Inner curmudgeon #5

There's political bloviation and obfuscation, and there's campaign excess and outright lies.

And then there's the appalling behavior of pretend-journalists that is so biased that it becomes unprofessional and unethical. That's where my inner curmudgeon gets roused.

No one does it as often as the denizens of Fox television network. They're at it again, and it's deplorable.

I have my own ambivalence about the morality of assassinating an unarmed man, even of the likes of Osama bin Laden. I am relieved that he is no longer in the world, and I might very well have given the same order that President Obama did, given all that he had to consider -- sort of like shooting a mad dog in the streets even though it's not in an act of killing that requires immediate self-defense.

The questions here though are philosophical and moral.

FoxNews is just being political -- and, I submit, committing unprofessional journalism (the word 'journalism' hardly even applies to Fox).

Two different Fox anchors have called killing the unarmed Osama "illegal."

Here's what rouses my inner cur:

1. We know, as well as we know the sun will rise tomorrow, that they would not be doing so if GWBush were the president who gave the same orders.

2. We know that the denizens of Fox have led the pack in calling Obama weak and ineffective on foreign policy and war-waging. Now that he's done what they demanded he do, they say it's illegal.

3. We know that if news had leaked that this opportunity to take out Osama had arisen and Obama had not taken it, they would have (figuratively) dragged Obama's body through the streets.

Listen UP, FoxNews: don't try to peddle to this old curmudgeon your tired political smears wrapped in the bloody gauze of morality and integrity. You have none.

None. Absolutely none.

Bah humbug.

Ralph