The news is important. It also is a great topic of conversation. Knowledge of current events is a great indicator that the person you are interacting with didn't spend three hours the night before watching a Hills or Rock of Love marathon as well. If someone can have an intelligent discussion about what is going on in the world then they immediately score some major points with me. Intelligent is the key word there, by the way. Anyone just spewing talking points that they think they agree with can get fucked.
Sadly, newspapers are dying due to their lack of immediacy and general inconvenience so except for the occasional Sunday I very rarely read them. This leaves the television and internet as my primary sources of news.
Local news, in my opinion, is quite possibly the most useless 30 minutes to an hour of television on any given day. And that includes the rest of VH1 and MTV's programming too. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to have a global, national AND local perspective about what is going on but when the cliched banner of "If it bleeds is leads" is so obviously carried, the local news is little more than a side show of fires, shootings and scandals with some weather and sports mixed in. You could do the news in 15 seconds at the top of the 10 o'clock hour. "Tomorrow will be rainy, sunny, etc. The Phillies won. And Donovan McNabb got five million more dollars because he is a whiny bitch. We now return you to the shitty reality show you're watching."
So now newspapers are out along with your local 11 o'clock newscast. The internet is OK, and I think that The Fox Report with Shepard Smith is a great around the world in 60 minutes program, but what I really enjoy while I get my news is the commentary that is offered along side it. Obviously I can form my own opinions, but the commentary provides a pseudo-interaction with the events of the day. This of course leaves me with cable news channels.
For many years I watched FOX News Channel because I believed that they were, as they claim, fair and balanced. Now bias in the news is a whole other topic and I have no intention of getting into that conversation at this particular moment, but it always seemed to me that FOX had a team of commentators who brought the news in a professional manner that while conservative was at least intelligent and not with the pretentious air that some of their competitors had. I welcome debate but despise when just because I happen to hold a position contrary to someone else that I am some kind of terrible person. FOX was an oasis of conservative sanity in the 24-hour news industry.
Unfortunately, FOX News Channel has become a caricature of itself. Not only has it become exactly what they have always been criticized for being (an uber conservative wing of the Republican Party,) but they are now just as obnoxious, insulting and condescending as their liberal counterparts.
Let's take a walk through FOX News Channel's broadcasting day, shall we? (Naturally we'll only be walking through the parts that prove my point.)
6am-9am: Fox & Friends.
Sadly, newspapers are dying due to their lack of immediacy and general inconvenience so except for the occasional Sunday I very rarely read them. This leaves the television and internet as my primary sources of news.
Local news, in my opinion, is quite possibly the most useless 30 minutes to an hour of television on any given day. And that includes the rest of VH1 and MTV's programming too. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to have a global, national AND local perspective about what is going on but when the cliched banner of "If it bleeds is leads" is so obviously carried, the local news is little more than a side show of fires, shootings and scandals with some weather and sports mixed in. You could do the news in 15 seconds at the top of the 10 o'clock hour. "Tomorrow will be rainy, sunny, etc. The Phillies won. And Donovan McNabb got five million more dollars because he is a whiny bitch. We now return you to the shitty reality show you're watching."
So now newspapers are out along with your local 11 o'clock newscast. The internet is OK, and I think that The Fox Report with Shepard Smith is a great around the world in 60 minutes program, but what I really enjoy while I get my news is the commentary that is offered along side it. Obviously I can form my own opinions, but the commentary provides a pseudo-interaction with the events of the day. This of course leaves me with cable news channels.
For many years I watched FOX News Channel because I believed that they were, as they claim, fair and balanced. Now bias in the news is a whole other topic and I have no intention of getting into that conversation at this particular moment, but it always seemed to me that FOX had a team of commentators who brought the news in a professional manner that while conservative was at least intelligent and not with the pretentious air that some of their competitors had. I welcome debate but despise when just because I happen to hold a position contrary to someone else that I am some kind of terrible person. FOX was an oasis of conservative sanity in the 24-hour news industry.
Unfortunately, FOX News Channel has become a caricature of itself. Not only has it become exactly what they have always been criticized for being (an uber conservative wing of the Republican Party,) but they are now just as obnoxious, insulting and condescending as their liberal counterparts.
Let's take a walk through FOX News Channel's broadcasting day, shall we? (Naturally we'll only be walking through the parts that prove my point.)
6am-9am: Fox & Friends.
Hooo boy. I understand that morning programs are supposed to be mostly fluff and not much substance. It's early and cutesy little bits interspersed with what you missed while you were sleeping is the norm. The three hosts of this show, however, have become increasingly intolerable. Actually, only two of them have. Brian Kilmeade plays the part of the joking buffoon but as far as I can tell he is the most intelligent and level headed of the group.
Steve Doocy is the leader of the pack. He's had an incredibly successful career as a journalist, author and television personality but I feel like there is some kind of resentment lurking beneath the surface. He has a tendency to be condescendingly sarcastic (which makes it odd that I don't like him) and you can almost hear a whisper after his comments of "You're a fucking moron. Why do I have to be interviewing you?"
Gretchen Carlson is the worst of the group. She's like a blond, conservative version of Rachel Maddow. A former Miss America, she's hit the wall at 44 and plays the attack dog on the show asking loaded questions with a tone that oozes contempt. It's like she feels the need to prove she's more than just a pretty face. Which she's not, really. So she decides to prove she's a legitimate journalist by being a huge bitch.
