News reporters are supposed to keep their feelings and opinions out of the news, reporting accurate information they find about any given situation. Some obviously stray from this, some don't even care their bias shows, justifying themselves with their notion of balancing a predominatly far right or far left news entity.

I don't think there are any agencies that employ truly bipartisan staff, but one would think Reuters or the AP might be good candidates. At least I would think so, because of the widespread use other agencies make of them.

Not so. There is a Reuters story about a California couple that have been partying in Vegas while their kids are at home with no other supervision. At least that's the initial account. The kids are 5 and 9 years old, the article doesn't say whether or not the parents had made other arrangements alternative to a live in sitter. Perhaps there was a neighbor checking on them periodically. The point is there could be a lot of information that just isn't being reported.

Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning in any way what they did. If in fact the only supervision was the emergency cell phone number their parenting skills needed attention. This does not justify the reporter's skewed interpretation of the facts. How were they skewed? Here is the last line from the article I read....

The children, who ate cereal for breakfast and frozen foods heated in a microwave for other meals, were unharmed.

First of all, the reporter doesn't come right out and say this is a bad thing, but it is obviously supposed to be construed that way, otherwise why print the fact at all? I would be willing to bet that most kids in America subsist on cereal and frozen foods a few days a week regardless of whether the parents are home or not. Then there is the fact that people from developing nations, whose citizens don't even have access to cereal and frozen foods, let alone the freezer for storage, would read the statement and think they were wonderful parents for providing such abundance. The reporter assumes that everyone reading the article will think poorly of the parenting skills under the circumstances, but I'm sure there are more than a few people who seriously think, whether they would admit it or not, that the parents did nothing wrong, or were perfectly within their rights to do what they did. Does that make it a matter of opinion? Maybe, but the reporter obviously doesn't think so.

Now I'm just rambling. Then there is the other report about the miners that were killed. The story is all over the news that miners died. We are supposed to feel for the families, they are living a sad ordeal. Is it really so newsworthy though? It was a tragedy they were trapped, but the media played it for all it was worth. As they usually do they delved into the world of daytime drama, following every detail as the story unfolded.

Me, I would much prefer to find out that some miners were trapped, and then have it left alone until something important happens, like maybe they get them out. I know, I'm a cold hearted bastard. The build up of suspense paid off for the reporters though, because at first the families were told the miners were alive when in fact only one had survived. Now we are inundated with huge articles that embellish every minor, or miner, detail. My wife commented that the lawyers have already put themselves in motion, and will soon descend on the hapless survivors with charts and graphs of how much money their grief is worth. And she calls me negative.

It is true though, it just depends on how long the grieving takes. The families will then spend their time deciding on how they should capitalize on their misfortune, goaded on by others telling them of the compensation that is their just reward. In my opinion, they should spend their time working on legitimate means of self sufficiency. Unfortunatly, I'm sure there are some dreaming of writing a bestseller detailing their horrific ordeal.

I shouldn't be reading the news. I obviously waste too much time and energy when I do.....