Tomato, tomahto... potato ... potahto.....

It represents the balance of the equation..

I don't care if your name is Rush..

I don't care if you're an Air America follower..

I don't care if you read the Economist or the Washington Post..

The equation is balanced somewhere in between..

There is no longer (if there ever was) a liberal bias in the media.. Instead, the media has been perverted to some distant relative.. It's unidentifiable.. It's no longer about content as much as it is about editorializing one's view in the world..

The Drudge Report went on a seemingly predictable diatribe about the upcoming HBO special on Air America.. Using such phrases as "witness the ugly business of media ambition" to describe the sullen part of what "liberal media" must be about.. One should talk so boldly, Matt.. Clearly anyone with enough braincells realizes that Drudge is the Republican puppet and will always remain as such..

Asserting himself as some sort of legitimate media organization is laughable at best, scary at worst..

But it's not as though liberals don't have a counter-weight of their own..

But this isn't the point of the rant today..

It's about truth ... or rather the lack thereof..

It's about the abandonment of moralistic coverage regardless of who occupies the White House.. There's a feeding frenzy of outlets scrambling for market share and profit margins - that the media, the press that we have relied on to give an impartial view of the news at hand - is being whored for one political juggernaut or another..

I haven't seen the Air America special -- but I'm looking forward to it.. I actually applaud them for being forthcoming and opening up a potential PR nightmare .... even if it's meant to open up new markets.. You don't see anything similar from Fox News or any of the other republican pundits because they have finally secured a foothold on the airwaves and publications through out the nation -- and they don't want to endanger that precarious position..

I'm not oblivious to the liberal slant on things.. I got my fill of Al Franken sounding completely distraught that there wasn't more mayhem and bloodshed over the recent Iraqi elections.. I know the left is as much to blame for their own political machine as the right side is..

But what we have is a nation that resides somewhere in between.. Instead of trying to gather people into their collective positions, both sides continue to polarize the landscape creating a tremendous amount of indifference and irrational justification for voting/supporting the policies they are..

What's more sad is the fact that if I have a moderate position: I'm boring.. No one wants middle of the road anymore even though it's probably represents the majority of how all Americans feel.. It's also not incredibly shocking to find statistics that will resonate that a figure well over 80% or higher does not believe totally or completely with the party they generally support..

It's the tug-of-war attitude that pisses me off the most.. Both sides are shaking the fence so hard, people are scurrying for cover right and left.. Even if they don't fully identify as republican or liberal, they are often left with no choice because the parties, the media and the pundits have shaved the middle road so much - there isn't much of a strip to stand on..

--If you're against the war, you're a liberal..
--If you're anti-gay, you're conservative..
--If there's no immediate crisis in social security, you're liberal..
--If you believe in Schiavo's rights -- you're conservative..

The list will go on and on..

Both sides will have a score card once you reach the end of the road and that will decide where you fall.. From there you're cast into the throngs of the various misfits that happen to reside on your side of the aisle..

I despise Drudge.. Yes I admit that I admire Air America.. That makes me a liberal.. It doesn't mean I'm happy about it.. I don't like a lot of the things liberals do - but I like them more than I like what the conservatives have done..

I'm a realist.. And whoever can paint the most accurate picture on any given issue - will generally have my support.. Anything less is smoke and mirrors.. Karl Rove, Al Franken, and everyone else on *both* sides of the aisle need to realize that America is somewhere in between..

Want to win in 2006, 2008??

Start thinking about those in the middle and quit being so incredibly decisive.. The nation is already split - and neither party is grasping that concept...