Posts filed under ‘This is News?’
Oy, The Second Presidential Debate
Heading into this new week I’m already exhausted because all the attention in the US media is on Wednesday night’s second presidential debate. Nobody knows what will happen of course. It’s all about speculation. Predictions. What ifs. Could be. This or that.
We’re watching talking heads justify their own existence and their own paychecks.
A friend of mine had some simple advice for me last week: Don’t watch any of the debates so you can…sleep.
I’m thinking she’s right.
And another thing: So much is going on in the world but in order to save/make money, the MSM has laid off their foreign correspondents and the campaign is all they’ve got.
So, here we are. The Debates. That’s it.
If only we could train them to to think we care about real news.
Watch Cable News Outlets Cover for Paul Ryan’s Lies
Watch his painful mashup of cable newsers covering for the lies Paul Ryan told last night in his speech at the Republican National Convention.
(Via.)
Ryan wouldn’t tell lies like this if he wasn’t pretty darn sure he would never be called out on them so thanks “liberal media!”
Geezus. The cables are so terrified of being called “biased,” pointing out a lie and proving that it’s a lie is off limits. In my opinion, that’s the definition of news. Pointing to the fuc*ing facts and ah, hello, informing people for God’s sake.
Can you hear me screaming now?
UGH!
This is News? Really? REALLY?
If we didn’t click on headlines like this, “news” organizations wouldn’t publish them:
Geezus. Thoughts about the collapse of civilization come to mind.
News Outlets With Agendas
This is crazy.
Check out this headline at the Daily Mail,
over this picture:
Caters News Agency
An otter looks to the heavens and prays for food?
Forget the headline. Read the article:
‘I took the photos at Whipsnade Zoo, which has this island with a purpose built moat for the otters. I had to hide there for a long time to get the shot.
‘The otter was running around cradling a stone under his arm when he was surprised by another otter jumping out of the water which caused him to jump and throw the stone in the air.
‘When he started trying to grab it I took the snap.’
Gee. Imagine what your memory of this would be if all you read was the headline.
Colorado News Channel: Sonogram Shows Baby Tebowing
Say it ain’t so already:
You expect to find out if you’re having a boy or a girl, but you might not expect what one local family saw in their sonogram this week. It showed their baby boy “Tebowing” in the womb.
“I think it really hit us kind of when we came home and looked at it because we had just got this on Tuesday; and the weekend before we were all ‘Tebowing,’” Elizabeth Vigil said. She added that the baby is already a part of her Broncos family.
“You’re born into the Broncos when you’re born into my family, pretty cool,” her husband, David Vigil, said.
(Via.)
What with so many things happening in the world that the corporate media would rather not touch, I guess you’ve got to fill the time any way you can.
MSNBC’s #Fail re Iowa’s “Polls Closing”
Two hours ago MSNBC displayed a countdown clock under this headine: “Iowa Polls Closing [at]…” Iowa polls closing? Polls aren’t open in Iowa. Iowa isn’t polling today. Iowa has a caucus system. What the hell was MSNBC thinking? [That we're really, really dumb.]
Now (@7:22 p.m. ET) they’re running a chyron that reads: “Doors Now Open At Caucus Sites in Iowa’s 99 Counties.” Ah yeah, that’s more like it. But again, what was with the polls closing thing?
#WhatHappensWhenYouHireTeenagersToDeliverTheNews
NYC “Foiled Terror Plot” — The Terrifying Evidence
Here is the terrifying, terrifying, evidence Michael Bloomberg displayed tonight when he announced he and his police department “foiled” a “terror plot:”
Run for your life!
About All Those Republican Debates
I just saw an ad on CNN promoting the next Republican debate — one that will purportedly center on national security — which will be held on Tuesday, November 22.
