Oh please Ryan, NPR is about as "fair and balanced" as Fox News.

To each his own I guess...

i don't know anything about NPR, but MPR is right in between liberal and conservative.

news schmooze, that IS an awesome playlist.

you gonna move back now ben?

MPR is worse than NPR.

I don't know man, if you find MPR to be centrist, then you'd probably consider Stalin a moderate Republican.

I wish. I'm thinking of moving back for grad school, but there's a really appealing grad program in Ottawa. But grad programs are only a year long, so we'll see what happens.

I guess the truth is called liberal in this country, and liberals are called communists.

What is truth?

hey, chris,

ever wondered if everything is left of you because you are a fascist?

chk chk... BURN

Hey Zakcq, remember when you weren't an asshole?

ok now, let's ease up a bit folks. This is getting a bit out of hand. Your argument about the validity of public radio news has degenerated into name-calling. Hardly a productive method of discourse.

ahahahahahaaha!!!!!!

You're right Ben, I don't appreciate being called a "fascist" but I like to think I'm above name calling.

Zakcq, you're not an asshole, but if I'm a "fascist" then you don't know what a "fascist" is.

I mean c'mon, you guys are all Marxists but I don't make a big deal about that!

he's got a point.

ryan's a socialist. wobbly-style

When exactly did all of you guys turn to the dark side? Because the last time I checked you were a bunch of white dudes from Edina who went to Grace and enjoyed playing at the New Union.
Pretty far removed from the "progressive" urbanites you have become.

What happened?

what does any of that have to do with any of that?

it's a tangible indication of the change in your thought processes since we were all high school students. I do recall wanting to play at the New Union, but that petered out when I was about 16. You're no longer suburbanite kids who don't have any major qualms with the evangelical church and who like George W. Bush.

I wouldn't say that makes you guys (i.e. Ryan, et al.) the "dark side" (although I'm willing to wager that Dugan was being fecietous). People grow up and, inevitably, people change in the process. Different people change in different ways and to varying extents. I'd say people like Ryan and Zakque have undergone more radical changes ideologically/politically/theologically than say, myself or Dugan, but I don't think that makes them "bad" any more than it makes Dugan "good" or myself "ambivalent" because, in the final reckoning, we're all, spiritually speaking, imperfect.

I'd also like to retract my point from my previous post: you guys aren't Marxist because that requires an atheistic world-view which, last I checked, doesn't apply to either of you. I'd be willing to accept hard-line Socialist though.

I don't know what he has to do with anything Ryan, I'm just curious.

Ben is right, I was being facetious with the "dark side" thing. It just seems like all the people I know (like 3) that move to the "city" go really liberal. Even people that grew up in rich conservative suburbs-maybe that's why. If I was a sociology major I would write my thesis on this.

Zakcque has always been a commie, so that doesn't count.

ben you never called anybody a marxist

First of all. I'm not from the suburbs. I grew up in Windom neighborhood in south minneapolis. I resent the implication that I'm from a suburb. The only suburb I've ever lived in is Richfield and that was only for 4 years. I'm a city boy and I always have been and if anyone ever catches me moving to a suburb you can shoot me right off.

Sorry about calling you a fashist. my point was more to point out that you are always calling us marxists (which to you must be a swear word) so I thought I'd put the shoe on the other foot. Obviously you don't like it. Maybe you should stop doing it.

If you'd like to call me something you can call me a socialist. I vote that way, so that isn't an insult.

If you'd like to hear why I am the way I am maybe we should get together next time i'm in Mpls. Most of the story revolves around getting ass-fucked by a fundimentalist church that uses people for its own ends and then discards them when they really need help (and sticks them with the counciling bills and depression pill co-pays.) as you know mark darling, it should not be suprising story.

All in all, this is a far angrier post then I mean it to be. But i'm in Boston. We're kind of wicked angry people.

On a much lighter note: Ryan, the sox are playing the twins at the end of July. That would be a great time for you and bethany to come out if you want to. Let me know if you are going to so I can get tickets right when they go on sale.

also, i'm grumpy because I saw a homeless guys penis on the subway today.

oh, and also, I really don't remember when I wasn't an asshole. I've kind of always been an asshole. Ask those who've known me the longest and I think they will all agree. I don't try. It just comes naturally to some people I guess.

