Thursday, June 18, 2009

Cable Propaganda

Just a bit of a rant. I don't know if any of you out there on the internets watch any of the cable "news" shows, but I feel that they have all gone off the deep end. I think there should be an FCC rule banning the use of the word news, unless you actually report news and not extremeist viewpoints to incite and alarm the people. It has gotten so bad that the pundits will take part of a quote to spin it how they like. Let me give you a for instance, ahem..."There are people who say I support the terrorists, but I do not" turns into "I support the terrorists." In fact, you can see that played out in the following clip from The Daily Show (around 4:20).

In addition to that, you have the hosts who condem an act in one segment and turn around and do the exact same thing in the next segment. See above Daily Show clip, the second segment where the lady host rails against the Eminem stunt only to go on to partake in a similar visual and call it the "best thing she's seen on TV." I don't know how these people keep a straight face.

I've come to the conclusion that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert might just be the best interviewers on cable, plus they bring the funny. Seriously, they will have politicians, authors, and economists on as guests while Leno and Conan will have Paris Hilton or Tom Cruise. Okay, The Daily Show has actors too, but it is probably less than 15% of the time. The rest is interviewing people on real life issues. And while the "news" shows may have their politician and economist guests, all they seem to do is lob softballs at them if they share a similar viewpoint or scream at them if they don't. Probably the best interview I've ever seen is when Jon Stewart had Jim Cramer on as a guest. No softballs, no banter, and if he doesn't get an answer, Jon Stewart presses him on it. An actual real interview. You won't see that on Dateline or 60 minutes or cable "news."

I'll step off my soap box now...

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