own.

My time spent delivering stories to local news outlets was focused on providing simple provable facts, without bias. I gave it the old college try, but alas, it was all for naught. Even the most honorable TV anchor’s reading of the story was tainted by the angle applied by the 23 year old who wrote the piece.

Is it any wonder the nation finds itself divided? The public is spoon-fed, and subsequently regurgitates  the media’s own biases. We have no objective sources.

A true journalist should not deliver news with any passion. It should be presented in cold blood.

“A six mile wide asteroid is on a collision course with earth. It will impact in seventeen minutes. And, now for sports.”

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

NOTE: Cell phones are not on the list.

Racism seems to be the reason some aspiring teachers aren’t making the grade. Once again… idiots to the rescue!

In an Associated Press article, written by Karen Matthews,  the state Board of Regents in New York is considering no longer requiring prospective teachers to take and pass the so-called Academic Literacy Skills Test because minorities are not scoring as well as whites on the exam. Therefore, it must be a racist test. Right?

In 2015, a federal judge struck down the Liberal Arts and Science Test used to vet wannabe teachers in New York City for the same reason.

Follow their logic. If fewer minority (mostly Black and Hispanic) teacher candidates do well on these tests than do Whites, there will be a resultant preponderance of whites being hired to teach. Schools in New York City would not employ minorities in teaching positions in the same racial ratio as the student populations.

Question: Is this actually true? Answer: Of course! Do the math. Oh, sorry. That’s racist.

Question: Is the testing racist? Answer: Yes. Everything is racist.

Question: Should this problematic fact be addressed by scrapping the idea that teachers prove they actually know something before getting up in front of a class full of students? Answer:  Why not?

But don’t ask future children of any race to read these thoughts because they won’t be able. They will have been “educated” by today’s NYC students.

Here’s a thought out of left field: Why not teach minorities how to pass the tests? I know. That would require educated teachers and that would be racist.

There are people who are astounded by the obvious. For example:

I just read a story about a forest service cop, in Montana, who accidentally slammed his bicycle into grizzly bear as he rounded a blind curve in the woods. The biker was traveling at full speed (20-25 mph) when the unfortunate encounter occurred.  The bear attacked and killed the cyclist.

The article took the time to explain that the evidence suggests the bear’s attack was not predatory in nature.

Gee. How did they come to that conclusion?

The biker’s friend, who came upon the incident as it was occurring, didn’t know what to do. He apparently felt ill-at-ease attempting to thwart the bear’s attack, instead carrying his own bike a mile through the woods to the nearest road to get help.

Just a thought:

Compare that fellow to the South Carolina fisherman who recently dove into the water to rescue two women he’d never met  from their submerging vehicle, claiming that he intended to save them or die trying.

It’s wrong to judge another when you weren’t in their shoes, but I still know which one’s hand I’d prefer to shake.

My apologies to the two of you who read this blog. I have been preoccupied with some trying family and business issues that had rendered me less than communicative and certainly uninspired. Sorry.

So, to continue…

My ass continues to stalk me. Every time I turn around, there it is. Just like a shadow. The district attorney has refused to take the case, stating that I should put this affair behind me and, “Go home.”

Apparently I’m still uninspired. I’ll try again later.