all cable news is now fox news

I'm going to have to stop watching the 24-hour news channels if I'm going to remain sane through the next year. I am nearly in disbelief at the extent to which CNN has started to morph into Fox News. There seem to be only two sorts of stories: sensationalist breaking news and smirking contemptful advocacy. I just saw a white panic segment about Mexico "moderated" by (I am not making this name up) Kitty Pilgrim. The segment follows the structure that used to be isolated to Fox: frame it in terms of a predetermined judgment, smirk your way through the interview with the person representing the view of the opposition (but present the interviewee as a straw man), then end by commiserating with the second and final interviewee who simply validates the point of view of the interviewer.

An abbreviated example concerns the white panic of illegal immigration (i.e., poor people with a better work ethic than white Americans who are willing to work shitty jobs in order to help their families survive), specifically Vicente Fox's aggressive (progressive?) stance at trying to persuade American lawmakers not to build a giant fence across the border.
1. Kitty frames the issue as "shameless"
2. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes through an interview with a representative from a PR firm Fox hired, all the while asking questions in full panic attack mode. She fails to listen to a relatively complex and detailed argument about historical, economic, and social trends and structures.
3. She abruptly ends the first interview and goes straight to commiseration mode with an equally white-panic-oriented congressman and they shake their heads and perform outrage that a foreigner could dare tell America what to do (implying, I guess, that nations should not meddle in the affairs of other nations--which, of course, is even more ironic than the name Kitty Pilgrim).

In other news, Michael Bloomberg said this about the striking transit workers (who can only strike for a better contract by breaking the law): No one should be able to break the law in order to make personal gains. I'm glad he wasn't a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

why is Bruce Willis after me?

the current miscellany:

1. Why is it that end of the semester grading brings out the worst procrastination in me? The level of aversion is unparalleled. Rather than simply replacing grading with time-consuming tasks like cleaning up my office or doing chores, instead I give a wholesale rejection to the task and replace it with doing nothing at all.

2. I had a dream the other night that Bruce Willis was trying to kill me.


3. It has finally gotten cold enough around here to wear a sweater!

4. I started reading The Ongoing Moment, by Geoff Dyer, yesterday and came across a line that I need to adapt and place somewhere in every future article that I submit for blind review:

I suspect, then, that this book will be a source of irritation to many people, especially those who know more about [name of subject] than I do. I'm sympathetic but, if we're to make any progress at all, there's one type of criticism I'd like to rule out of court straightaway. This is the 'But what about X?' or 'Why didn't he mention Y?' charge of inadmissible omission. Can we agree, in Whitman's words, 'that much unseen is also here', that it's not necessary to discuss--or even mention--every [instance of topic ever produced] in order to learn something interesting about [topic]? I hope so, because the person doing the learning is the person writing the book as much as the person reading it. The driver is along for the ride too. (7)

5. I've decided to remove all academic books from my nightstand. From now on it's reserved for fiction, Harper's, and the Utne Reader.

6. I love it when students get riled up and offer passionate comments without that sense of disinterestedness that masquerades as decorum in the classroom. I just wish it wouldn't all hinge on a wrongly interpreted passage.

7. It has been almost 4 years now since I last had a haircut (when I swore to myself I wouldn't cut my hair again until after I had obtained a tenure-track position). It has also been four years since I've written on topics that I know and care about, as opposed to trying to reinvent myself as what I think I need to be to get the t-t position.

8. I have a ton of grading to do today. I think I feel the need to do the laundry and the dishes and some yardwork instead. No, I absolutely promised that I would return these papers by tomorrow. But , I saw some algae on the wall outside and the dogs need walked (and probably bathed). I guess I could always get on the blogs . . .