Ace:
I think I'm giving up on FoxNews. The channel has become far too aggressively lowbrow, stupid, and carnival-barker-ish for my tastes. My tastes aren't exactly elevated, but I do have limits, and FoxNews has violated mine.
Almost every time I have the channel on I feel stupid, because it's so clearly chasing the stupid demographic. And I'm not part of that demographic, and do not wish to be treated as part of that demographic.
Maybe this is how it's been getting ratings all along and I never noticed. Well, I'm noticing now. I'd rather watch friggin' CNN than this televised coloring book for mental defectives.
[snip]
Here's some news for Fox: Your core audience is conservative. Not retarded. I assure you they're not the same thing, though you seem to believe they are.
Amen. I can't watch CNN for long before my blood starts to boil because it leans too hard to the Left. But contrary to popular opinion, FoxNews does not lean Right; it leans Stupid. It is a channel with flashy graphics instead of information. The morning show Fox & Friends seems to pride itself on its clownishness. The female reporters appear to be hired on the basis of cup size instead of verbal coherency. Whenever I watch FoxNews (because the TV in front of my elliptical trainer at the gym is stuck on it), I leave feeling like I've lost a few IQ points as well as calories.
This is the same reason why I don't watch local news as well. I can't even remember who the current mayor of Orlando is because the local news cares only for cute puppies, community service fairs, weather, and ceaseless babbling between news bubbleheads on the most trivial of topics.
I once encountered a local news station in Dallas that actually reported, you know, news, but that was the only exception in my experience.
NPR, that bastion of Leftist journalism, at least assumes that listeners can comprehend three-syllable words.
At the root, both FoxNews and local news stations do not take their jobs seriously.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
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12 comments:
My sentiments exactly. A couple weeks ago we thought our Satellite TV provider had mistakenly changed the Fox News Channel with the all Paris Hilton channel.
I don't agree with you on your assessment that they don't take their jobs seriously, I think we've been fooled into believing their job is to deliver news. It's not - their job is to sell advertising. And the pandering to the lowest common denominator shows that they do take their job of selling advertising quite seriously.
I've taken to calling it the "Fox Gossip Channel."
Jimmy Kimmel has started doing this hilarious skit called "How is that News?" Fox has made it on there a few times. You've got to see it, it is great!!!
I've started listening to NPR almost exclusively for news and politics, not because I agree with them, but because they can host a civilized conversation and be polite about it. No yelling, no threats of cutting the microphones, and qualified spokespersons on both sides of the topic - concepts that the televised news media fails to even comprehend, let alone apply.
Cable news in general considers their viewers to be simpletons. CNN is more tabloid than anything as well as FOX no matter what your ideology is. MSNBC, when they're not showing their "documentaries" aka Dateline NBC retreads has the same stories over and over and I can stand most of their reporters/hosts of their programs.
I do read newspapers online with different slants. For me, since I live in Northern Kentucky, I read the Cincinnati Enquirer for the conservative side of things and the Lexington Herald-Leader for the liberal view. That way, I make my own decisions on things.
I especially love the cheese shots of the fox gals!
News is all contoversial now, they do not report what is important. It would take a set of values to determine and order what is importaent
I used to work at a local TV news station. Toward the end of my 20-year career there, a new general manager came on board and announced at a meeting of the entire news staff, "remember, it's not news, it's entertainment!" And he meant what he said.
As for your comments regarding Fox & Friends, I'm in general agreement, although I suspect the two male anchors are more bubble headed than any of the blondes.
For those of us who still can think for ourselves and don't need all day news, I have to recommend the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Excellent news reporting. Check your local PBS station.
Of for those of you who have BBC America, you can't go wrong with BBC World Edition either.
CNN (also known as Glenn Beck's TV employer) leaning left?
Fox not leaning right?
You must be joking. Fox does lean stupid, but it does unabashedly lean right. (Leaning right and leaning stupid are not the same thing, and I am implying no such thing). They go out of their way to kiss Bush's but every chance they get, and still haven't gotten over blaming Clinton for pretty much everything.
Tell us what you REALLY think, John.
I listen to NPR because I really think that some three syllable words in a conversation add spice.
Fox not leaning right?
You must be joking. Fox does lean stupid, but it does unabashedly lean right. (Leaning right and leaning stupid are not the same thing, and I am implying no such thing). They go out of their way to kiss Bush's but every chance they get, and still haven't gotten over blaming Clinton for pretty much everything.
Yes, FoxNews leans Right. I miswrote. It's just hard to remember that it leans Right in the midst of its constant deluge of baffoonery.
I agree for the most part, but there are some excellent exceptions: "Special Report with Brit Hume" (the 6 o'clock evening news), "Fox News Sunday," "Weekend Live," and "Beltway Boys."
If they'd stick to the sober, intellectual model those shows follow, it would be a much better programming choice.
I'd love Fox to decide to be a conservative version of NPR or the BBC, and they could build it with the shows above.
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