I think I’m finally catching on to this whole GOP debate thing. The plan seems to be to hold a debate and then talk about it non-stop for days and days until the next debate and then talk about that debate non-stop for days and days until the next debate and on and on. I mean, these uninformative, silly, sound-bite debates are sucking the air out of everything else that’s happening on the planet, as in THE NEWS.
But, then again, when you’ve cut your reporting staff down to near zero, limiting your “news” coverage to chatting about one or two events is cheap and easy. Ah yes, the “liberal media.”
Headline of the Day
Am I drunk or am I really seeing this headline?
Here it is, though I suspect it’ll be gone sooner rather than later.
Important Stuff
OMG. Say it ain’t so already. This is news?
Are hipster glasses over? How they went from geek to chic to weak.
Eyes Wide Shut
Why I stay as far away from the corporate media as possible:
THERE’S a near-total disconnect between our real, large, urgent problems and the who’s-up-who’s-down cage match that is the daily bread of our pundit class. Unending wars, a bone-dry Southwest and flooded Midwest, the absence of a jobs program — these have been, at best, of anecdotal interest to the mouths that roar on television. Instead, media-friendly politicians and pundits have been obsessed with two contrived priorities: the debt ceiling and a presidential election that’s 15 months away.
The World According to Fox
If you follow Fox (ahem) News on Twitter, as I do, you grow accustomed to receiving tweets like this that peak your curiosity and cause you to frantically grab your mouse and click on the link because you want to expand your mind:
#ThisIsNews?
#IDon’tCareWhoKnittedMr.Roger’sSweater
#AnythingElseHappeningInTheWorld?
Slow-News-Day Fear Mongering
Gosh, golly, gee. It seems the 24/7-what-are-we-gonna-do-to-fill-all-that-time cable “news” shows covered a “terror alert” this evening (absent a “high-speed” LA car chase), as in a “suspicious package” at the White House:
Thank God I missed it.
Think: Manufactured fear because the cables are lazy ass, cheap “news” organizations and turning a “suspicious package” into an hour’s worth of “news” is easy.
Factoid of the Day
Check out this headline from TVNewser: HLN Planning 19+ Hours of Casey Anthony Coverage This Weekend.
Wow. 19+ hours of “news” you can’t use. How long will it take before HLN devotes 19+ hours to covering how hedge funds, investment firms and banksters destroyed the world’s economy.
Says it All
Watch this amazing video compilation from TalkingPointsMemo showing how all three cable “news” networks cut away from a presser being given by Nancy Pelosi immediately after she announced she was there to talk about jobs, and would not comment on Anthony Weiner:
I just heard MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell say that Weiner had to resign because coverage of other news “just stopped” and Democrats couldn’t get any other messages out (about the deficit, Medicare, etc.).
Well Andrea, given that ya’ll cut away from Pelosi when she wanted to talk about jobs, you tell me who has control over that.
This is such clear proof that if it bleeds it leads and our 24/7 cable “news” organizations don’t deserve the privilege of being called that.
Yes, “Weinergate” Was the “News” Last Week
If you watched cable “news” last week, you probably wondered: Is there anything else happening other than the Anthony Weiner scandal?
The answer is essentially no. Check out this graph showing how much time the cable “news” channels devoted to the Weiner story last week:
33%. 33%!
So, considering all the things that happen every day all around the world, the cables spent 33% of their “news” time talking about Anthony Weiner.
I think it’s insulting.
Read more here at the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
“Anthony Weiner Running Errands”
Check out the chyron on CNN this morning:
(Via.)
This is what “news” in the United States of America has devolved into.
Hey “Liberal Media,” Let’s Talk About Sarah Palin Some More
Check out these numbers from a new Washington Post/ABC News poll:
Almost two-thirds of all Americans say they “definitely would not” vote for Palin for president. She is predictably unpopular with Democrats and most independents, but the new survey underscores the hurdles she would face if she became a candidate: 42 percent of Republicans say they’ve ruled out supporting her candidacy.
So hell yeah, let’s devote a good 25% of the “news” to covering Palin, OK?
