Pet Peeves on Cable News Networks

Yep, thank Roger Stone for that slogan

 

I've conducted focus groups with college students for the last 12 years. Generally they are NOT informed, and they know it. They are just overwhelmed (some double majors have over 300 pages of reading each night). Many could not tell you where, say, Pakistan is. Or why what China is up to re: Hong Kong and Taiwan is so dangerous. Their education seems to be a contiguous series of shallow silos (a few majors exempted), and their perspective generally lacks depth or breadth. Yes, that's generalization, but one that originates in first hand interaction with hundreds of college students.

 

To be clear, Fox doesn't claim their entire 24-hour-a-day lineup is "entertainment" - just the opinion shows like Carlson...

 

The differences between that kind of news as entertainment opinion pieces is that it makes people get their guns and shoot up a place or mow a bunch of protesters down with their automobiles because they take those entertaining opinions literally as truth.

Of course after that kind of devastation that becomes the REAL news with no apologies or retractions from those that think yelling fire in a packed theater is entertainment.

Appreciating anything presented on the news does require some level of common sense from those entertaining their viewing public and those being entertained.

Maybe do an opinion piece on how many of their viewers have an adequate level of common sense. That would be REAL and valuable news.

 

I just heard the Governor of Oregon doing that with Jake Tapper on CNN. She wasn't arguing with him, but she still sounded angry.

 

Trump didn’t win another term, but he’s been renewed for another 4 year season of dominating cable news content.

 

Ehh, I think he'll get attention but not "dominating". His shtick doesn't ignite like it did, and once he's out of the White House, news groups will start to ignore him more.

That started to happen even while he was in office. For instance, 3 years ago, every tweet would get retweeted by all the journalists I follow, but now, they pick and choose more selectively.

BTW, I think there's a definite chance Twitter boots Trump once he's out of office. They already have to add "footnotes" to a ton of his tweets, and he's probably not worth the headache...

 

Looks like the Trump fans are here.

No, the entire channel is registered as entertainment.

No, he won't let it stop. He craves attention. He has to be front and center, and the media will eat it up because it's good for ratings.

I'll bet they don't.

 

Awkward. And,yes,an editor edits. An art quietly disappearing from writing meant for the masses. As for public funding,NPR is almost non-existent. PBS gets some,around 1/2 billion. Not peanuts,but for an annual stipend, in the world of paywalls(BTW,PBS has one) and Peacocls & + places to consume content,it ain't much.

 

Versions of this idea go back to before the invention of the printing press. The idea of Roger Stone inventing anything,outside of getting orange spats to match a hopeful orange suit,depresses me.

 

Ignoring stories that are detrimental to the network's political bent. You hear about something, then go to the network's news site and there's nothing there. Happens way too much for organizations claiming to report the news. Newspapers do a much better job of reporting both sides.

 

Reporting both sides? Factual news has only one side. Opinion shows are frequently confused by the public as “news”, sad to say. The viewing public wants to be spoon fed what to think apparently.

 

I still remember the time a nightly news meteorologist said that a typhoon was "literally pitching a tent just off the coast".


Also:

 

73 million votes say otherwise. OANN's numbers just skyrocketed in a few weeks. Newsmax getting stronger. Fox(and Lou Dobbs on FBN),for all the negative press and taking a ratings hit of 6%, still dominates cable news. Stories abound of Trump getting a place somewhere,even some thinking that Trump TV(give us 22 min,,we'll give you our version of the truth and a My Pillow ad) may happen. Add to that,Trump was always a symptom,never the cause. While I didn't pay lots of attention about Trump,Gary Trudeau did a fine job letting me know exactly what Trump was all about 30+ years ago. One of Gary's collections included a story line where a cast member got the job to paint the ceiling of a bathroom in Trump's luxury liner. Trump oversees a nod to Michelangelo painting ceilings by barking: "Give those nymphs some hooters!" Made a great book title.

 

I think it may be time for me to pull out of storage and reread all of those great Doonesbury books.

 

My pet peeve is that they exist at all. There is just not enough real news for 24 hours of it, so the so-called news channels need to get creative.

 

Did Fox News Change Its Accreditation from 'News' to 'Entertainment'?

 

Sure, the right-wing outlets will continue to highlight Trump, but non-POTUS Trump isn't going to get nearly the same level of attention from the rest of the outlets.

His antics aren't "newsy" in the same way when he's out of the White House and can be more easily ignored.

Like I said, he's not going away, but he won't dominate the news cycle like he has for the last 5 years - at least not until/unless he runs in 2024 and the primaries start...

 

Except that I never used the word "accreted".

 

You said "registered" - same difference. Cable news doesn't "register" with the FCC so there's nothing for them to be "registered" as...

 

Opinion pieces are one thing, but straight news reporters also cover politics and policy and deal on a daily basis with bias, spin and outright lies. As such, they have to report both sides of the ******** whether any of it is factual or not. It's still news if someone is intentionally lying. We've certainly seen plenty of that lately.

 

I don't think I follow you. Yes it's news if someone is intentionally lying, but what does presenting "both sides" have to do with any of it? The news is the lie itself. The reasoning and motivation behind the lie is subject to speculation and spin on opinion shows, not news.

 

My initial comment was about cable news showing only one side of a story or covering up a story entirely, depending on their slant. There are two sides to many stories. That's it.

 

This!! I think he does it every day...

"Breaking News!!! This is Wolf Blitzer... Good afternoon everybody, it's 5 o'clock on the east coast and Donald Trump still won't concede an election he lost 10 days ago!"

Seriously?! If your "breaking news" contains the word "still", by definition it's not "breaking".