i demand better; gfys, g f y s.

****************

Zing,

That’s funny about your dog getting into sesame street. For the
dog’s sake, it has to be better than watching any of the regular
mainstream media bunkum.

I probably don’t have to mention this as many have seen it but if
there are those still out there that haven’t seen Robert Kane
Pappas’ ‘Orwell Rolls in His Grave’, it is well worth the watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=1925114769515892401#

It seems to me there are countless ways cable News is helpful. Real time knowledge on global events, of all types, has raised the entire globe’s awareness of outside influences in the past 15-18 years. Overall that’s a positive thing. But the, always on, cable/Internet medium is very young. We can all see countless faults.

I detest the lack of context in the clipped 20 min. news cycle. I feel much the same when so few of today’s so-called reporters and producers fail to do their own reporting and verifications. Too many merely regurgitate what others in the media are reporting. Add to that the ever-present rush to Air First. In short: Integrity seems a rarity.

Consider: For three days the entire world believed there was 10,000 dead, in one city, after hurricane Katrina. First responders were pulled back the second day due to widely reported mythical snipers. - Nobody wants to talk about that. We’ve seen no in-depth reporting from The Times.

Consider: Every major newspaper (bar none), every network news agency (bar none), and each of the cable news stations operating in the 1990’s, reported Weapons of Mass Destruction and Saddam Hussein ties to terrorism for over a decade before Bush stepped into office.

People need to demand better.

If network and cable news offered more then a token level of actual news or
intellectual insight I’d be saddened by this. Obviously they serve a purpose in
major stories such as the current tragedy in Japan since they have the funding
and resources to cover these things from the location and live which is
something few blogs or alternative news organizations can offer. But with the
exception of major tragedies it is rare to see them cover any issues of
importance with even an ounce of honesty or integrity. THe current continuing
and growing protests in Wisconsin and around the country are a perfect
example. The American people are speaking out in numbers not seen since the
days of Vietnam protests yet just like the anti-war protests of 2002 the little
coverage there has been has been dismissive at best, inflammatory at worst.

I don’t know where the American people will get their news from as print and
TV news goes the way of the dinosaur but my hope is it is better than the MSM
we have today. My fear is that it will be worse though. With the internet people
can choose where they get their news much more specifically than with
traditional media and for some this is good because they have the time and
intellectual curiosity to explore diverse and in-depth reporting. FOr the
majority who only glance over headlines or have a regular site they get the
majority of their news from they are likely to choose one that primarily confirms
their current beliefs instead of expanding or challenging them. This could lead
to an even greater epidemic of “confirmation bias” than we’ve seen from even
extreme MSM venues like Fox News and talk radio.

http://www.experiment-resources.com/confirmation-bias.html

@ samosamo:

Myself, haven’t given up TV completely. Still have the basic channels over digital antennae. But only watch PBS. Must confess that I do leave PBS on all day long when I’m at work—for my dog. He digs Sesame Street.  Seriously. 

Other than that, Antiques Road Show, NOVA, Frontline and the like are about the only thing I can tolerate.

At one point I was a huge fan of the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, but one too many Monkeys Vs. Donkeys debates ruined it for me—that and the fact that they cover the same nonsense as the other news media outlets during presidential elections:  who raised the most money; who’s winning; who said something stupid today; ideas are irrelevant, any fascist idiot with the right amount of money will do. 

But, yes, when I’m in an airport or some other public area where my human right to not be assaulted with audio marketing is violated, I find the television news media insufferable.  There is little or no difference between the news and the commercials, all just forms of marketing to increase viewership and… sell more commercials. They suck.

Wow I could not be any happier. Too bad it was not down 30%. Cannot wait to get rid of these so called Celebrities that fill our air with poison, hate and are as idiotic as one can be. Save a couple of them I am not sorry at all. In the 80s when we had a severe recession they were the first to tell us that we should get off our butts and look for work and train….blah blah. It never affected them. News were on th growing side. Then the Internet Tsunami hit and now it is their turn. Come on go look for work and less pay and less celeb status, it is easy!!
I just shake my head. Glenn Beck will have his day soon.

Carlos Beca

It’s time to give Ronnie Reagan a little credit here. He’s responsible for the current state of the GOPers, the Baggers, and the Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity cablers.

Way back when Ronnie was CA governor, he took a tour of mental health facilities (they called them ‘Insane Asylums’, way back then), and Ronnie said, ‘These folks aren’t crazy, they’re just like me’. So he did away with California mental health.

Then, when he became president, he had the same experience in Washington, D.C., and did away with US mental health institutions. So all these former inmates, now out on the streets, without meds, gathered on street corners and praised Ronnie Reagan, their ‘savior’, and promised to vote for him forevermore. And they convinced each other they were sane.

