Not Kasich As Usual
Reported by Eleanor - July 17, 2004 -
Heartland w/John Kasich (July 17, 8:00 p.m.) was partisan this week as usual, but not particularly anti-democrat. The program started with 10 minutes divided between democrats and republicans; an interview of Osama bin Laden's sister-in-law; 10 minutes on Martha Stewart; the crisis in Sudan; the domination of the republican convention by moderates; a tornado survivor, and feeding of the faithful with a story on violent videos.
In the first segment, Kasich cited negative polls for both Edwards and Cheney. In the Martha Stewart segment, Kasich stopped Scott Bleir when he said that Martha Stewart was "not a very sympathetic character." Kasich did not allow Bleir to go further, interrupting with, "too much talk," and brought the discussion back to Martha's discomfort in prison.
The crisis in Sudan is real news rarely covered in the American media. Bob McPherson, Retired Marine Colonel, said that the 300,000 estimated to die in the next six months of disease, genocide and random violence is a light estimate. Kasich provided a web site address www.careusa.org where people can go to determine how to help.
The weekly "Tyranny of the Minority" segment related to the domination of the Republican Convention by moderates who are in the minority in the republican party. Democrats were nowhere to be found in this story, either positive or negative.
The weekly story for the conservative audience was about a law being struck down in Washington State that was meant to stop the sale of violent videos. Kasich commented that the "laws don't reflect the values of the public."
Comment: I found this program to be slanted toward republican news, but honest. I was pleased to see Kasich stop the trashing of Martha Stewart. All anchors should have done that months ago, but the ten minute discussion of her time in jail, asking if she thinks prison is "like camping" and commenting that she's "comparing herself to Mandela" was totally unnecessary. This is not, and never has been, a real news story.
