Wow. What I miss by not having cable news.

[Plaid Adder]

A friend of mine just forwarded me the URL to a Scandinavian site that has posted a bunch of video clips of right-wing talking heads bloviating about the US and Canada during Bush's recent trip up there. Most of them are from Fox and feature Ann Coulter, but some are from CNN and feature Tucker Carlson.

You know, I've never seen or heard either of these individuals before, because I don't have cable, and unlike many of my fellow-DUers I don't have some kind of masochistic desire to put myself through this. So this was actually my first sight of cable news 'pundits.' And here is my first reaction:

Holy shit, this is COMMENTARY? No wonder we're getting creamed in the media if THIS bullshit is what passes for news programming. Fuck "balance" and "bias"--how about some THOUGHT? Ann Coulter is not a pundit; she's a diva who's figured out that the best way to get her face on national television is to say shit that would never come out of the mouth of any other human being who retains even one microfiber of decency because that one microfiber would trigger a gag reflex that would leave said human being vomiting for a week. Meanwhile, I don't know what Tucker Carlson thinks he's doing or why he needs a Poindexter bowtie to do it in, but things he's definitely not doing include a) making sense b) imparting vaulable information c) expressing a coherent and valid opinion and d) having a conversation.

Why would anyone on the other side go on one of these shows? All that's going to happen is that you sit in your remote location, where any access you have to the actual viewers is completely controlled by the producers, and get steamrollered by the loud, obnoxious, brainless, bloviating asshole who's sitting in the studio. I think it would really make more sense for the non-extremist wing of American politics to do a complete boycott of crap like this. Let them bloviate at each other. Their viewers aren't going to see anything the producers don't want them to see anyhow, and we wouldn't have the added humiliation of getting a public whipping at the hands of these flailing brainless lunatics.

Yeesh, I tell you. YEESH! Turn it off! Stay away! Start your own cable network! Avoid avoid avoid!!

:scared:

The Plaid Adder

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Why would anyone...

With two braincells to rub together and a desire to retain dignity want to match wits with a half-wit like Coulter...well, it's beyond me.

Just a skank with a mouth. I have this unshakable feeling that someday she will admit that she was only doing performance art.

[Mika]

2. Hey PA, can you hook us up w/that Scandinavian site URL?

I'd like to check it out.

Thanks :thumbsup:

[Plaid Adder]

6. Here it is:

http://www.hugi.is/hahradi/bigboxes.php?box_id=51208&f_id=1211

I can't read the text; I was kind of assuming it would be some reference to the crack Coulter makes about how without the US Canada would be invaded by Denmark.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Plaid Adder]

10. The really funny part at the end

is Carlson saying, "Oh, I think they'll still be our allies." What, after you've just spent the day calling them dog-sledding parasitic traitors to mankind? They get up there and spew xenophobic invective and then they're all, "But why do they hate us?" Oh, honey, LOOK in the MIRROR!

What pisses me off is that this is what other people will see and think America is. And, you know, halfway, they'd be right...but the half that isn't like that is SO NOT LIKE THAT!

Sigh,

The Plaid Adder

[MisterP]

13. OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO

these people have mashed potatoes for brains

[imenja]

3. It's like watching an insane asylum

What you've missed is the wholesale degradation of American "news."
It's scary stuff.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It's all part of the lobotomizing of America.

I guess we get what we deserve. If The People want non-stop coverage of the Scott Peterson trial and vacuous reality shows and "news" that consists either of a bunch of ranting, ignorant fools shouting at each other or of spin that only reinforces one's preexisting biases, that's what we'll get. And, having become collectively as dumb as a box of hammers because we get the news we want, we "elect"... TA DAAAA! George Wanker Bush. In the immortal words of H.L. Mencken:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

:puke:

[imenja]

5. If you think Carlson is bad, check out Sean Hannity sometime

He is the worst of the worst. Un-be-liev-able!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Quite the arse he is.... quite. n/t

[Plaid Adder]

11. OK, but see, here's the problem. You're watching this asshole.

So are a lot of other people. Hell, maybe 50% of Hannity's audience is just people like you going, "Jesus Christ, what an ASSHOLE!" And yet, people keep watching it, because it must somehow be entertaining to people. That's what's fucked up and needs to be changed. COuldn't we come up with something just as entertaining that would actually do some good?

Oh, wait, that's right, we did that, and it's the Daily Show. Never mind.

