"Odds & Ends" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Odds & Ends

Here’s a quartet of items that didn’t fit anywhere else but might pique your interest.

First, Fox is going to be the primary supplier of news to Clear Channel radio stations. If Fox brings its shameful propagandistic approach to radio as it has television, well, that’s too bad. A government of, by and for the people doesn’t work very well without the facts. It would have been awful under the old rules when a company couldn’t own more than five AM, five FM and five TV stations. Clear Channel owns 1,300 radio stations. A colleague observed, "Bad news about the Fox-Clear Channel marriage. Can we argue that they are both male and therefore shouldn't be allowed to marry?"

Second, speaking of the media, one is better off watching West Wing and Law & Order to get the truth. Well, most of the time. A recent episode of the latter featured an Afghani warlord being tried for murder in a drug deal. The prosecutor character reported that since the Taliban were booted, there’s been a 2000% increase in heroin cultivation and Afghanistan is now producing 85% of the world’s supply. Wonder when the last time the mainstream news media told that story.

Third, the baseball players on steroids story has percolated again. The owners make noises, the players make noises and then the story goes away. A new player is on the stage this time, however. Arizona Senator John McCain says if Major League Baseball doesn’t clean up their act, then Congress might have to get involved. Oh what a good idea. I wonder when they’ll get around to it. Maybe after they balance the budget and extract our soldiers from Iraq?

Finally, Robert Zimmerman said some pretty interesting things in a Sixty Minutes interview on Sunday. Bob Dylan, as he is otherwise known, said he’d always felt destined for big things: "It's a feeling you have that you know something about yourself that nobody else does....It's kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it's a fragile feeling. And if you put it out there, somebody will kill it."

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.