The words "Today Show" and "News" are an oxymoron.

Two minutes of sound bites, and the rest devoted to asking crowds of tourists what they're doing in NYC (Vacationing! Hi Aunt Selma! Hi Uncle Lou! I'm on TV!) and cooking demonstrations.

News and entertainment should be separate.

Back in 1987 I was watching a segment on Today where Jane Pauley was interviewing two college students, one American and one Soviet, who were part of a "two rivals working together" type of program. Pauley spent the entire interview trying to push the agenda of their differences making them not get along, when it was clear that was not the case with these two.

If you are wondering why I would remember that segment from 18 years in the past (no, no - 1987 cannot be that long ago, sigh), it's because my roommate at the time was best friends with the male American student that was interviewed on NBC, so I had some insight into how that US-USSR student program was working. Political differences were not the big issue with them that Pauley and the Today show was trying to push.

What bothers me more than the bias is the lack of doing basic homework I often see with the mainstream news. I know these folks are anything but astrophysicists, and rushing to deadline is a fact of life, but it gets very annoying to watch newscasters practically crow about their ignorance of science, as if they're trying to say "Hey, I'm not a geek!"

Maybe if they spent more time doing their homework instead of worrying how straight their hair is.... Anyone else miss the old one male anchor non-pretty boy who gave the news straight?

I get most of my "real" news off the Internet anyway, not the nightly 20 minutes of sound bites on TV.