Putting Cable News Under a Microscope

What's an avowed political junkie to do when he's knocked on his ass for almost two weeks with a debilitating ear infection and flu before a major election? While the doc had me on more dope than Keith Richards at Altamont, my drug of choice quickly became 24/7 cable news.

As I lay I bed this past week with more fluid oozing out of my head than a sump-pumped Wayne, NJ basement after a rainstorm, I realized that my life would never be the same. I had officially hit bottom. Ive watched enough "Interventions" on TV to know that when the addict throws down the needle in disgust -- as I have now done with the TV remote -- that he's had enough and is ready to quit. It took one straight week of non-stop political commentary for me to finally realize how cable news had not only driven me crazy, but just how much it was negatively impacting politics as well.

When you watch MSNBC or CNN in very small doses, like anything, it's a healthy diversion and you may actually learn something. But watching as much as I just have, you realize what an endless, vicious cycle it is, regurgitating the same drivel to the point where the pundits' "analysis" becomes as recognizable as the dialogue in a midnight Rocky Horror screening. You begin to realize just how much time these people have on their hands to fill, because you're right along with them in real time. Do you have any idea what it takes to fill an entire day and night with inane chatter about two primaries? They give you the news once, and then discuss, analyze and regurgitate it ad nauseum. I don't know what hurt more: the ice pick-like stabbing pain in my ear or the sound of Joe Scarborough blathering on incessantly about how Clinton's "gonna make history" Tuesday with two big wins.

It's no wonder how "scandals" like the Rev Wright controversy become the elephant in the room. It's because the "room" is a circus, and it's ringleaders are people like Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Keith Olbermann, Wolf Blitzer and George Stephanopoulos. They sanctimoniously decry the insignificance of these stories as they shamelessly ram them down our collective throats 24/7 to fill that gargantuan air time. The cable news media feeds on this crap like a hungry shark. Even those smallest of stories now becomes a "SomethingGate" that gets over-analyzed and beaten to death round-the-clock. And the networks have a never-ending supply of "experts" at the ready to dissect these stories to the point of exhaustion.

And the net effect of all this is that politicians get trapped in this bubble of sensationalism, as evidenced by the recent Pennsylvania debate where the first 50 minutes were spent on BitterGate, BosniaGate and WrightGate. Or on last week's Meet the Press interview of Sen. Barack Obama where host Tim Russert dedicated a similar percentage of his show's opening to these same hot-button issues. Is it any wonder then why only about 16% of voters rank the Irag war as their #1 priority? Were it not for these 24 hour cable news networks bottom-feeding in an effort to fill time we might just have an electorate that could be focused on the issues that really matter, such as the war, national security, the economy, gas prices, anemic employment and health care. Instead, the networks parade in front of the camera every Tom, Dick and Harry who's ever worked in politics to micro-chatter about the most meaningless, National Enquirer-like drivel which in turn prevents these stories from ever dying. And it's a colossal distraction from what truly matters. But sadly, what truly matters is, well, dull. Not as exciting as Rev Wright and a lying Hillary on a Bosnian tarmac.

There came a point where I literally felt dirty watching so much of this garbage. I felt like an addict, knowing I was doing something bad, wrong, destructive...yet unable for a time to stop. And then the moment of truth came. Following Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries, I listened as analyst after analyst, expert after expert, rambled on about the results as if they actually knew something. As if anything they had said or predicted the previous day had any credibility or accuracy one day later. They were all wrong, yet no one owned up. They just kept spinning. The bottom line is, nobody knows anything. It's just opinion. And the polls clearly prove little either. They're all over the place. You can find a poll to substantiate any position. To support any claim. And that's precisely what takes place all day on MSNBC and CNN. Obama and Clinton surrogates squaring off and making their biased cases why their candidate is the rightful nominee. The cliquishness of it all is sooooooo high school. This is the point where I decided I could no longer participate. News flash: this junkie's in rehab. From this point on, it's the NY Times and my nightly hour of Hardball and I'm done. Anything beyond that and I just might put a bullet in my head.

The one thing to come out of this past week that amazed me though is that Pat Buchanan never sleeps. Here's a guy who I swear was writing speeches for Woodrow Wilson, and he's on the tube at 1am and right back on "Morning Joe" at 7am. Maybe Buchanan's the only one with enough stamina to take that 3am White House call??

