In Case You Missed It | Protests of the week

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There are a couple of hot protesting opportunities this week that any card-carrying lefty activist won’t want to miss.

First, on Saturday the 10th, there will be a “Stop Walmart in Boulder” rally beginning at 11 a.m. on the Pearl Street Mall, in front of the county courthouse.

Word on the street is that Walmart is opening a store in the Diagonal Plaza near the intersection of 30th and Iris.

Talk about the antithesis of Boulder. We can’t think of a better way to stymie the continuing effort to support independent, locally owned businesses than by having infamous local business killer Walmart descend on us.

The other sign-waving opportunity this week arrives on Tuesday the 13th, when the Boulder County commissioners take up the fracking issue. The county is considering a host of ways to regulate oil and gas operations, which includes hydraulic fracturing, and this public hearing will be a fine opportunity to make your voice heard. If you can’t make it, you can send comments to commissioners@bouldercounty.org.

Considering how much the commissioners were swayed by that fake “grassroots” effort by big-ag companies stumping for the growth of genetically modified crops on public open space, the role of local activism and protest can’t be underestimated.

These events are definitely worth getting off the couch for.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

We thought it would be a cold day in hell when we’d see a Republican CU president laud anything done by a Democratic governor, but indeed, Bruce Benson is lauding John Hickenlooper for proposing a budget that includes an infusion of new money for higher ed.

Then again, they are both oil men, and old Hick sometimes forgets he’s a Dem.

Benson issued a press release patting Frackinlooper on the back for recommending a $30 million increase in state funding for colleges and universities, and the CU system’s share of that would be about $9 million.

Hey, maybe all of that oil and gas revenue is finally paying off if Hick is feeling pretty flush.

Still, it makes us pine for the good old days when former CU President Betsy Hoffman and former gubna Bill Owens were at each others’ throats.

All kidding aside, it’s about time a governor realized the crucial role that higher ed plays in jump-starting an economy. Maybe the ever-tightening financial noose around the necks of CU and other Colorado universities is starting to loosen.

FOX NEWS MORE THAN A LITTLE OFF-BALANCE

For the gullible: “Fair and balanced” is just a slogan, not a promise. Oh, and it’s complete crap.

Just to prove the point, network news giant Fox News stomped all over the spirit of its slogan as this election season wound down. The Rupert Murdoch-owned channel, as conservative as it is white, gave Republican Gov. Mitt Romney a massive amount of airtime compared to President Barack Obama, a study from Media Matters found.

The network dedicated an incredible 168 minutes over four days, Nov. 1-4, to Romney. In the same span Obama got less than half an hour — 27 minutes. Fox News showed the challenger for six times longer than it did the president.

And in the final 24 hours of that span, from 5 p.m. on Nov. 3 to 5 p.m. on Nov. 4, Romney appeared on Fox News for almost an hour and a half, 84 minutes. Obama got nine.

And this isn’t critical coverage, like what a real news outlet would do. Media Matters measured the amount of time given to the candidates’ speeches.

But, apologists say, Fox News is just counteracting that dang ol’ liberal media. Sure, the same way an atomic bomb counteracts a sparkler. CNN and MSNBC showed Obama a little more — CNN’s numbers were 66-53 Obama, MSNBC 79-44 Obama.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com