December 20, 2004 - During the years I spent as a firefighter/paramedic I became familiar with the term "death rattle.” This term refers to a sound a mortally wounded patient makes signaling to the emergency medical provider that chances for the patient’s survival are dismal. Sunday, Time Magazine’s editors announced that President Bush had been chosen as their Person of the Year. Now, I could be wrong but I thought I heard the distinct sounds of the mainstream media’s death rattle with this announcement.

Time’s editors said the honor was bestowed on the president for his "stick to your guns” attitude. They said they meant it both figuratively and literally. That, plus the fact President Bush had rallied a nation to vote him into office for a second term in such a decisive manner, they said, culminated the decision making process. I am willing to bet it did, and in more ways than one.

The level of unabashed hypocrisy on the behalf of Time Magazine’s editors is absolutely astounding. Less than two months ago Time, along with the rest of the mainstream media, was actively attempting to sway the presidential election away from George W. Bush. In actions that were so transparent the blind could see through their facades, the mainstream media did everything in their power to afford John Kerry an advantage going into November second. They played up the bad news from Iraq while ignoring the good. They ignored anything good coming out of Afghanistan including the first free elections to take place in that country, ever. They opted to coin the phrase "jobless recovery” while overlooking a superior unemployment rate to that of Bill Clinton’s during his re-election bid when they touted his unemployment rate as stellar and they overlooked the strongest and fastest growing stable economy the United States has ever known. They even created false documents in an effort to further lies based in fantasy.

Directly after the election the mainstream media continued going after President Bush. They continued their four-year neglect of spotlighting the diversity of President Bush’s cabinet. In fact, they have gone as far as to attack those who comprise the diversity within his cabinet. When Alberto Gonzalez was nominated for the post of Attorney’s General they didn’t celebrate the elevation of a Hispanic into the president’s cabinet, they complained that he was too much of a team player, someone that, God forbid, agreed with President Bush’s agenda. When Condoleezza Rice, a woman so ultimately qualified for the job of Secretary of State, was nominated to that post the story wasn’t that she was the second woman or the first black woman ever nominated for the post, it was that she was too much of a "yes woman,” another team player. This time they crossed the line into the realm of racism depicting her in cartoons as a big-lipped parrot and a slave era, barefoot illiterate while slob shock-jocks in Wisconsin defiled her name by calling her "Aunt Jemima.”

Now Time Magazine comes out and pats the president on the back, sticks out their Person of the Year award like a handshake and says, "No hard feelings?” I am sure that President Bush is a much more even tempered person than I. And although he admits to putting a tarnish to the English language at times, in this instance I am sure he would be more eloquent and reserved compared to what I would offer the editors of Time Magazine and every other editor from the elitist mainstream media.

We, as a nation, should not let the mainstream media get away with labeling their 2004 election tactics as "business as usual.” They tried to deceive the American public while smearing a sitting president and we should make sure they pay dearly for it by withholding our trust for their words.

The elitist mainstream media will try to maneuver themselves back into the public’s good graces. They will applaud some of the moves by the Bush Administration so as to appear ”fair and balanced,” all the while seething inside for having to restrain their hatred for what we now term the Red State morality. They will do this because they understand that their antiquated, "trust what we offer as truth” style of reporting news and opinion is forcing them to either adapt to the style of the new media – which doesn’t afford them the ability to skew the truth – or perish. They are no competition for Internet news and opinion sources that offer instant access to proof positive and verifiable sources, in essence a superior and more accurate way to gather knowledge.

President Bush does deserve Time’s Person of the Year award, not because the editors of Time Magazine have looked down their elitist noses and thrown him a Blue State bone, but because of what he has achieved. That has to have a lot of Blue State faces turning red.