My God...Didn 't think it possible but Cable News is getting worse!

[Armstead]

Jeszus. I knew cable TV news was bad, but after a couple of nights watching in earnest (looking for news of Sheehan) I realize that it is becoming like a psychotic nightmare.

These freakin networks --- CNN, MSNBC, FUX, CNBC -- all seem like someone somewhere has snapped a gasket. Iy's like a contest to see who can be the most deliberatly STUPID amd CRASS.

Or maybe Faye Dunaway really has taken over programming, and the fulfillment of the movie Network is now complete.

It's all intricate and endless prattle about murders, disappearances, Tabloid TV with a Capital T....All Crime All the Time.

MSNBC has given up all pretense to relevance. Rita Cosby is an obvious attempt to create a new Greta (Get me to the courthouse on time)...Even Joe Scarboro (who at least used to be issues oriented) is now all Aruba, Missing Groom, etc.

Ye Gods. And they expect us to take them seriously?

Anyone remember the weeks after 9-11, when TV journalists were all apologizing for having become so trivial, and taking the pledge to rededicate themselves to the real role of journalism? HA-HA-HA-HA.

An Irony Moment tonight. Anderson Cooper ran this piece showing all of the otehr networks rehashing the Aruba case over and over, and then Mr. Prematurely Grey said, self-righteously, that it was the other networks doing this, but CNN is above that.....Then touting his next story: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CAB DRIVER WHO DROVE THE TEXAS COURTHOUSE MURDERS!!!!...I also assume Anderson has never watched Larry King, who has been ALL Aruba All the Time whenever I've passed by the channel.

It's all so stupid and pandering and cynical beyond the wildest imagination.

It's like watching the media having a collective nervous breakdown.

I now declare Cable News dead. It is now Cable Weekly World News, in honor of the tabloid that specializes in space aliens on the cover.

[ClusterFreak]

1. Sadly, you speak the truth

:-(

[lonestarnot]

2. Everyone but KO can just go to hell!

[Rex]

3. It's what sells!

People really shouldn't ever refer to these channels as "news" channels. They are more like a 24/7 version of Hard Copy or Inside Edition. We do real news an injustice by even talking about these channels.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I'm not sure it is what sells

they have been bleeing viewers like a bad dream, all of them... so it is not what sells, it is what they need to do to keep the anesthesia

[Rex]

14. Watch them get even more desperate as revenue continues to fall.

They always go for the lowest common denominator, because it has sold for them since CNN made it's war booty from Gulf War I.

Just remember what happened to the tech bubble in 2000, I hope it happens to these "news" channels.

[Armstead]

20. At least Gulf 1 was actual news event

The real turning point was OJ.....That's when they went down the slippery slope of obsessing over a totally meaningless but morbidly fascinating scandal and pretending it actually was as important as those trivial things things that governments do.

[Jawja]

28. Yes and didn't they

um... do that with Clinton and Monica, too?

[Armstead]

5. They used to at least make a lame effort at being real news

On occasion better than lame.

But what strikes me now is that they are being so deliberatly stupid that it is like they are in a contest to see who can sink the lowest.

At least the E! network has no pretense about what they are.

[silverweb]

6. It's not just the news.

Practically ALL of the channels now just show the same crap over and over. I watch The Daily Show when I can, but other than that I don't even bother to turn the TV on anymore.

If it weren't for my daughter, I'd have the cable disconnected completely and just watch the good video clips on line.

[Armstead]

9. You're right about that

The "News" Channels are just the same shit in a "news" package.

Can't wait for the day when the Internet is capable of carrying video in a usable form.

[Endangered Specie]

7. Kill your TV

[Armstead]

10. It's killing itself

The inhabitants of my cable box seem like they in some dance to the death.

[tridim]

8. The only saving grace is that their viewership numbers are terrible

and getting worse.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. Tucker Carlson had an eating contest on tonight.

And no, it was not Bob Novak stuffing a foot in his mouth.

[Armstead]

12. Tomorrow nite he'll have a puking contest

Actually, one of the things I noticed that prompted my tirade was that Tucker has addded a new feature. "Crimewatch," which is a segment that even he calls "the seamiest segment of the show."

Seems like the "new" MSNBC is going all tabloid All the Time.

[KharmaTrain]

13. Oh How CNNServative Has Fallen...Cooper's A Tool

Yep, I remember when CNN used to have someone live 24/7...if not on the regular CNN, then on headline News (when it really was headlines and News).

Long gone is the CNN World Report where you saw news from other countries. Long gone is the straight up reporting rather than the talking heads talking to talking heads.

How fitting today when Wolfie was trying to prod Bill Clinton and had the audacity (Wolfie has no balls...those belong to the corporates) to say "we're in the business to MAKE news". Sorry, asswipe, your job was supposedly to REPORT the news...and without the Rovian spin or suspect of anything that doesn't suck up to this regime or Wolfie's stiffie for the Pentagon.

