This Independence Day makes me nostalgic for bygone days when every large gathering did not erupt into angry polarized discussions of the state of the country. The news media keeps us in a constantly inflamed state of being, each day creating issues out of non-issues, in order to justify their own existence.

At the Coronado Community Center, where I work out most mornings, there are two large televisions in the front of the gym. One is always tuned to Fox, and the other usually CNN. Though Fox is more overtly inflammatory, CNN is not far behind.

It's not just cable television, with shrieking Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly, but the "network news" outlets as well. Recently CBS's Katie Couric covered a story which asserted that Obama's "background sparked rumors that he had studied at a radical madrassa, or Quranic school" without ever noting that the rumors were false.  

And just this week, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, in an interview on CBS' Face The Nation, praised McCain as a "hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the Armed Forces as a prisoner of war."

When Bob Schieffer stated that, unlike McCain, Obama had not "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down," Clark responded by saying, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

This in turn was picked up and manipulated by Fox, completely changing Clark's intent. Next it traveled to MSNBC, on through the other news organizations and finally back to CBS' Katie Couric where she reported the story as if an "attack by Wesley Clark" had in fact taken place. Are you worn out yet? I know I am.

How are we to survive this deplorable situation which has completely gotten out of hand? Is there any kind of antidote we Americans can take to neutralize the poisons we are continually bombarded with? I found some relief on News Hounds, whose motto is, "We watch Fox so you don't have to." Thanks, News Hounds!

Another useful site is Media Matters for America, founded by someone who should know. Founder David Brock was once a loud voice for what he now calls the "conservative media machine."

I am always looking for more checks and balances on the information glut so I would appreciate any leads anyone can send my way.

So now I'm going to sign off, get into a Fourth of July mood and, in honor of the Declaration of Independence, rebel against the tyranny of newspeak, if only for the weekend.

-Citizen Voices blogger Candace Suerstedt is a filmmaker and a mother of three who lives in Coronado.