I’ve been ranting lately about the appalling state of the media in the United States at this time. Long ago, I was a high school journalism student. We learned lots of things, mostly to be neutral and accurate. “Cite your sources” was our mantra.

Today’s slew of reporters could sure use a lesson from Father Blaine and Mr. Wessling. Because even I, mere blogger, know I need to cite my sources. I know not to plagiarize anyone. I know the difference between news and fluff: the city of Chicago’s weekend death count, news; David Beckham’s latest tattoo, not news.

My email box contained a petition because NBC decided Kris Jenner’s boob job was more newsworthy than the moment of silence for the victims of 9/11. The media has already confused the Kardashian crew as news to begin with, but this is just a slap in the face to Americans in general. Seriously, reality television does not equal real news!

But what really has me foaming today is a report I found on a political rally held yesterday in Ohio for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan with John Kasich. I saw this article last night and was livid. Couldn’t sleep-glared at Jim through the night-because all men are pigs livid! Kasich was portrayed as the most sexist pig of all time. And in the current political culture, that’s a hard title to carry–so many are vying for it!

According to the article referenced above, this is what he said:

In this little clip from the speech, Kasich talks about his (“hot“) wife, and the wives of Romney and Ryan, and the reasons they couldn’t be at the event today:

“They’re at home doing the laundry” and “at home taking care of the kids.”

Does that just make you angry?! Doesn’t it make you want to hunt down this man and scratch his eyes out? Now watch the video clip in the article. He doesn’t exactly say it as presented. After all the facts about Kasich’s rampant misogyny, these phrases appear to have a much darker meaning than they actually do.

Read the next article and you get a little nicer assessment of the comments. Not much nicer, but more balanced than the first posting. Kasich never said women belong in the home doing laundry and taking care of the kids. It’s just how it works out for politicians and for lots of families where the wife stays home.

One was a blog post and one was a news article. But in this time when blog posts are where people are getting all their news (seriously, the mainstream media doesn’t perpetuate the birther myth; well, except for Fox News), people need to be aware to do their due diligence and check out the facts.

Remember Snopes? Email after email would come and be full of all these untrue claims. Thank goodness for the Snopes people who kept me informed about the ways me, my family, and our pets weren’t going to die. (FYI: pancake batter, Febreze, and Swiffers generally aren’t life-threatening.) There were people who refused to ever check out an email before forwarding (this is the basis for my estrangement with my mother; I politely suggested she vet her emails before sending) just as there are people who spew political facts when hearing them from only one source.

Mitt Romney isn’t even immune to this and he’s a presidential candidate. When he came out with barbed complaints about President Obama’s handling of the Libya situation, he did so after his staff watched television reports and monitored twitter. Yes, twitter. Heck, I love twitter and know that everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt there! It’s not a genuine news source.

Part of the problem is that reporters in general aren’t doing their homework or doing their jobs! They’re to busy chasing down Honey Boo Boo and the cast of the Jersey Shore to stand up and report on something real in our country. Sure, Snookie is more entertaining than the deficit, but the deficit is more important.

I wish the media would stand up and truly report the news as it happens. I don’t want spin. I don’t want sugar coating. I want the facts without any editorializing.  If I want an opinion about the news, then I’ll go to twitter.

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