FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012
Where the freak were the Reuters scribes: We’ll offer one last thought about MSNBC’s conduct this week:
We’ll offer our thought in the form of a question. Where were the Reuters reporters?
Last Friday, Reuters posted this detailed report by Andy Sullivan and Greg Roumeliotis. Amy Goodman, a serious progressive, interviewed Sullivan on Democracy Now (click here).
We wish she had done a better job. If anything, we think she tried to cover too much ground in too short a time.
But at MSNBC, the hosts sit around killing time from 6-11 PM each night. (Excluding Friday, when the channel starts its weekend life-in-prison shows at 10 PM sharp.) Where were Sullivan and Roumeliotis? Why weren’t the reporters brought on the air to explain the things they had learned?
You got the old shoeshine from Rachel last night. The child is paid $2 million per year. She tries to hand you plenty of laughs, and a good tribal feel, in exchange for that big sack of cash.
Is that really what you want? Because that’s what you’re getting sold there.
Not the first time: In 2009, MSNBC never tried to tell you why health care costs two to three times as much in this country, on a per person basis, as it does everywhere else.
Question: Why do these overpaid corporate clowns give you so little real info?
NBC is partners with Bain Capital. Brian Williams made a statement the other night on NBC Nightly News to that effect. Maybe this is already well known, but I seldom hear it mentioned.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is the winner.
DeleteThe meanness of a class of media supporters of President Obama is beyond anything I have experienced in my aware life which is now about 30 years. What else could we call Gail Collins? Gail Collins has been seemingly crazed in lying about Romney and insuring the lie would prevail. The hatred that is reflected in the writing of a Collins is truly scary.
ReplyDeleteBob Somerby has written about not understanding Collins exactly, but Collins is the essence of elitist prejudice, the essence of elitist dishonesty and disdain. That is all the understanding I need. Collins is a shameless and harmful liar who obviously basks in the love she gains for lying and harming.
ReplyDeleteODonnell had a Reuters guy on Thursday, but he was introduced as an economics blogger. He offered some amateur psychological insights into how people who do what Bain does are very bad people. No facts, though.
ReplyDeleteI love Democracy Now, but I did not find the discussion about Bain Capital clear enough on listening or reading and I am highly educated. Also, I read the Reuters report and still have many questions. Please continue to help on this.
ReplyDeleteI'm a regular DemocracyNow viewer who is occasionally disappointed by Amy Goodman's interviews.
ReplyDeleteI watch DemocracyNow on Dish Network channel 9415, Free Speech TV. I recently discovered a new (to me) channel on Dish, RT (formerly Russia Today, channel 280). The news reporting is of a generally higher quality than you get on CNN, MSNBC, etc (not a high bar to clear, for sure, and as for MSNBC in particular, I won't watch any channel that gives a high profile to that gang of assholes on Scarborough's show) and I would highly recommend a couple of their commentary shows. In the afternoon every weekday is a 1/2 hour financial program called Capital Account. Each show features a 10 or 15 minute interview with an expert guest- some of the recent guests were Dean Baker, Michael Hudson, William Black, and Nomi Prins. A little later is The Alonya Show, a one hour show covering a broader range of topics e.g. war, Wikileaks, NDAA, etc.
While neither of these shows are perfect (what is?), they are both head and shoulders above the shit we get on the more well known cable stations.
I wrote the comment immediately above this one and would like to offer a correction. When I woke up this morning, my wife had on Up with Chris Hayes (it's apparently a new show, on Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 10am). It features Chris Hayes as moderator with 4 guests, one of whom today was Jack Abramoff. Hayes is an excellent interviewer- he asks incisive questions while remaining polite (he does strike me as being a genuinely nice person). Later in the show was a discussion of SOPA, with one of the guests being an NBC lawyer defending the proposed bill- Hayes didn't seem to pull any punches with his questions.
ReplyDeleteFrom now on, I'll be making it a point to watch his program on MSNBC. However, Scarborough can still go fuck himself.