Monday, January 24, 2011

Education Isn't Everything but it is Something

Even though I have only recently started watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann, it saddens me to see his show go. I am not a guy who likes a certain political slant with my news, I like reading The Week from time to time which gives you both sides of the story for instance. Kieth and Rachel Maddow are definitely commenting from the left, no question about it and are going to tell the story with a left wing perspective...To a degree. What I was amazed to find when I recently started watching MSNBC (it wasn' t in HD) was not that they were making up crazy conspiracy theories like they do on Faux News, or that they were reporting on the hypothetical outcomes of certain news stories but what makes them left leaning is that they basically, as I do, spend most of their hour merely debunking all the lies from the right. Every show they go through a list of all the lies or made up nonsense from the right leaning pundits and politicians but are also very happy to point out all the contradictions of those on the right. And since the majority of the loud mouth teabaggers in this country are the ones who get the attention of the media, I say they do have a responsibility to debunk the myths and fantasies of the right.

Well, my point is, why do they get to sit from on top of their perch and point out the wrongs of other people?? Well, I'll tell you why. Because they are in a better position to do so. Just as a Climatologist is in a better position to tell you what is happening to the worlds ocean temperatures than Sarah Palin, and just as a Geologist is in a better position than Glenn Beck to tell you how old the Earth is or an Astronomer can explain to Bill Oreilly how the tides work, the people on MSNBC are educated! Highly educated compared to the mainstream pundits on the right. I know I have talked about this before but I don't think I have ever done a post about it so lets have a look at the education levels of these said pundits, Here's the big 3:

Rush Limbaugh: Graduated High school then flunked out of Southeast Missouri State

Sean Hannity:
Graduated High school and dropped out of both NYU and Adelphi University but later received an honorary degree from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University (AKA, not a real degree, not a real college)

Glenn Beck: Did barely graduate High school and although he took (and dropped out of) a Theology class at Yale, he was never enrolled in college full time.

On the other hand you have:

Keith Olbermann: Enrolled at Cornell University at the age of 16 and got a B.A. degree

Rachel Maddow: Has a degree in public policy from Stanford and a Doctorate in Philosophy (politics) from Oxford University

Arianna Huffington: Holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University's, Girton College

Now it starts to make sense why one side is prone to believe in fairy tales and other stories that couldn't possibly be true and why one side is constantly debunking these fairy tales.

Again, just because someone didn't graduate from a prestigious college doesn't make them an idiot and certainly anyone who graduates from an Ivy League school isn't automatically an expert on everything but it would certainly be hard to call them an idiot.

And when it comes to economic policy and or politics, who would you have more faith listening to...Glenn Beck? A guy who believes in magic underwear and smoked pot and drank every day for about 20 years of his life or someone who has an actual degree in policy and economics?? At least Bill Oreilly has a degree in history...Which proves my point, just because someone has a degree in history for instance, it doesn't mean that they understand everything...Like how the tides work for instance...Which if you were unaware, God controls them.

3 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

A bit surprised you left out Michelle Bachman...
graduate of Oral Roberts.
Small wonder she got kicked off a local school board for wanting to replace biology with creationism...gotta keep up with the high tech global economy: her method, more tax cuts for the rich and privatize
social security. (You know, like we have been doing since ol Reagan)
She and her ilk are the
reason for our current problems, IMO.

Toad734 said...

Oh she's a moron, no doubt abotu it...Wow, Oral Roberts...That makes sense.

I was really comparing TV pundits and talk show hosts where a lot of people get their bad information.

But the morons I am talking about is why people think they should vote for someone like Bachmann...They are led like sheep to vote for people like this. I mean, if I had to make a list of all the morons in congress...

BB-Idaho said...

'Education isn't everything, but it is something'..indeed