Comments

[Jules1]

I stopped watching a long time ago, if everyone would turn them off , their ratings would go down and they would soon be off the air. They are what scared America so much after 9/11.....

I pick and choose who, what I want to see or hear, never turn Fox on no matter what and I have great time watching Olbermann when he is bashing Bush, otherwise I read my news here...........

[WorkingClass]

Watching the *news* on television makes you stupid. You might as well stick your head in the microwave. Just say no. I'm serious. After a while you will feel much better and you wont be so stupid.

[fn0rd]

Keeping a TV on tuned to a news channel used to be interesting. Now it's useless and annoying. They all flash the "BREAKING NEWS" banner every five minutes, to repeat the same bit of useless celebrity drivel or tragic (but hardly newsworthy) cellphone video of a car wreck.

There are lots of stories, but they cost money to cover and some viewers might not like them. News networks exist to sell ad minutes, not to educate the public.

[Manx]

I can't watch CNN or MSNBC anymore. If I hear the words, "blue-collar workers" in the same sentence with Hillary Clinton just one more time, I going to smash my TV set.

The low state of journalism on these networks is a scandal. Cablegate?

[ChetParker]

Congratulations to all who are discovering the futility of seeking news on cable tv. However, you shouldn't confine your disgust to cable. Network television isn't much better and talk radio is worse. Real news programs are pretty much impossible to find anymore.

For years, I've been telling friends and colleagues that the greatest danger to our society is talk radio. I'm happy to expand that to include the tv shows (lets not call them newscasts, ok?) where idiots who impersonate "journalists" seem to feel we should all want to hear their "opinions." These tv phonies are responsible for the hateful, immoral society we have in the USA today.

They encourage their listeners to believe only as they (the tv phonies) believe, vote how they tell them to vote and to hate anyone who disagrees with their views. They condemn those who belong to a different political party as unpatriotic ! How did it get to this point? How do we reign-in the fools who've taken over our airwaves? We cannot maintain our freedom without a media dedicated to the original goal of serving as truth-seekers for the public.

We're headed down a very dangerous road. Wouldn't it be great if this issue ranked up there with the economy as a priority issue for the next group of lawmakers in our statehouses and in D.C.?

[lgillooly]

I have been a news junkie for a few years.I also used to like Keith Olbermann very much.He seemed to be trying to give us real news and a little comic relief.,but since this election and his obvious bias for Obama he has become one of the "boys".
I have been waiting for the big story concerning the Pentagon Propaganda Program to hit cable. This should be a HUGE story....nothing but silence from these fools! Maybe Keith needs to be on his "worst person list" for selling us out.
I lam interested in the election,but the Country is going to hell and Bush could start another War while these clowns discuss the same minutia over and over and over and over! yuck!
Our Democracy depends on a free and HONEST media,but more importantly they need to investigate and report REAL news. Thank God for the internet.

[editrix66]

I turned off Cable News about a month ago, and my life is so much better.

[verlaine]

Cable news is to journalism what muzak is to music. The more you watch, the less you know. The lone exception is C-SPAN. A few hours of C-SPAN is more useful than a week's worth of Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC combined.

[JScott]

Hmm, apt description. And let's not forget those cable systems in some time zones that
loop the SAME stuff over a few hours later and don't always put the notification of 'recorded from an earlier broadcast' they get so lazy hoping folks don't notice that it's not really 'live'.

[lisakaz2]

That's because they show no interest i covering stuff that passes as news around the rest of the world (unless it's some white slavery story outta a European country).

[philistine]

"Maybe Buchanan's the only one with enough stamina to take that 3am White House call??"

Cover your ears, children; don't listen to what that bad man said. It might give you nightmares.

[altohone]

OK, first of all, the NYT and Hardball?
Whew!

Second, they're not just "filling time".
They are doing their best to influence the election, per orders from the executives.

[5thGenDem]

So it's the "executives" who ordered Chris Matthews to speak disparagingly of Hillary at every opportunity? I wondered about that! Thanks for the clarification.

[AsaNisMasa]

"Do you have any idea what it takes to fill an entire day and night with inane chatter about two primaries?"

jeez, I was under the impression that there was more going on in the world than just the two primaries, but if cable news says no, it must be so.