Troy on Troy - My Niece the Reporter

This entry will focus on my view as a conservative on the bias of the left wing Liberal Media. However; instead of rambling on about MSNBC, CNN, and the so-called mainstream media of ABC, CBS and NBC, I am going to personalize this. Let me introduce you to my niece the Journalist.

Danielle Marie Webster - She was born way back when I was in College; February 8, 1984, so that makes her 25 and wow... I can't believe she is already 25. She is the first born of 4 girls. She was raised on a farm in ND by my oldest sister Doreen and my Brother-in-law, Dan. They grow wheat, sunflowers, soy beans, etc. These are the "salt of the earth" people. Family values to the hilt. When we go back for visits, you just can't get over how nice and genuine the people are from this part of the Country.

I remember the night she was born. I went down to a store right off campus and bought a box of 25 Baranger Cigars. You know the fancy ones that come in the metal tube. Not very good but on my budget back then, people were lucky I didn't pass around cigarettes. I also bought a large bottle of tequila and a lot of beer and started celebrating with my fraternity brothers. Now they didn't give a rip why we were partying, for free beer and tequila, they would have celebrated Castro's birthday.

I woke up sometime early in the a.m. the next morning, probably around 10:00am or so. Back then, anytime before noon was early. I will never forget that morning. I was naked, sitting on a couch, empty bottles everywhere and a cigar resting on my shoulder. I had passed out and the damn thing had slowly burned a hole in my arm just above my bicep. It had formed a nice, white blister. I still have the scar today and Danielle will testify that every time I see her, I show her the scar and tell the story.

Let's get some background on her upbringing and try and figure out how she turned leftist!

For the past 3 years, Danielle has been a radio news reporter for Prairie Public Broadcasting, based out of Fargo and serving the entire state of North Dakota. A great position but doing radio is a shame, because she has the face and figure for TV. Future Fox News Babe for sure! As for her other work history, aside from "just making money” jobs (which includes things like car hop waitress, bait shop attendant, telemarketer, or server, etc) she had an unpaid internship during college. It was at the school's television station where she produced news stories as a reporter, and also did “bitch work” (her term, not mine) like running the teleprompter. She was a Communication Major at UND.

She currently lives in Fargo and has lived there for two years. She loves it because it’s just like the movie “Fargo.” She also did a stint up in Grand Forks where she was sentenced to a year during her internship. Her personal interests include the usual like writing, exercise, eating, sleeping, going to movies, concerts, road trips, and any activity having to do with going to the beach or to the lakes, and going out with friends. She also watches an insanely embarrassing amount of television on Lifetime and loves hanging out with her future fiancé, B.J. (Hmmmm???)

Her voting record indicates she is a Democrat. And God bless her, she votes! She voted for both of ND’s Democrat Senators, and the Democrat Congressman, but she claims to also have voted for their Republican Governor. She bloviates about actually having a hell of a time deciding who to vote for as President in this past election saying “I actually may have voted for John McCain had he not chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. (What does she have against smart, attractive, conservative women?) She continues by adding “and I do believe John McCain should have been President instead of George Bush. But oh well.” I’m not sure we can trust her on that; we’ll have to see how she fares in the bathing suit competition!

She also stated that “I have never gone to a political rally outside of my job. Even as a student (and as a student I was definitely much more on the liberal train) I didn't really like them. I was always hesitant to go so far as to identify myself with a very leaning demographic of people - damn my journalistic training, I guess. But for work I've been to several political events, both Republican and Democrat.”

This next part is very telling and I think she let’s her France loving feelings out of the closet. You decide for yourself here. On her personal feelings towards the political world, she said the following, “If I do blog, it's on my Myspace page. And it's rarely about politics. In fact, I think the last time I blogged "politically" it was because I was ranting about how people on both sides of the spectrum were really pissing me off. I was tired of hearing about how old John McCain is; how dumb Sarah Palin is; what a loud mouth Joe Bidden is and that Barack Obama was going to take away everyone's guns. If politics come up in conversation, I try to stay out of it if it gets too passionate. In fact the more I hear about haters on both sides it really makes me realize that I'm becoming more of a moderate than anything. Especially on the whole health care debate - for example, I think it's ABSURD to go with the public option, but I can't deny that something has to change. I may be fortunate to have health insurance through my employer right now but who's to say that this situation may change for me someday down the road and I become one of those schmucks with catastrophic insurance or something? Even now, I have to go to an income based clinic to get my birth control because it's not covered under my health insurance (but somehow it DOES pay for Viagra?) and I can't afford to get it at a pharmacy for 65 bucks every month on my journalist salary. So yeah - I'm always advocating for people to compromise.” I bet she has a Howard Dean bumper sticker on her Smart Car!

Her dad is a Democrat. His voting record, I am strictly assuming from our many Schnapps-laden politico conversations, is Carter through Obama, "Yes we can!" Doreen is more towards the right. Again, these are my assumptions and since I am not a real reporter, I get to take a few liberties. I know her sister Dana, the second oldest daughter is a Republican. Also, Danielle’s future fiancé B.J. is a red state guy all the way. So she has a mixed background politically from the family side with a hint of lefty coming from Dan.

As far as ND as a state, they are one of the most consistent Republican voting states in the country. Check these facts out.

North Dakota joined the Union in November, 1889. The state has participated in 29 presidential elections, voting Republican in 24 of them. Of the five times it went “blue,” only 1916 (Woodrow Wilson’s second-term victory) was not a landslide for the Democratic candidate. As a result, North Dakota is a very safe state for the Republicans in presidential elections although, oddly, both senators and the one U.S. representative are currently all Democrats. In 2004, George Bush defeated John Kerry by a 63% to 35% margin. The state’s population of about 650,000 has changed little from what it was in 1920. As a result, North Dakota is one of seven states with the minimum three electoral votes. ND voted for McCain in 2008. So the state is conservative.

