Saturday, July 25, 2020

Cancel your Cable News - And your Social Media "Feed"


Once upon a time, there was "news" in-network news and professional journalists like Walter Lippmann, Edward Murrow, Walter Cronkite, or Jim Lehrer







CNN  -the first Cable New Network that covered 24/7- had news around the world, delivered by independent, professional journalists and sources.

Those were the days of reporters -not commentators- such as Bernard Shaw and Wolf Blitzer


Even Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War I checked the news in CNN instead of relying on his "Baghdad Bob" because in those early days CNN offered information, not opinion or commentary.

There were, of course, op-ed shows and even debates, on both sides of the political spectrum and with solid arguments, such as CrossFire


Or debates such as Baldwin vs Buckley:


Then came the Clinton years and Fox channel and cable news became partisan mouthpieces of each one of the two main political parties: CNN and MSNBC for Democrats and Fox Channel for Republicans. 

Twenty years into the 21st century, there is no more "news" in the news network. Just endless, 24/7 partisan "talking points" delivered by the media equivalents to a Press Secretary.

The rest of the world disappeared from US news. So did the rest to the United States other than what matters for campaign strategists. Cable news became a 24/7, endless "yellow pages" of political ads.

Is time to turn them off and get some news. You can try C-SPAN, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC (finances are still outside the partisan range) Reuters, and all the other international sources now available online.

Save money. Save sanity. Get some actual news. Drop Cable "News" Networks.

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