Geezus.
Summer Fun With John Edwards?
Remember the summer before 9/11?
I remember it well because I had an emergency appendectomy in mid-June and I was stuck in the hospital and then at home, recuperating. I remember being driven half-insane because virtually the only thing on television was “news” about (1) shark attacks and (2) the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy “scandal.”
Looks like we might be headed for another fun-filled summer of “scandal,” what with the indictment of John (what a dirt bag) Edwards today:
The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment was returned in the Middle District of North Carolina Friday.
You know. Anything to keep us from looking at the corporate takeover of the country.
All You Need to Know About Fox’s Hysteria Over Rapper Common’s White House Invite
You may have heard that the Obamas invited rapper “Common” to the White House tonight and the wingers, lead by Fox “News,” are apoplectic:
First Lady Michelle Obama has scheduled a poetry evening for Wednesday, and she’s invited several poets, including a successful Chicago poet and rapper, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., AKA “Common.” However, Lynn is quite controversial, in part because his poetry includes threats to shoot police and at least one passage calling for the “burn[ing]” of then-President George W. Bush.
Gosh. I wonder if they’re making a mountain out of a molehill so they can trash Obama. Naw. They’d never do that (via Eric Hananoki):
As usual, Fox’s hysteria is faux.
Oh, and here’s video of a Fox News reporter praising Common (October, 2010).
Let’s Keep This Train Rollin’!
Tweet of the day:
I say the new national emergency will be WHERE ARE OBAMA’S COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS?
Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth
The White House released the “long form” version of President Obama’s birth certificate today. A few minutes ago, the President came out and said it’s time the media stop listening to “carnival barkers” (here’s lookin’ at you Donald) and concentrate on the serious issues facing the country.
Yes, the “news” media is a national embarrassment but it ain’t gonna happen. I give it oh, roughly 90-minutes before the wingers find something “wrong” with this new version and the whole “controversy” will start anew.
Fox News — Obama as Dictator
Thought I’d drop by to see what Fox is up to tonight (@9:00 p.m. EDT). No surprise — Obama’s a Kenyan-like dictator:
If a black guy says it, it must be true, right?
Fox hopes so.
More on Allen West here.
MSNBC Airing a One-Hour Special on Charlie Sheen
MSNBC is airing (7:00 p.m. ET) a one-hour special on Charlie Sheen. Ratings over the biggest news in the country today.
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
The next time I hear someone say MSNBC is a raging liberal channel I’m going to,
SCREAM!
Chuck Todd’s Juvenile Tweets
Check out the tweets Chuck Todd, MSNBC’s “Chief White House Correspondent” sent out today:
Again: Chuck Todd is MSNBC’s “Chief White House Correspondent” but his big thing tonight is Charlie Sheen?
#TheCorporatocracyWantsToMakeMadisonGoAwayAndI’mThereToHelp.
Fox’s Recommended Readling List
Check out Fox’s recommended reading list.
See the full list here.
Don’t you love how they threw in a book or two written by super-duper-mega-liberal-media stars who everyone — everyone! — has heard of like ah, Alan Colmes?
The Washington Post Gives Up
In a time when the United States is involved in two long wars, dictatorships are being overthrown by fed-up citizens, global warming goes unchecked, the world faces food and water shortages and millions of people are unemployed, it is sad, just plain sad – filed under NotEvenTryingAnymore – to see one of the nation’s (formerly) premiere newspapers — the Washington Post — run an article about potty training and football players’ hair on the front page of its Sunday edition:
News About Egypt
Reminder: there’s no comparison between the atrocious coverage of CNN and MSNBC as to the goings on in Egypt to that of Al Jazeera. Watch Al Jazeera here on Facebook.
What’s happening in Egypt (and in the Middle East) is much more complicated and fascinating than MSNBC and/or CNN let on.
The “news” we get here in the U.S. us nothing but awful.
