Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Stale Cable News

by BooMan
Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 10:41:40 AM EST

I'm sorry to learn that MSNBC isn't some big, happy, united family. It's a shame that their talent seems to dislike each other. But maybe that is why MSNBC is the most watchable of the cable news networks. Watching CNN or FOX, it seems like I'm seeing the same crew from the Clinton impeachment fiasco. There's Lanny Davis and James Carville and Paul Begala and Terry McAuliffe and Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, Bill O'Reilly, and Geraldo Rivera. It's like these channels are frozen in amber.

We have three new anchors on the broadcast network channels, but we still have Larry King, Chris Matthews, and Bill O'Reilly anchoring the cable channels. I think the cable news industry should just go out and fire all the on-screen talent in their employ that were hired before Bush/Cheney took office.

CNN has done some new hiring. Bringing Roland Martin in was a good hire. But get David Gergen off my teevee. When it comes to MSNBC, their problem is one of culture shock. Olbermann and Maddow are from a different cultural place than Pat Buchanan, Chris Matthews, and Andrea Mitchell. There is contempt and suspicion swirling all over the sets because the new blood knows all too well how badly the old blood failed us in the period between l'affaire Lewinsky and the invasion of Iraq. It's that tension that makes MSNBC somewhat watchable. FOX News is a parade of professional liars and tired-out sell-outs. CNN is like a Georgetown cocktail party aired for a mass audience.

Virtually every one of these personalities, from all three networks, are loathsome and worthy of lengthy derision. The American people hate the press, but they hate these people even more. If MSNBC wants to solve their infighting, they should fire nearly everyone. Keep Olbermann and Maddow, and build out from there with new, fresh faces. If we've seen them before, they've probably lied to us before. The Bush administration is coming to an end. There is a whole generation of political pundits whose careers should end with it.

Stale Cable News | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

This guy is clearly trying out for an hour-long prime-time show opposite Glenn Beck.

by BooMan on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 10:52:37 AM EST

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

Reading this makes me wonder if Sam Seder is ever interested in doing TV.

Seder can follow my lovely and talented Rachel Maddow in going from Air America to the TV big time.

by robertdsc on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 11:04:25 AM EST

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

I've been thinking lately that it would be a good time to fire everyone and hire college journalism students. You know, the ones who might still have some journalistic integrity and energy and hunger for the truth of a story. I'm so sick of Begala and Carville and Buchanan....seriously there is no one else out there who is fresher and more knowledgeable and not milking their "glory days" of yore?

"Don't waste your time on the clowns, watch the real show"

by Second Nature on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 11:10:28 AM EST

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

Of course, the real problem is that too many of these programs aren't "news" programs at all. Rather, they're editorial or opinion programs. Worse, the media consultants taught the network execs that the way to generate profits was to produce controversy somehow, anyhow. That's one of the reasons for the "objective" and "balanced" selection of pundits to present on air. If one has only one person from one side and one person from the other (quality of analysis doesn't matter) then one is guaranteed controversy. It works even best if you select the most bizarre advocate for the one position so they can spout their positions. If that person is a bully who insists on shouting down their opponent, then all the better. None of the network anchors have any brains or education anymore, having been selected for looks. Why should any of us be surprised about Brian Williams? He doesn't hold a degree and was selected simply because he looks and sounds good. My God, he's an uneducated dolt being held up to us as an example of a person who can provide insight into complex situations. Hell, he'd have trouble finding the bottom of an empty jelly jar. It's all about the money and it's well past time that the Fourth Estate learn that if they want to be accorded a special place at the table of society they need to earn it.

by VizierVic (VizierVic@hotmail.com) on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 11:54:15 AM EST

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 1)

Gergen is pretty much the most loathsome of the bunch. I won't watch CNN because of him. I will watch MSNBC to see Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan fight, however.

More at Zandar vs. The Stupid.

by Zandar1 on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 12:00:23 PM EST

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

Yeah - I truly love how she's not afraid to go toe to toe with him. Go, Rachel!

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

by Real History Lisa (lpeaseRemoveThis@gte.net) on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 12:14:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 1)

I simply do not understand why Pat Buchanan is allowed to continuously assault our senses when it is apparent that he is representative of only the most neanderthal and outlier views in our society (my apologies to neanderthals everywhere). I have studiously avoided the corporate news during the convention, but I stopped briefly while MSNBC was having their "roundtable", in what appeared to be the parking lot, at the end of the evening. Buchanan was simply ranting disjointed thoughts on how big a pussies the Dems had been up to that point by not calling McCain a sonofabitch, white trash, a racist and spewing venom just like the Republicans will from their podium next week. Apparently this, to Buchanan, was some indication that Obama and all his ilk were just not up to the task of governing because they won't voluntarily step in their own shit by somehow creating their own "bring 'em on" moment. Rachel Maddow was sitting next to him with a "why in the fucking world do we allow this guy to talk" look. She tried to get a word in but Buchanan just kept going on and on and on. And Norah O'Donnell just sat there and acted like Buchanan was preaching the gospel. The fact that people like this drive the narrative makes me fear for our future. There are no dumber sacks of shit in this world than our television punditry and the "journalistic" hacks who opine in a wide swath of our print media.

Pat will have a full blown right wing orgasm right there on the teevee tonight after Obama's speech. I can't wait to see the love fest the corporate media puts on next week for their beau-in-waiting John McCain.

With the American public getting 90% of their education and information during election cycles from the pinheads and dolts on television, is it any wonder we elect such assholes and idiots on a regular basis.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

by MikeInOhio (miken45054@yahoo.com) on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 12:59:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Stale Cable News (none / 0)

no, it's no wonder. it's no wonder we invade the wrong countries, either.

by BooMan on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 01:05:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

It's Looking Like (none / 0)

GE isn't in the tank for McCain. We'll know for certain when the RNC coverage shakes out.

Spinning Rovian narratives out of nothing only works if the TV newz providers are marching in lockstep.

by ILuvChez17 on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 01:33:39 PM EST

Booman... (none / 0)

Your closing sentence says it all! Great line.

Who is left to represent what we used to call the middle class?

by keepinon (jaukkuri@sbcglobal.net) on Thu Aug 28th, 2008 at 04:10:51 PM EST

Stale Cable News | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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