| |
|
No news on the cable "news" shows
by Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein
| June 27, 2008 |
The cable TV "news" shows are full of agitprop in favor of drilling offshore in U.S. territorial waters. I even saw one "push poll" type interview with a girl getting ready to go to her prom. The inter-
viewer got her opinion like this: "Do you think we ought to drill for more oil?" Predictably, she was
in favor of the proposal. :-)
One point that is not mentioned is that if we had drilled these place 20 or 25 years ago -- woulda, coulda, shoulda -- then that oil would already be gone, sold at $10 or $20 per barrel, and we would be where we are today!
The moral of the story on that is that oil in the ground is like money in the bank. The last country to run out wins.
So unless we think that we will be so broke that we won't even be able to afford to drill in
|
|
Half of America is either underwater or on fire or broke, living in their cars and under bridges.
The U.S. is a disaster zone and still the cable TV "news" is spending hours and hours and hours giving us partisan opinions instead of actual news.
|
|
|
|
|
the future, we should proceed cautiously and deliberately, and should especially not be in such a hurry that we give "Big Oil" any more freebies.
The offshore oil belongs to the American people and if/when it is extracted, the American people deserve rich compensation -- not tax breaks and ridiculously low royalties for Big Oil.
*** *** ***
Speaking of cable TV "news", I watched Barack Obama's press conference Wednesday, and I was very impressed -- even with his wankering on the FISA law. Then, immediately after the press conference CNN hauled out habitual commentators Bill
Bennett and Donna Brazile. I listened long enough to hear Bill "Mr Virtues" Bennett call Obama "dangerously naive".
I don't know how other viewers feel, but my interest in hearing the opinions of media puppets on the topic of the presidential "horse race" is at an all-time low. I care about the results of the election but I no longer care to hear people on TV tell me their opinions about the political impact of day-to-day events.
The problem isn't that these people are always completely wrong, but that I simply do not care what they think, and I do not care to hear their opinions.
Cable TV "news" is tepid at best, and most similar to a pitcher of warm spit. I bet they don't even want to watch their own shows. I cannot imagine that they believe that Americans are clamoring for more of their "content". They are useless and tiresome...
Half of America is either underwater or on fire or broke, living in their cars and under bridges. The U.S. is a disaster zone and still the cable TV "news" is spending hours and hours and hours giving us partisan opinions instead of actual news.
Cable TV "news" is like public school. It is a wretched experience for everyone involved.
| |
I'm sure I've mentioned before that for several years in the 1980s I had cable TV only for Cable News Network, which was then offering better-than-average journalism. From the snippets of CNN I've seen in TVs mounted in restaurants and airports and such over the past few years, CNN no longer does journalism at all. If we had cable I think I'd be willing to pay extra to not have any of the so-called news channels.
It's amazing to me -- they'll routinely fill an hour chatting with an arch-rightwing preacher or a TV star, and the only news they actually cover is the kind of "news" where you point a camera at a fire or a train wreck. I have seriously seen better journalism, often, on INSIDE EDITION.
|
|
Helen & Harry
|
|
|
Our front page is free from nudity and profanity, but interior pages and external links may not be safe for work, and you may be shocked, offended, or in trouble with your boss. A link doesn't imply that we agree with every sentence and every sentiment on every site we link to. We use our noggins, and suggest you use yours.
Anything sent to Unknown News may be published. If you don't want it published, say so plainly. Of course, we publish all incoming hate mail.
|
|
|
| |
We sell our own progressive bumper stickers:
pro-peace,
anti-Bush,
pro-freedom,
anti-Republican
stickers you won't
find anywhere else.
$3 each or two for $5
bumper stickers
|
|
| |
|
Unknown News is more fun and more informative with your participation, so please don't be shy. Consider yourself invited to speak your mind.
Because we respect peoples' privacy, we do not keep records of friends' and contributors' contact information. This means we can't forward private communications between readers and writers, but we always welcome dialogue for publication.
When we publish incoming emails, we usually edit out the sender's last name, email address, or anything else that would tend to uniquely identify the author (if we slip up, please let us know). But if your email is unambiguously intended only to annoy, insult, or threaten us, we'll publish all the details, and leave it on-line forever.
We're especially interested in hearing and considering different perspectives. All we ask is that you conduct yourself sanely and civilly. For the most productive dialogue, it helps if you'll cite a specific article or concept we've gotten wrong.
You can contact Helen & Harry at <newsuneed at yahoo.com>. If that address ever fails, our back-up email address is <unknownnews at inbox.com>.
But please, don't email us unless you're really and truly, honestly, actually trying to send the publishers of News a communication you're not sending to anyone or everyone else.
Please don't send attachments or other cr*p we don't want.
If you're trying to reach us but getting no reply, it's probably because you've sent us cr*p we don't want, so we're filtering your emails into the trash, unopened and unread.
If you'd like to have your email address unblocked, simply send a sincere apology (from an un-blocked email address).
YOU CAN HELP
| |
|
| |
The dialogue page is our "letters to the editor" section.
To participate, email your comments to newsuneed at yahoo.com.
|
|
Links in red are not safe for work, and links in pink include audio and/or video.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
