Refreshing and Hilarious Spin on Reporting

I'm originally from Maryland. Born and raised. In no way would I consider myself to be from the south. Maryland's region is technically called the mid-atlantic and I can distinctly see the difference from my home state and South Carolina, or Georgia, or Texas. Yet when I came up to school it was like a different world. I can't even count the number of times I saw someone or experienced something and felt the urge to take a picture for a friend back at home so they could understand that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

I, unlike many friends from high school, needed to experience something different. I liked the environment and I thought the liberalness of Boston was pretty refreshing, especially coming from such a close minded culture. I've also always been interested in politics and current events. I consider myself pretty informed and educated on the topic, which was definitely a conscious decision.

Because of my background and my experiences, in my opinion, one of the big problems of the media today is a sense of elitism. That sounds kind of silly I know, since most broadcasters try to talk in a way that the common person would understand. But like Barack Obama said in a recent speech, politicians don't talk like regular folks. Neither do the press.

That's why I found it not only extremely amusing but also extremely pleasing to come across a form of youtube videos called Red State Updates with Jackie and Dunlap. These videos had short, funny reports on current events and politics. The two commentators are two southern hillbillies voicing their opinions. Some of the language is crude and possibly at times offensive (though unfortunately if these characters were real would probably be a lot more offensive). But what I find so intriguing about it is the level of understanding, relation, and interest this could spark in some people.

If you listen close enough, these two guys are actually talking about current events in politics. Those who are uninformed can listen to this for a laugh, and actually get some real information out of it. Their homepage says "Get Learned Up"--funny and true. There have been comments posted about those who are displeased and call the guys fake southerners. Maybe it's because I'm not quite from the south and can't necessarily call myself a southerner, but one thing I'm sure of is that %90 of kids I went to high school with would rather watch this clip than CNN's newscast any day.