News sources/talk shows

[Tarkus666]

Originally Posted by Oddie999

Here in Australia, Q&A on the ABC with Tony Jones. Fair & balanced and understands he is simply a moderator for the guest panel.

And as an Aussie, I'd also like to offer an apology to the thinking people of the world for giving you Rupert Murdoch. We thought you could take a joke...

I presume the panelists hold different views? The current US system on cable news is to get many people of different views but they are either friendly combatants who are pro-Republic/Democrat and then after their daily appearance probably go for coffee so they can plan what they are going to say tomorrow. Or we have unchallenged experts who get to say whatever nonsense suits them and the host just sits there nodding as if the next equally unqualified expert's unchallenged rebuttal somehow equalizes everything.

We have lost the days when someone like a Murrow would tear a McCarthy apart for essentially just lying. Instead it all just sound bites and the more unfounded and ridiculous the statement the happier the host.

Does Australia have anything akin to the BBC's Hardtalk?

[Dr Pepper]

Isn't 'unqualified expert' an oxymoron?

[Tarkus666]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

Isn't 'unqualified expert' an oxymoron?

They call them 'pundits' which translates from the original Hindi as 'wisdom'.

Not a lot of wisdom coming from those folks.

Besides all sorts of experts are unqualified. All you need to be considered as an expert on Conservative Talk Radio is a microphone that works and an audience that doesn't.

[SanteeFats]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

Isn't 'unqualified expert' an oxymoron?

Actually the unqualified part might just be the right preface.

[tsunamiSD]

Since the title of this thread includes 'talk shows' I thought this might fit here:
Waiting for the Conservative Jon Stewart

[Dropped52]

Originally Posted by Tarkus666

Actually I like PBS news and some of the network national news services in Canada/US. I used to watch BBC but thanks to my cable provider being an idiot you have to purchase both the 'all news package' and then the 'BBC add-on' to get it, (how can the have an All News Channel and not include BBC?). Plus I read the Reuters feed and news pages. Once in a while I will check out Al Jazeera not so much for an objective view but rather because quite often they are the only source for stories that most of the Western mainstream news organization gate keep.

What you are suggesting is the problem with most of TV today in that people do go to a Fox or MSNBC because they show news opinion shows that the viewer already holds to be true. So it isn't so much that it is News but rather Fox repeating that Obama is socialist born in Kenya or MSNBC indicating that every Republican thinks Ayn Rand is just too liberal.

News used to be about reporting events. Now it seems to be more about the personalities pushing their perspective.

I would say for every person that points to fox news as too right leaning "what would be your mainstream? Cnn? Abc, NBC and the like? With the big cable channels your going to have people like Shawn Hannity and bill O'Reilly to one side and on the opposite side you have Maddow and Erin Burnette and forget the mainstream news like Abc NBC and CBS they all have left leaning journalist. I want someone to tell the truth without getting a grin when it makes their opponents look bad. I think that is what we need now, as a country, to end this political poisoning of the well so to say. That's the reason why dems and Republicans can't come together. I personally find the hosts like Hannity and Maddow as the worst because they are so hard lined to their point of view that even if someone elses point of view is a good point it's wrong because it differs from theirs.

[Tarkus666]

Originally Posted by Dropped52

I would say for every person that points to fox news as too right leaning "what would be your mainstream?

Okay first of all why do you focus on Fox News when I mention it but not MSNBC at the same time?

Second the problem with Fox and MSNBC is that they both engaged in a practice where they first present the "Opinion not News" shows and then later in the day they cite those shows as a source of news on their so called News shows.

News like a documentary is always going to be considered as somewhat biased simply because a: those who perceive it will attach their prejudice to the consumption and b: once the gate keeper is involved some items are included and excluded and that in of itself will contribute to the bias. However there is a big difference between the nuance of bias versus a news organization like Fox embracing a Mission Statement that the Conservative view is not being heard and/or MSNBC equivalently assuming a position that the destruction of the Conservative mantra is their raison d'etre. A news report should at the minimum be initiated from the construct that it is there to objectively report the news.

