At this point, can anyone actually claim that the point of cable news is to inform? Does anyone even pretend that is what it is all about? It’s nothing but a game, and a wicked one at that.
Reader Interactions
32Comments
Comments are closed.
by John Cole| 32 Comments
This post is in: Assholes, DC Press Corpse, Our Failed Media Experiment
At this point, can anyone actually claim that the point of cable news is to inform? Does anyone even pretend that is what it is all about? It’s nothing but a game, and a wicked one at that.
Comments are closed.
Mustang Bobby
Well, you can only watch so many episodes of “Caught on Tape” without wanting something else, and for those of us who don’t touch booze, watching the Very Serious People make fools of themselves can be moderately entertaining. It’s like playing with the cat and a laser pointer.
General Stuck
I am weening myself as much as possible from meaningless outrage from those who traffic in that sort of thing. What happens that matters can be viewed and read about at C Sqan, or a handful of web based news joints and blogs. But Even those are shrinking in numbers, falling victim to the all addictive daily freakouts and the attention that garners. About something. Anything. That rarely pans out as first reported, and too often is just pure fiction.
Watch congress and the president and how they interact to see what unreality is most real. The rest is mostly entertainment.
Jay
Heavens, Helena Christensen is hot. “Wicked Game” should’ve been subtitled: “Why I Want To Be A Rock Star, By Chris Isaak.”
sukabi
it’s not just the cable news, they wouldn’t be able to play their games if we had an actual working press corps of any kind with a goal of actually doing journalism that informs and presents the truth in all it’s ugly glory.
Brian S
It’s been years since I watched cable news. If you want to take that as a claim of my moral superiority, you may. (You might also take it as a sign of my insufferable jerkwaddiness–you’d have the right.)
Davis X. Machina
@sukabi: We had a viciously partisan, and transparently partisan, media environment in this country for at least a century after the end of the 18th century, down to maybe the end of WWII.
But there were voices on all sides, the barriers to entry were low, and a city the size of Boston had six or seven papers, counting things like the diocesan weekly and the union and immigrant press. New York had dozens, if not scores, of papers.
Guys like Horace Greeley didn’t exactly set themselves up as the impartial producers of the first draft of history. They were actors, as much as reporters.
Concentration, concentration, concentration….
slag
NOVA scienceNow. The only news-ish show–next to Stewart and Colbert–worth watching. All the rest tend to make me want to impale something or someone.
ETA Speaking of Jon Stewart, I’m very pleased with the direction TDS is starting to go. With their online Greenroom and a stronger focus on their guests. It gives me the sense that Stewart is working harder to prove his recurring thesis–that news can be interesting as well as informative without gimmicks or insults to the intelligence. I hope it continues in that direction.
Violet
Someone suggested earlier today that there should be a network called Crap That Matters or something like that and run real news stories on real news items like climate change, the debt ceiling, etc. I really wish that could happen AND that it would give these idiots a run for their money.
Do people actually want to watch real news and learn what’s going on?
piratedan
well I do admit that I still like to watch KO and TRMS, they’re willing to admit when they get it wrong and from what I can see, do their damnedest to get it right. Hell, Rachel even lets the guests on her show speak for themselves.
Everyone else, not so much.
PeakVT
@Mustang Bobby: The difference is that there’s no danger you might end up dumber after a little cat/laser pointer workout.
Brian S
@Violet: That would be a nice network. It would die miserably after being on the air for ten minutes.
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s like pro wrestling gigs for people who don’t bodybuild. The politics is the wrestling with fixed outcomes. The commentary about who’s weiner it is and what costume Palin is wearing is the fake drama between matches.
hilts
The only difference between Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, etc and circus clowns is that Matthews, Blitzer, and their colleagues leave their costumes and clown make-up at home.
The MSM goes down a rabbit hole:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rep-weiner-has-angry-exchange-with-capital-hill-reporters-over-twitter-scandal
John Cole
@Jay:
Linda Evangelista with the short blonde hair in Freedom. Christy Turlington, also too.
