YAY!

It's a special time of year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas...though any day that gets you presents is, by definition, a special day even if it didn't have the "son of god birth" branding thing going for it.

But I'm referring to something ELSE that is special. Salon has released it's annual "Top-20" list of the biggest media hacks and whores.

Click here to save brain cells from early death next year

(Click on "Earlier Articles" to get to the rest of the list.)

This list is basically a "Who's who" of people who fit one or more items from the following profile:

1. Lazy, uninformed, clueless stenographers who believe "journalism" involves sucking up to people in power and uncritically recording and reproducing what they say in either print or media form

2. Propagandists who try and portray themselves as something other than that or otherwise disguise conflicts of interest

3. Shills for somebody in order to get a paycheck.

4. Evil and vile human beings who are willing to deliberately use a widely read or seen platform to convey a particularly ugly viewpoint dressed up as something else. (Hardhitting! Provocative!)

5. "Horse race" type reporters who focus on who is "winning" rather than who is lying or wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Gamespot Terms of Use may have changed dramatically recently, but that doesn't mean that I don't still love each and every one of you who consider me interesting enough that you bother reading what I write and, even better, commenting on it. It is because I love you that I feel compelled to let you know:

If you see or read something that has the name of any of these people attached to it, chances are you are becoming dumber.

The people on that list are idiots and sociopaths and some of the worst examples of our currently failing media experiment here in the United States. Listening to, watching, or reading any of them will result in your being less informed and less knowledgeable about any of the events that impact your life.