This morning the Fox & Friends team had, along with a local exterminator, a representative from PETA on to discuss Barack Obama's swatting of a fly during an interview this week. I'm sure you've heard about it because it was considered fucking NEWS for about a day and a half. It's 48 hours later and Fox & Friends is still on it. Carlson peppered the PETA rep (who, incidentally, looked like he really didn't understand why they even wanted to talk to him and admitted that it was basically a non issue) with questions practically begging him to take the stance that Obama was a monster for killing a fly. I'm not making this up. Also, I couldn't have hoped for a better illustration of retardary and baseless contempt to help make my point... and I hate PETA.
5pm-6pm: Glenn Beck
Gretchen Carlson is the worst of the group. She's like a blond, conservative version of Rachel Maddow. A former Miss America, she's hit the wall at 44 and plays the attack dog on the show asking loaded questions with a tone that oozes contempt. It's like she feels the need to prove she's more than just a pretty face. Which she's not, really. So she decides to prove she's a legitimate journalist by being a huge bitch.
This morning the Fox & Friends team had, along with a local exterminator, a representative from PETA on to discuss Barack Obama's swatting of a fly during an interview this week. I'm sure you've heard about it because it was considered fucking NEWS for about a day and a half. It's 48 hours later and Fox & Friends is still on it. Carlson peppered the PETA rep (who, incidentally, looked like he really didn't understand why they even wanted to talk to him and admitted that it was basically a non issue) with questions practically begging him to take the stance that Obama was a monster for killing a fly. I'm not making this up. Also, I couldn't have hoped for a better illustration of retardary and baseless contempt to help make my point... and I hate PETA.
5pm-6pm: Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck is a faux populist who is such a self righteous, ass hole that you really can't take what he says even remotely seriously. He went off the deep end about a year and a half ago when he had to go to the hospital and despite being in severe pain was not immediately cured. He used that experience as a foil for his transformation from the sorrowful everyman who (despite the fact that he doesn't want to) will carry the banner for the little man, into the stoic champion of the (not-so) disenfranchised that he is. He blathers on to anyone who listens to him that our Obama led government is an evil empire just waiting to steal from us and run our lives in a totalitarian state. The man cries his crocodile tears when he gets "passionate" about how much he loves our country and wants it to be all that it can be. And what really doesn't help is that he's one of those recovering alcoholics who like to remind you every ten minutes that they are, in fact, a recovering alcoholic. We get it Glenn, you couldn't handle your booze so you stopped all together. Now go choke on your 5 year chip.
In total fairness though, if this is not an act then Beck needs serious help. The rest of the talking heads on FOX that I have a problem are basically just pricks. Beck is a different breed. He's either putting on a great show as a fear monger for people who are terrified to do work for themselves, or... and quite possibly more likely, he's really just gone completely nuts. And, uh, we need to really watch out for him.
9pm-10pm: Hannity
In total fairness though, if this is not an act then Beck needs serious help. The rest of the talking heads on FOX that I have a problem are basically just pricks. Beck is a different breed. He's either putting on a great show as a fear monger for people who are terrified to do work for themselves, or... and quite possibly more likely, he's really just gone completely nuts. And, uh, we need to really watch out for him.
9pm-10pm: Hannity
Sean Hannity is what you might call a fascist. Or a douchebag. Or a pompous fascist douchebag. There we go. That one sounds about right. Like FOX news itself, Hannity has become a caricature of conservative America. His hard lined stance against even the most moderate perspectives makes him incapable of intelligent commentary. By refusing to even empathize with someone who disagrees with him Hannity prefers instead to just shout them down or, even worse, simply surround himself with like minded individuals. Like Beck and his drinking, Hannity also likes to intersperse his commentary with little anecdotes about what a great person he is. New flash Hannity: If you're that great of a person, you don't need to tell anyone about it. Hannity, unfortunately, is basically the face of the new FOX News Channel. It's not Shep Smith and it's no longer Bill O'Reilly (who, love him or hate him, is basically a fair minded individual who will give others their say.)
For a long time the FOX News Channel was my go to spot on the dial for intelligent political discourse. Now the only people I can stand to listen to are Smith, O'Reilly and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. Some day when I rule the world we can have a station where Brian Kilmeade wakes you up in the morning, Scarborough walks you through the afternoon, Smith lets you know what happened while you were at work, and O'Reilly can put you to bed. Until then I guess we're stuck with professional caricatures of the right and left in America with very few people in between. The only bigger shame than that we've reached a place where you can't find a job in the news (or seemingly politics) if you are a level headed individual who thinks that maybe -- just maybe -- the hard lined stance of left or right might not be the best philosophy is that we had someone like that and instead of Chris "I'd blow Obama if he'd let me" Matthews being taken from us on election night, it was Tim Russert.
On a related note. Fuck you CNN. Your whole network blows.
For a long time the FOX News Channel was my go to spot on the dial for intelligent political discourse. Now the only people I can stand to listen to are Smith, O'Reilly and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. Some day when I rule the world we can have a station where Brian Kilmeade wakes you up in the morning, Scarborough walks you through the afternoon, Smith lets you know what happened while you were at work, and O'Reilly can put you to bed. Until then I guess we're stuck with professional caricatures of the right and left in America with very few people in between. The only bigger shame than that we've reached a place where you can't find a job in the news (or seemingly politics) if you are a level headed individual who thinks that maybe -- just maybe -- the hard lined stance of left or right might not be the best philosophy is that we had someone like that and instead of Chris "I'd blow Obama if he'd let me" Matthews being taken from us on election night, it was Tim Russert.
On a related note. Fuck you CNN. Your whole network blows.
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