Caz
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Suffern ACE
@Violet: Yes they do. Which is why no matter how hard the current media tries, its viewers and readership will continue to fall. Surprisingly, the more stuff like this they pull thinking that they’ll become more relevant, up-to-date with current trends, the more people will tell them to fuck off.
hilts
@Violet:
One of the dumber decisions made, in recent years, was when NBC decided to take Forecast Earth off of the air after it acquired the Weather Channel. This was the only news program I know of that was devoted solely to coverage of the environment.
hilts
@Violet:
Two news programs devoted to crap that matters
Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org
Free Speech Radio News
http://fsrn.org
alwhite
Its all about the Bennys – gotta get the eyeballs to get the ad revenue. So you don’t think in terms of news, you think in terms of viewers. Want to know when sweeps week is? When the local ‘news’ is running the expose on teen hookers, internet predators, something with breasts or a months long investigation into government abuse its sweeps week.
Triassic Sands
I have never had cable TV, and thus, have never had cable news. I’ve also never taken it seriously and don’t understand why anyone would. But I do know people who watch cable news religiously every day. And no one who does has ever struck me as being particularly well-informed; especially if cable news is their main source.
There are probably cable news shows one can watch without actually hurting oneself, but from the little I’ve seen over the years (from clips shown on various blogs) of people like Chris Matthews and the entire Fox lineup, a steady diet could definitely do some real damage.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
of course cnn is going to inflict any damage possible on anthony weiner, even if it takes a brietbart.
weiner is gotoguy for msnbc, he is a competitor in their eyes, media before congress because the media is what really is important.
ed_finnerty
Network is looking more and more prescient
Many hosts are competing for the title of ‘Mad Prophet of the Airwaves’
Emma
I never watch tv news of any kind. At all. Zip. Zero. I also don’t watch any “reality” shows. Same thing, right?
Michael DeMarco
Who is Sarah Palin?
S. cerevisiae
Speaking of Stewart, he has been on tonight. Although it is such a target-rich environment.
RossInDetroit
@Brian S:
@Emma:
One better: no TV since the mid ’70s except for David Lynch and the occasional SNL. I used to watch elections until the internets made that annoyance unnecessary.
All broadcast content is just different flavors of entertainment. The goals of the news shows are the same as the goals of the Newlywed Game (is that still on?).
Mnemosyne
I have to say, Jeffrey Toobin is pretty much the only honest pundit on the teevee.
Jason
@Violet: That exists: BBC World. Ask your local cable provider, if you don’t get it already.
Problem is: nobody watches it.
Sam Dobermann
@Violet:
PBS has gone downhill but is still pretty good; they discuss all those things you mention and have some pretty damn good in depth features. Ray Suarez did a 5 part series on/in Cuba a couple of months ago. The one on the Cuban health care system was so good it got a blistering misrepresentation furious attack by a WSJ attack. Suarez gave a delicious counter-attack, both on his blog. They have kept up coverage of Haiti.
BBC is fairly good. Frontline does in depth investigation in newsworthy topics. Most of the nature programs will mention, if not devote a fair amount of time to pointing out the effects of climate change. They have had a number of documentaries on the state of the health care system, not just the insurance crap that is all some know about.
CBS does have fairly good coverage and now that they’ve bid Katie Cutie farewell and are getting Scott Pelley, (who has done a good job on 60 Minutes and their investigative reporting) I have high hopes for that news.
I really just watch PBS + CBS News, 60 Minutes but I started watch Blue Bloods, a police show with some topnotch actors last week. Oh, and C-Span.
I don’t know why anyone has cable or satellite at all. You do know your are sending 75¢ to $1 every month to FOX News — and lesser amounts to the rest of the crap stations, don’t you?
Bobby Thomson
@Jay:
It needed to be said.
maus
@Sam Dobermann:
Yep! No way in hell I’m ever buying cable until I can get it a la carte and not pay the ESPN/Fox fees.
Bender
@Mnemosyne:
Toobin certainly is a “maverick” on WeinerGate: “Congressman Weiner is handling this in the proper way.”
Ask his wife how honest he is, though.