Our what media?

Driving across the country, I've learned that listening to the radio is, not surprisingly, a good way to make the time pass. Music is OK, but what really makes the miles go by is listening to news and talk radio. There also seem to be roughly two kinds of radio stations.

It seems that non-music radio can be divided into two types. Listening to the first type of radio station, I learned:

• about the first post-Taliban beauty school in Afghanistan and how it was teaching women a skill they can use to support their families
• how a musician is using his music to teach the current generation about their unique ethnic group, descended from shipwrecked African slaves and local Indians
• about an Army chaplain, how he is working to help re-integrate soldiers and veterans into civilian society, and how combat can damage a soldier's spirit and soul (on Speaking of Faith)

On the other type of radio, I learned:

• how FOX News is mainstream; CNN is "liberal"
• CNN and Law and Order are pro-homosexual; these three guys had a real thing for L&O, mentioning it at least three times in the space of fifteen minutes
• that, when Rosie O'Donnell says the silly things she does, it's because she "hates America" (Bill O'Reilly)
• that the New York Times editors want completely unchecked immigration in order to destroy the white, male, Christian power structure (again, Bill O'Reilly)
• how Catholics are not "real Christians"
• how the ACLJ is running a petition to get Congress not to pass a stem cell bill that would allow the "killing of babies"
• that adult stem cells are far more useful than embryonic stem cells (no mention of the fact that research on adult SCs has been going on for more than three times longer than embryonic SCs).
• that the ACLU plans plan to eliminate and outlaw Christianity in this country

We are constantly told that one of these types of media outlets is "biased." Determining which of these is biased is an activity I will leave up to the reader.

(By the way, I self-censored and didn't even put the real kooks into the second group. These were the mainstream stations. For some of the real right-wing nuts, check out the Republic Broadcasting Network.)