Holding the off button on Congress

Let's talk about the government shutdown. The Republicans and Democrats are at a stand still and the media can only speculate when it will end. Looking at the major news outlets: CNN, Fox News, ABC News, and NBC News to name a few, we can see a few discrepancies. The major stories today are concerning either the government shutdown and debt ceiling or the controversial decision to deny death benefits to the families of 4 soldiers. The latter involves the former so we'll just put them together. It is no surprise that the biggest news concerns the government shutdown and unilaterally media outlets are firing shots at Congress. Most articles are how the debt ceiling will affect citizens, members of Congress are still receiving pay while hundreds of thousands of others are furloughed, and current efforts by Obama to speak to Boehner. Overall, the position is not favorable for the government; this isn't surprising considering only 43% of U.S. citizens approve of Obama. The shutdown essentially fed the media who is ever hungry. It gave them countless stories about the closing of several federal programs and most notably the closing of national parks. NPR reported a story where a man, who waited 18 years for a permit to raft in the Grand Canyon, cannot do so because of the government shutdown.