Pat Buchanan has been fired by MSNBC. I normally would not even bother to process it past reading the article because I rarely, if at all, watch MSNBC so it really, really did not affect me. I happened on another article about the same subject. Some of the issues in the article did pique my mind a bit though and when this happens I inevitably scroll down to the bottom to see what the other neophytes say about the thing they just read.
Then this struck me:
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MSNBC is a bigger joke then FOX is. At least FOX puts on both sides of the argument (even though they tilt to the right). I tune in MSNBC and they a have Rachel Maddow interviewing 2 liberal pundits, and they’re all agreeing on how evil the conservatives are. Wow, thats some interesting television! No wonder FOX is beating MSNBC in the ratings!
I call BS on this one. Let me extrapolate.
1) MSNBC is a bigger joke then FOX is.
Being that I do not watch MSNBC I do not know how much bigger of a joke it possibly could be than FOX news. I do, on occasion watch FOX news just to say I have sampled the other side and it would not be hard for MSNBC to be any kind of joke in comparison to FOX news because FOX news is not a joke at all. That is the sad thing. Those folks are pretending they are serious. And if they are serious I am running for the hills. A joke ends with a punchline and a “get it…get it?” then maybe some canned laughter. Theirs never have a punchline and seem to never end but always let you know that something bad is about to happen at any second.
2) I will leave the Rachel Maddow point alone because, again I do not watch her show, so she might be a blithering pinko leftist agitator for all I know or she might actually be thought-provoking and insightful. I am not really in the game on this one.
But here is the one that caused the words you are reading now to be put on this blog today,
February 17th, 2012
3)I tune in MSNBC and they a have Rachel Maddow interviewing 2 liberal pundits, and they’re all agreeing on how evil the conservatives are. Wow, thats some interesting television! No wonder FOX is beating MSNBC in the ratings!
Here is where I am going to unkindly disagree with the comment and allow it to be a representation of anyone who would defend FOX news on the premise that they “give the other side a voice” or that they “beat people in the ratings.”
First, shows like American Idol get great ratings. Do you get your view of the world from Randy Jackson? Would you like Steven Tyler to be your ‘eyes in the sky’ when it came to formulating how you feel or think about the world around you? (Well maybe Steven Tyler would be kind of cool but anyway) This is the lamest direction to take any argument. Just because a large number of people consume something does not quantify or legitimize it i.e cigarettes. Used to be that 50% or more of our society smoked them. Do we stand around today saying “that is why cigarettes are so much more popular than chewing gum?” No because the things will kill you and it would sound stupid!
Second, apparently people who view FOX news are not that smart, or at least not that well-informed, which to me kind of goes hand in hand. And before you jump on my source, the LA TIMES (it was the first one that popped up for me) the survey was conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University, not the LA Times. Google it your self here.
In light of the Post-Information Age and the coming Singularity there is no excuse to not derive your view or a view from multiply sources. It is almost, well just this side of close to exactly, like reading those endlessly inane chain emails and regurgitating them by mouth or forwarding them to your friends as fact when in reality they contain false or misleading information or are just plain made up bunk.
Gang Bangers thrown any eggs on your car windows lately? This was a recent one someone swore to me as fact.
Second, is the part about how ‘at least FOX news presents both sides.’ No it doesn’t, really. I have been acutely aware for some time when FOX has the person who would be the ‘left leaner’ on their show they somehow seem to get belittled. The repartee which should exist with a 3 person format, host and two guests, which I have come to expect to be the equal exchange of banter, many times seems to immediately evaporate and turn into one side doing the bantering and the host almost playing the part of the disapproving parent, totally lacking objectivity. A good argument is healthy. A fake one is, well, like pro wrestling and you almost get the feel that the ‘left leaner’ is the ‘weak heel’ setup for the pretty boy to come in and knock out so the crowd can cheer, whoop, and eat more popcorn. That is what they paid to see after all, isn’t it?
My grandmother used to watch her “stories” (soaps) and get lost in the world of the characters and talk about them as though she to was not just observing their made up world but inhabiting it. Is this a safe respite from the harsh realities of a hard world? Absolutely. Is the same format one you sanely pull back from when returning to pondering the realities of the day? Yes.
Lastly. I will not speak to conservatives being evil or MSNBC being good or bad. I do not believe the first and am ignorant or have no real opinion about the later. I would say that most definitely I have views on certain issues that would be conservative. I also have those that would be considered liberal. This makes me a human, more likely an American Human or a Western Human, but most definitely a human on the planet earth. So in order for me to believe that all conservatives are evil would prove I was ill-informed and possibly stupid. I do not like to feel or appear stupid.
Yet to believe that FOX news is inhabiting or accurately interpreting the same world which we live in is a stretch at best. A complete view is, albeit impossible, but a tainted, baited one, is easily created and so proven. Flipping around to the ‘other’ network and going back and forth, in 30 minute intervals, is like panning back and forth between a drama, sometimes partial comedy, and a suspenseful thriller/horror movie where at any second the world just might, maybe, blow up, entirely. FOX news keeps you on the edge of your seat. For that I give it credit. If killing was its business then business is good.
Yet in light of the fact its viewers are less informed I wish someone would do a stat on what the usual viewer’s cortisol and hypertension levels are. I get the heeby jeebies after about 10 minutes.
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