Fox or CNBC all you've got, at night anyway, guys who try to make their point and only their point no matter how crass they have to become or crazy in their statements. Hannity, Beck, O'Reily all say outrageous things and use snippets of news, out of context to prove their points. O'Reily likes to say, "The spin stops here." but he spins everything he says and he has no qualms of being rude and nasty if it makes his opponent look bad and inferior. His interview with President Obama showed just how little respect he had for the man, the office and the protocol that goes with it. He leaned forward, stuck his fingers in the President's face and seemed to enjoy every minute of his bad behaviour. Glenn Beck is an admitted addict, alcoholic, alcohol is a drug, and yet he is followed by seemingly intelligent people when he says crazy things such as many Presidents, including this present one, especially this one, is letting the Muslims plot and eventually take over the world as we know it. Hannity says whatever he wants about anything and everything whether there is any validity in what he is purporting or not. His interview of Sara Palin is an example of softballing someone who he likes because she has followers from the extreme right. Even though Rush Limbaugh is not on Fox he belongs with them in spirit. He says the most outlandish things coming right out and questioning Obama's citizenship and right to be President. He seems to be the titular head of the Republican Party because no one in that party will ever criticize him for anything. He has a big following,. His ratings are more positive than the Grand Old Party.
Our people on the left at CNBC are really no better than the guys I have mentioned above. "Hard Ball" with Chris Matthews, the guy talks at 150 words a second. He asks the longest convoluted questions then shouts at the guy he's got on his show, if he doesn't agree with him, "Just answer yes, or no." When the guy tries to say a simple yes or no won't suffice Matthews jumps all over him many times shouting. This is idiotic. But get a guy Matthews likes and the treatment is entirely different, because the answer is framed in his question and he likes the guy's opinion. Lawrence O'Donnell is another great guy who brow beats the guy on his show and he entraps him. A little while ago He had a member from the House on who was a Republican who had different views than O'Donnell. Out of nowhere he entraps him by accusing him of breaking the law and knowing it by sleeping in his office and not reporting the gain he gets from that on his tax return. He called him a criminal, albeit a tax evader, but a criminal non-the-less. He yelled and screamed and threatened this young Republican member of the House so much so that I wondered why the guy didn't tell him to shove it instead of thanking him for having him on his show. They both were idiots. Rachel Maddow is very civil but she has a show which seems to be mostly her verbal essay and any guests are strictly echoing her viewpoint. CNBC ends with Ed, a radio talk show host who has made it to TV. Very Liberal and I share most of his views. BUT he too gets very hyper and over the top and tries to bludgeon his ideas into the viewer's heads. At least with Keith Oberman we had humor and more of a low key approach to sensible statements.
The earlier news shows on CNBC are much better starting with "Morning Joe" through the early afternoon. I can't speak for Fox. I find it difficult to tune Fox in because no matter what show I tune into they seem to be hammering home the conservative viewpoint, "fair and balanced" it ain't. I would like to see them all change the approach of spending ten minutes or less on each subject and then ending it by saying, "We're running out of time. We have only 20 seconds left.", and then ask the longest most convoluted question and expect someone to respond in 20 seconds or less. You may not agree with me on this but cable news is driving me back to network news and I've stopped listening to the Radio pundits altogether, including Immus in the morning.
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