I'd actually love to meet with you sometime wheny you're in town. If you refrain from espousing the virtues of radical socialism I promise not to be a Nazi! I swear!

I am actually very curious with what happened with the whole "Rock Berlin" thing (which is what I'm assuming you're talking about.) Those of us who supported you (like myself) weren't given the whole story when that all blew up.

I'd love to hear your perspective on it, and what made you go from being a Christian missionary to someone who freely uses the words "ass-fuck" without batting an eye...

(612)309-0792

Golly, I almost hate to bust in on the lovefest, fellas!

But I sure do love that radio station! Yeah! Love it! A lot! You can listen to it online, even if you're in Boston! Yeah! Rock on! Roll on!

Oh, and having grown up as an evangelical Xian, brown-shirted Reagan Youth in the not-quite-cake-eating-but-still-relatively-well-off suburb of Bloomington, I'd have to say that spending time in (a Babtist) college actually studying the bible plus spending my twenties as a member of the working poor plus spending my thirties (so far) working with and talking to the working poor on a daily basis have made me one hell of a raging socialist. And now, interestingly enough, I'm back with the Babtists. (University Baptist in Dinkytown. Dig it.)

Be good, and now we'll resume the originally scheduled bizattle, in progress.

Ryan High Fives CJ.

Is this kind of what it sounded like when the Beatles broke up? Maybe the Eagles? Can you guys hold off until I get my video camera, and I'll make a documentary on the same scale as "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" (the awesome documentary about Wilco).

Then you guys can make up long enough to have a reunion tour and afford to pay me for the documentary. :)

I wouldn't say I use ass-fuck without batting an eye. It's just the only metaphor I can think of that really expresses the feelings that I have. A lot of therapists compare the feelings caused by spiritual abuse with rape.

Maybe i shouldn't try this, but i wouldn't mind another 30 comments, so bringin it all back around:

Can anybody explain how public news is biased somehow? I heard two of their reports yesterday, one was about the vote in Iraq, and the other was something about according to UN Press Secretary "The Fish was delish and it made quite a dish"

What the sam hill are you talking about Ryan? "Fish was delish"? Wha??

Public news is horribly liberally biased. Ridiculously biased. Like Star Tribune biased. Okay, maybe not that biased.

I listen to NPR/MPR occasionally and while they occasionally report something objectively or even favorably for the right that is the exception and not the norm. Like they say: "Even a broken clock is right twice a day"...

As Zakcq has hinted at, "right" and "left" is all relative to where you are on the political spectrum. I may call public news biased to the left, but you may be so far over there it looks moderate or even right wing to you...

No. I'm not saying it's left, moderate, or right. I'm saying it's not biased. It's just news, not opinion. The problem people have with it is that they disagree with the facts of life that unbiased independant media report, and they interpret anything they'd rather not believe as true as to be some sort of left wing bias (for the conservatives) or right wing conspiracy (for the liberals)

I don't think it's really possible to be completely "unbiased." It's a journalistic pipe dream...

What different media outlets choose to report, and the tone in which they report them will inherently create bias.

I have to agree with Chris. I don't think it's possible to report without bias (although, Chris, you should know that you have to think about absolute truth if you agree.)

I think, however, that the media (in general) has a liberal social bias and a conservitive fiscal bias. That is why both sides manage to get so upset at the news and why we both think that the other side controls it.

Yikes, dare we get into the argument of absolute truth?

I don't think it really applies to this whole area of news bias though. The question is, what facts are being reported and are the opinions of those reporting them more prominent than the facts themselves?

I'll say this of truth: we know there has to be some absolute form of it because saying "There is no absolute truth" is itself an absolute truth.

maybe i should have been more specific. my reference to bias was intended to help you understand the original post, which doesn't claim an absolute non-bias or non-partisanship in any way.

You're losing me...but hey Radke is the opening day starter, so that's nice...:-)

I'm not saying that I don't think truth exists. I just think that it is impossible for people to get past thier culture/upbringing/interpritations/understanding/stupidity/arrogence/ect to figure it out. We're all way stupider then we give ourselves credit for.

you just wanted to be the 40th comment

I just wanted to be dish network.