as for the water boarding,, we allready had a mile long thread on that topic in this section of the forums i dont mind thread drift myself paticularly when the original topic is covering well trod ground

as for journalisim: as they will teach you in any journalisim class ...all news period, regardless of source is ussually "tainted" by the people that write it if in no other way than on a subconsious level,,, even the "christian science monitor" whose reputation throughout its history in jouralisim is based on impartiality has news stories that present one sided views

the liberal biasised media , tree hugger left wing so******t comunist contention of the conservative side of politics is no less false than the liberal contention that conservatives are all big business right wing religious fanatics out to shoot everyone

the fact is that all political agendas are indeed fostered by the media as they report the news inadvertantly in some cases and directly in others

as for religion and politics
my mother was a lebanonese jew my father a lutheran

i am of the bahai faith, its considered an off shoot of islam, ive studied many religions and i havent found one yet whose rehtoric condons the violence and hate perpetrated in thier names against those that do not share the same faith

politicians throughout all known human history have allways used religion to thier own personal advantage just like they have used fear and any other manipulation tactic to sway we the massess to do thier bidding

the media (and randolf herst is a good example of bad media) alltough supposably expousing high standards ,
has its own agenda as well, often fixating on whatever gets them the most ratings or subscribers,(or if state controlled on whatever propoganda the state wants) which sometimes coincides and sometimes opposes individual politicians and or thier parties despite the best efforts of a handful of honest people that want to provide a truely impartial truth to the people

in effect the sophists that socrates claimed to not be a member of were in some ways right, at least when it came to observations of human behavior

like most people i dont follow my own political parties dogma to the core, i pick and choose my views based on my own feeling about the issues, for instance, i am a registered republican, and alltough an avid fan of my 2nd amendment rights: i am pro abortion and pro gay rights including gay marrige, I also think the war in iraq is wrong, but i see alot of things wrong with the other parties practice of its dogma so i stay where i am to have a vote in the primaries as opposed to going libertarian or something

unfortunately the media is used as much as it uses, like some kind of reactionary format, where it manipulates opinion as much as opinion manipulates it, which is why most people have no real idea what any individual politician is really about until they are actually in office

actions allways speak louder than words