In response to Patrick Callahan’s article “Freedom of Speech Isn’t Reserved for the Left” (Daily Nexus, Feb. 11), I’d like to say that I agree with his sentiment – that no one has the right to put stickers on your window. I would like to point out, however, that if the tables were reversed, and you were a liberal in a conservative area, then similarly obnoxious conservatives would come out of the woodwork and do the very same thing.

The world is full of morons, both liberals and conservatives alike. I, for one, would welcome a campus forum for intelligent and mature discussion of these kinds of political issues.

There is one more point in your article that I would like to take issue with, and that is your suggestion that “the liberal demands for a biased environment.” This is a commonly repeated fallacy that I think infuriates many liberals, because it is so overwhelmingly deceitful and opposite of reality.

I think that many liberals are seriously disturbed by the current atmosphere of propaganda, which is reminiscent of Nazi Germany or communist Russia. With the Bush administration wrapping itself in the American flag, exploiting 9/11 in order to justify “pre-emptive” war and the taking away of constitutional rights via the PATRIOT Act, I, too, am worried.

It’s likely that readers have heard the term “liberal media” before, probably on one of the popular television news channels. It’s even more likely that he or she has never heard the phrase “conservative media” used as a common term.

The term “liberal media” is highly ironic, for today’s mass media is unequivocally conservative. The fact that the term “liberal media” has perpetuated in the news media is an indication of the extent to which the public is being misled by the five major corporate empires that control nearly all of the nation’s popular television news sources. These are Viacom (CBS), News Corporation (Fox), Time Warner (CNN), General Electric (NBC) and Disney (ABC), which together control over 75 percent of all prime-time television and represent some of the largest corporations and media conglomerates in the world.

They share close ties to the Republican Party and have strong financial interests in weapons manufacturing, energy and chemical industries. In other words, these corporations have a lot to gain – or lose – depending on their stance on, for example, taxes, the war and environmental regulations. Liberal media? I think not.

It is difficult to explain to someone raised on TV news just how much his or her view of the world has been manipulated by a corrupt news media. Yes, even to the point that he or she believes the news media has a liberal bias. In my opinion, there are some truly disturbing things going on in our government right now that should outrage all Americans, but the only way to become objective of all this is to start reading from alternative news sources, and to form your own opinion.

I urge you all, especially if you disagree with me, to research Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and peak oil to gain some perspective on what the Bush administration’s real goals are in Iraq.

Orin Harris is a senior CCS physics major.