On Thursday night, Fox News carried the Republican debate from Iowa. In contrast to earlier debates, the candidates were a little more feisty and willing to discuss the issues and not just give answers that they and their handlers think will make folks feel happy.

There is not much happiness in our land today and there is particularly no happiness where our political leaders are concerned, from the president on down the line.

There was an issue that was brought out in this debate - in fact it was brought to the forefront by Georgia's Newt Gingrich.

When Fox's Chris Wallace asked a question that was more personal than subjective, Gingrich snapped back that Wallace's question was a "gotcha question" meant to cause headlines, not to find out what Gingrich's thoughts were.

It happened again later when Michele Bachmann was asked, if elected, would she be submissive to her husband. This was not only sexist, it was nothing but ridiculous.

The mainstream media, including Fox and CNN, and especially MSNBC and the major newspapers, have proved themselves to be nothing more than fear mongers who spend their time trying their best to find sound bites for headlines that will shock the American people rather than to help bring us together and out of this economic and political mess we are in.

The national election coming up may very well be the most important one in our history; we need to know the fair and honest truth about every person who is running for office so that we can make thoughtful decisions, decisions that will affect our children and grandchildren.

The mainstream media today is doing nothing more than practicing the yellow journalism that was prevalent during the days of Pulitzer and Hurst more than 100 years ago.

This form of journalism wasn't good then and it is not good now.