Get Out The Way, Tucker

I've been nursing a cold the last few days, so I thought that the most harmless thing to do was to stay home and channel surf. Well, since yesterday was the big Congressional "hand-off", I watched the various characters on the various news channels blather on about it.

And I decided that no channel is more deceptive than Fox News, but more on that another time.

What I will say now about Fox is that they were relentless in hammering their theme that "Nancy Pelosi is a San Francisco Liberal". And that theme was carried on by MSNBC's resident faux Fox types, such as Tucker Carlson. He seems to revel in his ignorance, and celebrate his cluelessness. Why does that guy still have a show? Is it so that he will look so ridiculous, that people will feel compelled to watch, the way they slow down to look at traffic accidents?

Granted, it may not be entirely Tucker's fault. Cluelessness is a virtue when your job is to perform punditry, not to inform. But why do the networks give anchor roles to people who engage in simplistic labeling, like this -

Well, as we said, Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the first female speaker of the House today, and in her speech, the San Francisco liberal struck several notably conservative notes. Boasting about going to church, and quoting St. Francis of Assisi.

That's from the transcript, which is online at this link. Speaker Pelosi was quoting from the "Prayer of St. Francis", which Tucker probably should have looked at before making his comment:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Not exactly the Republican Party Platform (especially all that peace, love and forgiveness stuff).

As I said, maybe it's not entirely Tucker's fault. Simplistic labeling, which assumes that someone who quotes a Catholic saint is making a conservative point, is pervasive in the media. Still, when someone is so clueless, isn't there someone else they could give this airtime to?