Pet Peeves on Cable News Networks

Said the bitter Bernie fan.
I don't blame you, i saw how hard CNN was working to keep him out, but please, no more politics.

 

When they play the " Breaking News" sounder a lot for every little piece of breaking news even if it's not very important or not interesting (IMO, anyway).

 

Gary is making the interview rounds to plug the 50th anniversary of the syndication of the strip with a book which includes a USB flashdrive with everything. A bit pricey @ $125.00 but he 40th anniversary book is cheap and the recent collections,starting with a Trump retrospective,Yuge!,and more recent pants pulling of The Donald,#SAD! and LEWSER!,are out there. Careful-I've seen Cheetos ads with a device that cam show trace amounts of Cheetle(that's what the call the crumbs). Bound to get some Cheetle on the hands of the reader.

 

2024 cycle started two weeks ago. After 1/20/21 there will always be antics on a slow news day(remember them?). And like 2015 & 2016 till the paid ads showed up,anything from real news services is like free ads-that is one way this got out of control.

 

Time will tell, but I still think non-right-leaning news source will ignore Trump a lot of the time after he's out of the White House.

Even on "slow news days". His rants have became wallpaper to a large degree anyway, and when journalists no longer feel they must repeat his comments because he's POTUS, they'll pay much less attention.

We'll see!

 

There is a lot of stories out there. Just tuning to BBC World Service radio/online shows lots more that can be discovered. Part of the problem is a narrow number of stories make it to the top with endless repeats. Remember why Top 40 radio domineered pop music? Actually it was 20 or less songs endlessly repeated and that sold a lot of Clearasil years ago. In 2020,lots of insurance, pillows,cars with Christmas bows & prescription drug ads pay for cable news.

 

A story without bias doesn't exist. And there are usually more than just two sides out there. Part of the problem,as the U.S. found out in 2017, not everyone being "very fine". Add to that,the idea of facts gets in the way of a story.It will never end.

 

OK, I did use that word, but, it isn't the same, and it's now what I meant. You're just looking for a "gotcha" moment.

 

I'm not bitter at all. At least Trump lost. That's what counts.

 

Not true. Unbiased stories can and often due exist (regardless of the reporter's own personal bias). We have become so use to mixing news with opinion it just seems like bias is skewing every story. For example, it is not bias that has the news stations proclaiming the latest winner of the presidential race. Its hard, irrefutable facts. Bias is hard at work on the opinion shows to claim otherwise, no question about that.

 

God help us all.

 

The kind of cable news we get in the US is not unusual just more entertaining or satisfying if the politics tick the right boxes. I travelled extensively and lived abroad for work and can say I follow world events closely especially Middle East conflicts and all newspapers globally show bias. Bias can be subtle and while the facts may be assumed to be correct since papers from other news sources say the same thing it is subtle to omit or stress certain details. One is to hide or stress the ages of war victims, for example, while the CNN types would build an entire show around a broken toy on the ground to manipulate viewer emotions. It’s entertainment.

 

No, I'm not.

You made a claim with no factual basis I can determine, as Fox isn't "registered" as anything.

If you search "is Fox registered as news or entertainment", you get hits on "accredited", as they mean the same thing.

Like I said: "accredited" is the same as "registered", and Fox isn't registered or accredited as anything.

Neither are MSNBC or CNN or any cable networks. The FCC doesn't require cable to "register".

So maybe just admit you made a mistake?

 

I stopped watching cable news about a year ago. It is all garbage on every network. It is all about pushing a phony narrative for ratings.

 

Or when FOX "News" has that "FOX News ALERT" sounder practically every five minutes (that whoooooosh-BANG! has gotten very, very old to me, and is still incredibly scary).

 

Yeah; whenever I hear that kind of sound effect on a cable news network I think "Oh no, something terrible has happened!" and it's almost always not only nothing really bad, but often inconsequential. It's one of the reasons I don't watch a lot of cable news.

 

And worse, FOX "News" has had it on their opinion shows as well (as if news is reported on an opinion show to begin with).

 

I guess it depends on what you consider news. BBC World Service has some interesting information but I would not consider all of it news. Not all information is news, and not all of it is relevant to a lot of people. There is not 24 hours of newsworthy relevant events to justify 24 hour news programs.

 

In an ironic twist here, this was actual "fake" news about 24-hour news channels that made the rounds quite a lot.

It was actually attributed to all the channels in various forms over the years:

"MSNBC is not even a real news network. They didn't register as that!"
"Fox News is not news, it's entertainment! They can't get official classification as a 'news'!"
"CNN can't register as 'news' because they are beholden to the Clintons!"

 

Sure! They all do it, but some want to pick on CNN. I think I know why, too.

A lot of people will also lump Rachel Maddow into that opinion category. Well, not so, really. She reports the hard news, but digs down into the real nitty-gritty for the tiny details that are missed by the hard news people. Lawrence O'Donnell and Don Lemon do the same, but they do provide their own commentary. Tucker Carlson and the rest of those prime-time people on FOX, though, They just make stuff up.

 

For many folks (myself included), from Carlson all the way on one side to Maddow all the way on the other side, it's the general snarky-ness and patronizing tones that get annoying as hell... like these folks are trying to be our friends or educate us through pedestrian rhetorical questions with annoying forced expressions on their faces or sarcastic laughs.

I know it's all a matter of taste, but as far as commentators go, the nerdy Smerconish type speaks better.

 

Yup, it is.

 

Many people aren't uncomfortable with gray and need to see things as black or white. Of course, there is a multitude of gray hues between black and white. This is why cable news has a market. As you said, a story without bias does not exist and those sleazy networks are great at exploiting people's bias.

 

It's interesting that WarnerMedia is reportedly selling off CNN because of the huge debt. The Wall Street Journal stated that CNN was on track to miss revenue targets by a massive $100-120 million this year. Some speculate Bezoz might add that to his lefty arsenal. I've heard maybe ABC or CBS also.