Time for a rant...

A recent commercial I saw for the search engine Bing made me wonder how they can claim they are preferred over Google. A simple search reveals it simply isn't true. Just check this stat: http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines

How do they get away with it? It's all in the wording. If you watch the commercial you can see what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf6XhAn6X1g

In addition to the direction by the personality to search only for certain items, the statement at the end is a dead giveaway. Obviously they are referring to their little sample they made while filming these segments, but it's not really stated. I think most people are aware of this, but I thought it worth pointing out.

And while we are talking about Bing, I don't believe for a moment that they are truly ahead of Yahoo as a search engine. Anyone who has visited msn.com will know what I'm talking about. Being another Microsoft site, msn.com uses Bing for any searches their news feed needs to do. A lot of the features they do have to do with celebrities and who is in foreclosure, who is least popular, what a celebs real names, etc. If you click each one, it can easily amount to hundreds of Bing searches in a matter of minutes. Way to inflate the numbers Microsoft!

Switching gears for a moment, I've coined a new phrase, coastal smurfs. As everyone knows, the coastal areas of this country are mostly blue when it comes to voting. New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC on the right coast and San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle on the left coast. There are many reasons why this is the case, but the one I want to examine is attitude.

We the people here in middle America know what I'm talking about. The coastal smurfs are better educated, more hip, and just seem to know what's best for the rest, or so they think. You can hear it in their voices when they talk to us in their news broadcasts, documentaries, movies or tech podcasts. They will often claim they have a feel for what the common man needs. BULL$#!+.

I've known this was true of journalists since the time I started paying attention. By that I mean after the kids are grown and you have more time to be aware of things which are happening around you. We all know that when raising children, there just isn't much time for doing anything else, period. But when the little rugrats are out producing rugrats of their own, it frees up your mind to take in and analyze the information you receive from various sources.

A good example was listening to a speech made by the president and then having the friendly members of the fourth estate explain what he said to me. Prior to the time I started paying attention, I would often just let them listen for me. I thought they were my friends. Boy was I ever wrong!

While some in the media obviously have a true agenda, there are others who just can't help themselves. They are coastal smurfs who were just raised believing that they are the chosen ones who are there to lead the rest of us out of the darkness. I have pity on them for they are truly the clueless ones. The ones destined to lead a lonely life in local news or until the time they figure out for themselves that they aren't as important as they thought they were.

Those media people who know what their true purpose in life is are far more dangerous. They know their mission is to indoctrinate the masses with the liberal agenda. It's just been a fact of growing up in this country for a long, long time now. At least until people like Rush Limbaugh and Fox news came along.

But make no mistake, while we now at least have a choice of what agenda mongers we get our news from, the bias is still there. It's just slanted the other way if you choose Fox news. For the record, I believe Fox news is closer to the actual truth than the liberal press, but they still present the facts with a conservative slant if you watch closely.

So what is a person to do? How is one supposed to get the news? The answer is pretty clear. You can choose sides and find a news source that you like and agree with or you can listen to both sides and make up your own mind. For the most part that is what I do. I read news on both the liberal and conservative websites and then decide which one to believe.

It's often not difficult as most of the liberal sites have toned their agenda way down to compete with Fox news. Competition is a great thing and for that reason I am grateful to Rush Limbaugh and Fox news for introducing it into the American news media. We are truly better informed than ever now!