C ya,

THe Plaid Adder

[imenja]

14. I don't watch him

but I sometime gawk as I flip through the channels, like rubbernecking an accident on the interstate.
For a time before the election I tried to watch, thinking you have to understand your enemy to defeat him. It became too painful though, and after the election I saw no reason to continue to submit myself to that kind of torment.
It still astounds me that Fox chose Hannity to moderate their "fair and balanced" debate coverage. He spent the entire time ridiculing Kerry and then proceeding to talk about how biased the "elite media" was. Fox had the nerve to question whether Dan Rather could legitimately host debate and election night coverage on CBS. Do they actually believe their own insanity?

[NV Whino]

7. I have neither cable nor satellite

All I miss is raised blood pressure. I agree that "our side" should just boycott all that crap. Got nothing to lose and a lot of dignity to gain. Thanks for the post.

[crispini]

9. Well, by not having cable news,

one DOES miss "Countdown" on MSNBC with Keith Olbermann, who is witty, cute, and is pretty much the only person so far to cover Election Fraud 2004 in detail. (Conyers tonight!) But, other than KO :loveya: the other 90% iss pretty much a wasteland, so.... you're not missing a lot. You can always come by Pres Results 2004 for the nightly live play by play. :evilgrin:

[bloom]

17. We got MSNBC for a week

so I watched KO since I had read about him on here. I wasn't impressed with him either.


Sometimes I'll watch the Daily Show. I like Democracy Now and other Link things. I like to watch the first 10 of Ellen Degeneres. Cspan sometimes.

And that's about it. I'll catch a movie now and then.

I'm thinking about canceling because it's not really worth it. I used to turn on CNN a little pre-election and found it to be mostly irritating.

[On the Road]

12. It's Refresing to Have an Outside View

Just to regain a sense of proportion. After awhile you get inured to it and take it for granted. But the uniformity of it has an effect. And to anyone who wonders how Bush could have gotten so many votes, just imagine what you might think if you had no knowledge of political issues - just these shows.

I don't watch RW cable that much, but even a few seconds is too much.

[Generator]

15. You know

I am convinced that the only way to stop giving legitimacy to these "news" shows is by not having anyone from our side (whoever they are now lol) appear on them.

Ah but yes, we need to get our point across, blah blah blah.

No, we are giving legitmacy to them that they plainly don't deserve. It's mostly used as mockery-Hannity & Colmes is as you say, not thoughtful discussion. Most of what comes out of Hannity's mouth is just FALSE.

By agreeing to be there-you are giving legitmacy to his tactics and his spreading of false information.

The blacklist needs to come from the top. Not just from us lowlies that watch TV.

And since 11/2 I have stopped. Which was hard for a junkie-but I realized it's propaganda. It's not anything else. It's not truth, it's disinformation. The whole he said/she said dichotomy. And the only show I watch which is Countdown- doesn't do that he/she thing. It has been the only show which has covered voter fraud fairly and with an emphasis that it deserves.

[twenty2strings]

16. Have you ever had a boil that just swelled and swelled...

This one will pop when the toxic level reaches the point when all the major outlets are so desperate for ratings that they have to reach levels that finally cause foreign countries to stop trading with us because of international outrage. We will be ostracized for going totally insane and broke and the empire will fall and we will find that popcorn made in a pan is just as good or better as the overpriced microwave stuff. We will be eating lots of beans and rice and like postwar Germany, will be horrified that it went so wrong. And you know,that wont be so bad.:bounce:

[BiggJawn]

18. If "our" folks would just say "No, I'm NOT gonna be your sock puppet..."

And refuse to go into these RW "love-fests" like you said, How long do you think guys like Horrendo Revolver and Judy Woodruff could keep going "Neener, neener, they're all COWARDS!!!"

I saw Robert Reich on tonight. OK, except that had him going up against the Prez of the "Club for Growth" (isn't Cancer a "growth"?) So while Reich is talking about how the dollar's softer than a pre-Viagra Bob Dole, and retail ain't doing that good, Mr. Growth is all smiles and puffing out his chest about how the Dow has a 10,600 Boner, and Yacht and SUV and Bentley and Hummer sales are UP, UP, UP! and everyone HE knows is pulling in fat cash hand over fist, and it's all because of Dubya.

And Reich counters with some dry numbers about Chinese investments in the US...

Well, chalk another one up to the RNC....