A political lesson on hatemongering and slander

— Editor's note: Tanya Amador- Daigle is reporting for Florida Weekly on the national primaries until the presidential candidates are chosen this summer. She has a unique perspective on the primaries and the process for choosing a candidate, having traveled the country reporting on primaries and caucuses for the Purple States project. To learn more about Purple States go to www.purplestates.tv.

Last week, the GOP had its convention, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin became a star and Bill O'Reilly FINALLY got to interview Barack Obama with some tough questions on Fox News.

It was exhausting.

Like the week prior, the media continued to fuel the fire of controversy surrounding the 2008 presidential election simply by unleashing pundits on opposite sides to debate each other. I watched carefully. Some reporting and debating was fair and balanced, some was not. Words like "substance" and "style" were tossed about relentlessly and I got dizzy clicking back and forth with the remote, trying to figure out who was getting a fair shake and who was getting screwed.

Again and again, I kept shouting at the television and coming back to the same question:

How do people keep regurgitating the same garbage week after week that they hear from some talking head, and then go to sleep at night? I mean, doesn't assassinating someone's character denigrate your own integrity? It's like an endless game of telephone, minus the two empty tin cans and a bit of string to connect them.

I know, I sound a bit jaded, but I just spent the last week hearing so many false and hateful things that were on the Internet or TV being repeated like a broken record by the average person on the street. All week, as I went about my business, it was like a scene out of "Desperate Housewives" meets CNN.

And what about those worthless media Web site polls? The media, in a team effort with partisan hacks, tells us week after week who to like, who to hate, who is wasting our money and who is Satan. In other words, they influence us.

Then, they turn around and poll us and expect us to give honest answers, not what they swayed us to think. After they do that, they report on the polls, which in turn manipulates us again, thus setting a vicious cycle into motion which we will defend with extreme passion to the end of time so that no one dare question us. After all, we heard it on CNN, and it has been repeated enough times, so it must be true. Oh, didn't you know? Simple repetition of rhetoric automatically makes it magically true. It's just like carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

If you still have your rose-colored glasses on, here's an example that I'm sure didn't escape you recently:

Last week, after John McCain shocked America by naming Palin his running mate, the haters came out from the rocks under which they live. I know, I know, the hate grenades have been flying back and forth between parties for decades and they always heat up at election time. But, this is on the same scale as the National Enquirer printing stories like "Britney Spears has love child with Michael Moore." Well, OK, I guess that could happen. But really, what are we turning into? The U.K.?

My point is, the campaign to smear Palin is the worst hatefest I've ever seen in politics. One of those salacious smears includes photoshopping a head shot of Palin onto another woman's body, a body that is wearing an American flag bikini and holding a rifle. Perhaps the worst attack is the claim that Palin's new baby is actually the son of her nowpregnant 17-year old daughter. Ouch! As if your teenage daughter getting pregnant isn't enough of a challenge, let's throw on some more. Are people really that mean? Do they really have that much time on their hands?

Let me be clear: If you want to question someone's policies or record, please feel free to do so. In fact, I encourage everyone to do so.

But to the culprits who simply want to spread their lies and disease, I have to say this: GET A LIFE!