So what happened here? I had no other choice than to go directly to the source. I gave her an opening statement, asked her 10 questions and then as O'Reilly does on the fair and balanced Fox News Network, I gave her the last word… sort of. Hey, let her get her own Blog.

Here we go:

Question 1 - Who is your favorite Uncle? (Just kidding) On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being Bill Clinton and 10 being Karl Marx, how Liberal are you?

Answer – “Probably Bill Clinton but no way near Karl Marx.” (By the way, she picked me!)

Question 2 - Why Journalism? You’re smart, good in school, why not get into Medicine or Law where you can make the big bucks?

Answer – “Well, I didn’t get into medicine because I’m not good at math or science and actually, I didn’t get that good of grades. But I have thought about law or graduate school but I haven’t got around to doing it. I picked journalism because I like telling stories.”

Question 3 - I've seen and read your stories and think you are actually a fine journalist. You come across as having little or no opinion and just report the news. I find that refreshing. How are you able to keep your "true feelings" out of the story?

Answer – “Well, I chalk it up to being a green journalist and in school, they really drill being impartial into you. Just the facts. We’ve had people actually call us who have concerns that the story may be biased either way and I really try to avoid that. Plus, I’m so new that I don’t want to burn any bridges or sources.”

Question 4 - As a Country, are we heading in the right direction under Obama, Pelosi and Reid?

Answer – “I am hesitant to say we are moving in the right direction under any administration because at each crossroad, half of the country disagrees with the decisions being made.”

Question 5 - Who do you think is the best journalist, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews of Hard Ball or Alan Combs of Fox? (This is a trick question; those hacks are Socialist commentators, not Journalists. Let's see if she catches that.)

Answer – “I don’t think any of them are journalists. People who work at a network, they just show up and talk about what they think. They just spout out their own opinion. Rachel is terrible, she is annoying and actually, I don’t care for any of the talking heads on any network.”

Question 6 - Should we redistribute wealth and how do you feel about our capitalistic system?

Answer – “Wealth I struggle a little bit with because I don’t believe that everyone on welfare is completely lazy but there is no way to tell. It’s just fucked up. I don’t like that question.”

Question 7 - Am I a racist for disagreeing with Obama? Are we a racist Nation?

Answer – “No, you are not racist but I think there are plenty of people in this country that are racist. ND for example, Obama was leading in all the polls but he ended up losing because people couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him. Tough question. I’m not a racist or anyone I know but maybe like 20% to 30% of white people are racist and as far as black people, probably less of them are racist because of what they have had to go through, maybe 10%...I have no idea.”

Question 8 - Do you have an opinion on the health care debate? Do you currently have health insurance?

Answer – “I have coverage from my employer. I think I have job security but if something were to happen, I couldn’t afford it. I am torn on the whole thing because I have covered a lot of town hall meetings and they were actually very polite. A lady had insurance but worked at Blue Cross. She said she had no concern for people that didn’t have coverage. She gets laid off and now she is one of those out there that can’t afford it. Something needs to change; I don’t want government healthcare or the public option.”

Question 9 - What is the leading influence on your political views, why are you like you are?

Answer – “I think I grew up very well informed. Dad is a lib and mom is a conservative. So I had both points of view. Most people I know only heard the conservative side and I think it’s good to hear both sides. I identify myself as a liberal but not totally, I lean a little bit.”

Question 10 - Is there anything I can do to change your mind? Information, a subscription to the Limbaugh Letter or are you fixed in your beliefs? Any wiggle room?

Answer – “I don’t think so…especially the Limbaugh letter. It’s that kind of politics that really turns me off. The ones that are too conservative or too liberal. Also, I don’t want anyone to really know what I think as I don’t want people to think my stories are tainted in any way.”

Danielle’s final thoughts: “The reason why most journalists are liberal is because we don’t make any money! In North Dakota, conservative journalists are limited to just one outlet. There is one guy and he has his own station but he is loaded. I’m hesitant to call all ND journalists liberals but most are. Fox is the 1 conservative network nationally and has a good following here. Across the country, journalists are just broke. I only make enough to pay my bills and by groceries. That’s just the way it is”.

After processing what she has told me, I find that I am torn. I love her very much but don't think it’s entirely that simple. Choosing sides politically isn’t just divided between rich and poor. I personally think it’s institutionalized starting with our schools from K – college and then re-enforced by the media. Academy in general is liberal so by the time these kids get out of college and into the real world, they have been told by their adult role models that conservatives are evil, life isn’t fair, blah blah blah. Then they start working in their chosen field and all of their role models, Rather, Brokaw and Stephanopoulos are major lefties so they adapt to those beliefs. She really never had a chance. My only hope is that she becomes a Fox News Babe. A little cash in her pocket and we’re off like a prom dress. There is a great saying that it’s easy to be a Democrat until you make enough $$$ to start paying taxes.

One thing I did learn is that she isn’t nearly as left as I had thought. She is actually more articulate and well spoken then I had given her credit for and this interview was all done with a hangover…her not me. I am very conservative. I love Rush and Hannity but I think as a country, we should govern closer to the center. I think there is a strong chance if the Republicans can find a person with some spark, Obama may just have 1 term. People are tired and pissed and looking for something in between.

I had a blast doing this and I really want to thank Danielle. I enjoyed spending time with her even if it was only by email and over the phone… and she’s a commie!!!

Fight On!

Troy