The Thing About Cable News

Thursday 12 August 2010 - Filed under Dumbassery + Journalism

Is that all of the talking heads and those they bring on their respective shows are fucking scumbags. Reason’s hit & run:

It’s all theater, you see. She’s just playing a part. It’s fine if she slanders some people, ruins some reputations, spouts flat falsehoods, and generally dumbs down the public discourse. Because it’s just entertainment. It’s what pundits do.

The sad thing is, Murphy is mostly right. Cable news is about lining people up on either side and letting them go at it. There’s no room for subtlety. There’s certainly no time for fact-checking a guest’s claims, even after the segment airs. Murphy is pretty, provocative, and confrontational. She’s great TV. That she’s inaccurate, slanderous, and hysterical is beside the point.

Cable news isn’t about news at all. It’s about convincing those who watch it how right they already see themselves as being no matter the fact that much of what is said is demonstrably false, with the rest being little more than a string of half truths spun from here to tomorrow.¹

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1. Despite what that douchbag O’Reilly tells you about his show being the “no spin zone”.

2010-08-12  »  madlibertarianguy