Anyone paying any attention knows that news reporting on TV is being steadily replaced by groups of talking heads discussing events. It costs a lot less to invite a few people to a studio to shoot the breeze about current events than to have actual reporters going deep into stories.
What beats me is why there is an audience for such shows. Since I do not have cable, it used to be the case that the only time I watched them was when I was on travel and staying in hotels. Then I would tune in to CNN or MSNBC or Fox News just to see how they were covering the day’s news. But I soon found myself appalled at the ignorance and total vapidity on display and now my hotel TV is not disturbed from its slumber as long as I am in the room.
(This clip was aired on January 14, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
What beats me is why there is an audience for such shows.
Beats me, too.
I’d be more interested in knowing what a dog thinks about politics than some of the people you see rattling away on TV. But what puzzles me is why anyone gives a shit about other peoples’ opinions unless for some reason it’d be relevant or informative. Should I care who some basketball player thinks should be president? I’d rather know what my neighbor thinks, and I can do that by walking over there (when there isn’t 10″ of snow…) with some beer and talking to them. I know that’s a bizzare concept, but it seems to make sense to me.
“There’s a method to the madness of the cable so-called news networks. Controversy attracts eyeballs so the cable networks invite talking heads to engage in he said she said “journalism”. People yelling at each other provides entertainment for a lot of people. Folks with a moderate point of view are not welcome.
Folks with a moderate point of view are not welcome
As a racist facist, you are not qualified to talk about “moderation” of viewpoint except as an example of “doing it wrong.” You can’t even see “moderate” from where you are; it’s over the horizon.
The irony of investigative news only still being alive in a fictional HBO show was matched only by the most relevant criticism of corporate news journalism standards being in a news comedy show.
I feel like a crazy conspiracy nut, but the only place to get news these days seems to be from the internet. The corporate news networks continue to demonstrate they are less and less ethical and trustworthy as time goes on.