And to that end keep in mind that is the mandate that media companies were expected to operate on. In return for access to the public airwaves local and network media outlets were required to provide a public value which was the news. It was only pride and not economics that resulted in NBC/CBS/ABC/CBC/BBC making quality news reporting a goal since to this day networks lose money on the news. Cable news under Ted Turner turned that model on its head, granted CNN was lucky to have reporters who became trapped Baghdad during the first Gulf War, where the concept of news profitable was initiated. This changed everything.

Originally Posted by Dropped52

Cnn? Abc, NBC and the like? With the big cable channels your going to have people like Shawn Hannity and bill O'Reilly to one side and on the opposite side you have Maddow and Erin Burnette and forget the mainstream news like Abc NBC and CBS they all have left leaning journalist. I want someone to tell the truth without getting a grin when it makes their opponents look bad. I think that is what we need now, as a country, to end this political poisoning of the well so to say. That's the reason why dems and Republicans can't come together. I personally find the hosts like Hannity and Maddow as the worst because they are so hard lined to their point of view that even if someone elses point of view is a good point it's wrong because it differs from theirs.

I would suggest that for the most part the network news programs held out the longest. The dark days of news resided from 2001 - 2005 when due to the Afghan war almost every news organization was nothing more than a mouth piece for the Bush press-corp. It wasn't until Katrina in 2005 that Anderson Cooper remembered that he was a reporter and not an American President apologist and essentially had the audacity to say "I AM HERE AND THE PRESIDENT IS LYING!" Since that point most mainstream news has degenerated into this uneasy alliance of the really stupid going onto Fox where they know they won't be challenged for saying things like "people who go into prison come out gay" and the rest of the networks and politicians play to the proverb "there is no such thing as bad publicity".

Not sure why you would suggest Erin Burnette is particularly a problem child unless you adhere to the principle of most Republicans that anything I say should never be held against me and asking me questions about my belief's when I attack others for theirs is nothing but guerrilla journalism.

You are absolutely correct when you say that the hard-lines from the voices do nothing but push the context that there are only two polar dualities. Consider the current strategy of Jeb Bush. Essentially he is taking the position that the whole Republican vetting process is all about the crazy, all about the 25% of the party that don't want slavery taught in US history classes because it undermines both their belief that Ronald Regan in fact stopped slavery in 1776 and it undermines US Exceptionalism. So his approach is to just stay in the game and then wait for the Republican Nomination Convention and hope that the 75% more reasonable Republicans will think that even if he isn't a perfect Conservative he is a better choice than the current front runner; Cthulhu as summoned by Dick Cheney. This is the problem with both the politics and the reporting of it; extremes. We either have to embrace the wackos on the left who are sure if we just spend enough tax payer money that everyone will be rich or the wackos on the right who think if we invade enough countries and give all the money to the wealthy that God will arrive to give America a new reality. Meanwhile 70% of the population says "isn't there something in between Communism on crack or Armageddon?"

Apparently not at least that is what the news indicates.

So to my point above that you replied to. I get my news from dozens of sources and no doubt still have it wrong but I have a far better grasp than the vast majority of people who adhere to any set sources.

[Tarkus666]

For the latest reality on the so called News!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpYIKF1wuyE

[LadyLuck]

I watch all of them or more correctly I read all of the websites. That is the only way to gather the entire picture. CNN passes on certain things you will only see on Fox and vice versa. Trying to find one outlet you like and only viewing/reading that outlet is a flawed premise, in my opinion. Nancy Grace is a miserable shrew but does make a good point every now and then.

[LadyLuck]

Originally Posted by SanteeFats

I do not care for Nancy Grace, Madcow Maddow, or Hannitty. Why? They are just too damn strident and one sided from what I have seen.

I am just thankful we got rid of Piers Morgan. Did we ever deport that chump back to the UK where he belongs?