Long gone are Bernie Shaw, John Holloman, Peter Arnett, Daniel Schorr, Bill Press, Michael Kinsley, Marvin Kalb and so many other quality journalists. Now it's Mrs. Rush Limbaugh and bubble-headed babes that "look good".

This network is a disgrace...and the others aren't much better. These are real lean times for information on the tube. Thank goodness for the internet as a far more reliable alternative.

[FrenchieCat]

18. So well said...

Just a bunch of manipulative hacks with an evident agenda.

They avoid the news like the plague....and when they are forced to report it, they twist and turn it instead and like Wolfticket said...they think they are there to MAKE news...which ain't their fucking jobs!

I've noticed the trend ever since the 2000 election "36 days of propaganda brought to you by the cable triplets"....but it was the primaries that really got to me to turn them off.

Then the National Democratic Convention coverage was not any more than a real slap in our collective faces....instead of covering the damn speeches...you had 3 or 4 talking heads sitting in a circle yuking it up talking about what we, Democrats shouldn't talk about. It was absolutely scandalous and scary as all shit!

Now I know that the corporate agenda is what run this country...which is why it is being ran into the damn ground!

[Neecy]

24. CNN is a disgrace

I'll add to your list of the CNN fallen Mary Tillotson, who used to be their White House correspondent and later had a morning show on CNN.

In 1988, she was the only network correspondent to ask the senior Bush criminal about his girlfriend - and was promptly removed from the White House beat and later disappeared from the CNN radar. The Bush family has a way of doing that...the "independence" of our news is a complete sham.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. I remember when CNN used to have a weekly 20/20-like update from Japan

which I taped and showed to my students, although I advised them not to imitate the host's abominable pronunciation of Japanese words.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. But CNN now has THE SITUATION ROOM!!!!

It's real journalism with real journalist Wolf Blitzer!!!!! With Lots of TV Screens!!!!!

[Armstead]

19. What's funny about the Situation Room....

They make a big deal out of the form of the Situation Room -- ALL THE NEWS COMING INTO THIS ROOM SO WE CAN DELIVER IT TO YOU BLAH,BLAH,BLAH...

All that it really is is a post-modern version of what CNN used to be all the time. A newsroom on television.

One big difference. They actually covered news.

Now they just have the bells and whistles to deliver vapid bullshit instead of news.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. And people thought I was being a crank for mourning the demise of

Newsworld International!

I, too, am waiting for the leap in technology that will allow broadband users to stream TV from anywhere in the world. I can listen to decent-sounding radio stations from all over the world on my 12" laptop. Can TV be far behind?

I find that my cable TV is on less and less, and I'm spending more time going through my collection of videos recorded off the movie channels I used to subscribe to. This evening I watched The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, which was basically about a pair of narcissists who found each other, but at least it was a good chance to listen to some easily understood German.

These days, I watch PBS (although they're having a pledge drive now), "The 4400" on USA, the mysteries on BBCAmerica, the mysteries on Biography on Sundays, CSPAN when something big is happening politically, Ovation when they show a program that hasn't already been repeated 50 times this year, IFC when they show a film that hasn't already been repeated 50 times this year, the tabloidish Japanese news on AZN, and Turner Classic Movies. That's about it. If I could buy cable channels separately, as one can in other countries, my cable bill would be about $20 a month.

[Armstead]

27. PBS is getting bad too

Everytime I tune it in there's eitehr a pledge drive an auction. It's starting to look like the Home Shopping Network.

[Laughlandia]

17. American Zombies.

It's amazing how people just watch this trash like zombies. My parents have Faux on 24/7 and it makes me want to puke. I'm having a hard time visiting them.

[newyawker99]

30. Hi Laughlandia!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[lildreamer316]

21. Solution: Current TV

I'm tellin; ya; Gore is a genius........
Have you seen it? It's getting there.

[blm]

22. A system designed by fascist Republicans to retain power by distracting

the public from the important news it needs to make informed decisions.

Barely a word about the highest gas prices ever. Barely a word about Sen. Roberts cover up for Rove.

[maxsolomon]

25. don't you know that's not "adjusted for inflation"?

the REAL highest gas prices ever were in the early reagan era & they were carter's fault?

i paid $2.679 2 days ago. $35 to fill a saab, and i have no delusions that it will ever be less than that again.

[lectrobyte]

23. I gave up on TV news a while back, except for the Daily Show.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Jon and Keith rock. We also have good stuff on LINK and FSTV and

I think Current will really shape up to be something once the video bloggers start sending their stuff in.

[bluedog]

29. all tv programming is terrible

you know its hard to find anything to watch at night.everything is these stupid reality shows......I have to watch old reruns.........whats up with that.

[LibDemAlways]

31. I received an e-mail yesterday from

Anderson Cooper's staff in response to an e-mail I sent wondering why their promised story on Cindy never materialized Wednesday. They said the story had been rescheduled for yesterday. I see that was a lie. Amazing how they have time for the cabbie who inadvertently drove the convict, but still no time for Mrs. Sheehan.