And Ronnie, as President, in gratitude, made sure that some of them got good breaks, and rose in the ranks of the GOPer party (the ‘ex’-crazies fought over who’d get to lead the party, they LOVE parties), and became lawyers and the head of lobbying outfits, and became owners and presidents of media firms. For the most part, they all hung together, and that’s how they became ‘news’ folks and ‘commentators’ and the Fox media empire became their pride and joy.

And they became politicians (‘W’ is a good example), and built the current GOPer party, and are thus responsible for the current US position here at home, and throughout the world. (A few of them split-off, and became the Bagger party, which is just the rowdy, alcoholic branch of the GOPers).

And it’s all due to Ronnie Reagan. Y’know, he just doesn’t get enough credit for our current state of affairs. Thank ‘god’ for Ronnie, and his doing away with mental health in the Good Ol’ U S of A.

Can’t beat Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz for news analysis.  I will follow Keith when I can.  My other favorite is Democracy Now.

Glenn Beck sort of skirted the truth, when he said that the Japan nuclear disaster was a message from ‘god’. It is reasonable to assume that ‘god’ does send messages through Glenn. In fact, it’s totally rational to presume that Beck, hisownself, is a message from ‘god’.

The message?

‘I DON’T EXIST, AND BECK IS MY PROOF’

I’m one of those few people who has NEVER sat down to watch one single minute of cable TV news. I’ve probably watched only a couple of hours of network news. It’s all utter non-sense and intellectual filth. It pains me to think about all the money these “news outlets” have made over the years.

I consider myself one of the lucky people who, when I die, will not have to confess that I wasted my vital life’s energy devolving into the stupid, simian-like creature called “the viewer.”

well said drZing. 
Pretty much sums up my thoughts as I round the corner where I work and every TV in every lobby has Fox or CNN blaring on a flat screen TV with ticker tape and garbage all over the screen.  If no one is around I turn it off or mute it.  The sheer volume of noise and decibel level is particularly distressing.  Similar to how Schopenhauer use to describe the cracking of whips outside his flat were capable of destroying all useful thoughts, now the noise of the news pundit rabble is 24 hr streaming on every boobTube in the US.

***************

dr zing,

I gave up t.v. in 2000 when I moved to where I am. I decided I
was sick of terrible programing, commercial propangda,
talking heads who read from telepromps, the insidious man
and woman news teams vollying back and forth opinions, and
the advent of good time news instead of what’s really
happening and the serious crinkled brow of an anchor trying
to appear deadly serious about something he thinks is wrong.

Well, there you have it, the glen beck, hannitys, o’reillys,
coulters, limbaughs. Maybe there is something about people
getting fed up with fluff and bull shit that doesn’t carry any
real substance to it and trying to find reality somewhere.

Propaganda delivered between oppressive numbers of commercials is not news.

Eventually the dumbed-down citizens of the U.S. wake up and realize they’re being fed lie after lie.  “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

The naked propaganda from cable news is something to behold. Just yesterday MSNBC had a spokesman from The Heartland Institute informing the anchor and audience that despite the troubles over in Japan, the nuclear power industry is safer than ever and new and improved “terrorist hardened” versions are in development as we speak!

Well, thank God for that. 

I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand—just cannot stand—to hear television anchors utter a word.

It’s like hearing a bad actor, a terrible actor on a soap opera read a terrible script feigning sincerity and gravitas and humor like a child in a school play.  It’s just bad (like three similes in a single paragraph). 

The “censored for children,” the “dumbed down for the semiliterate,” the “does this piss you off, huh? huh?” All of it. The coverage of the stars. Oh mother of God, help me! 

All shot in the same shitty way it was shot fifty years ago. Except you’ve got bullshit flying all over the screen to go with it.  Left corner, right corner, flowing from left to right and right to left—all kinds of shit on the screen that is just a bunch a mediocrity, an admission, that, “yes, we know we suck. We know you watch it with the sound down because you hate the sound of these monkeynutted morons, but rather than try to fix it we’ll MAKE COOL GRAPHICS and teach our anchors to smile and talk in really solemn voices at the same time.”

It all comes across like a reach around to me.

How anyone can tolerate it for longer than five seconds I do not know. 

It’s torture, sheer torture.

****************

Guess watching pasty white ass boys acting tough guys is
somehow just not fertilizing the dumbstream garden anymore.
There is hope at times when it is not expected and charlatans
trying to ‘pump’ ignoramus’s up eventually uncovers the
emptiness of the whole propaganda show.

There is a reason for the cable viewership dip.

Watching CrazyConservative EvangelicalFundamentalist BornAgainBoobs and other Whackos cavort in a space without padded walls, not wearing their jackets with all the straps and buckles, free to wave their arms about as they scream and shout and generally make asses of themselves, is boring after awhile.