However, if you need to provide your readers with what my normal television viewing habits are – it includes shows like Lost, Sopranos, Project Runway and oddly enough MTV’s Pimp My Ride (boy does Mad Mike & gang do some crazy tricked out stuff). However, outside of an occasional Keith Olberman, I do not watch cable news.
To be honest, I survived years, perhaps decades without cable news. When cable started to expand, my parents stuck with the main 13 channels and when I moved out on my own struggling to get by on my single salary of very little, Cable was nothing more than a luxury that I couldn’t afford but didn’t really miss since I never had it. I figured there was plenty of news I could watch on the Network News and PBS, NPR in the car and perhaps the local newspaper left behind by someone in the office breakroom.
So when I moved in 2001, I pretty much decided it was time I would get some cable when I found the rabbit ears could only pick up one station and then just barely. And I started to watch cable news. But the news was nothing like I what I was use to with the Networks. Instead of 30 minutes to cram it all in there, the cable news stations had hours upon hours to rehash the same stuff over and over again, where it was killer sharks, killer bees or who killed Chandra Levy. I didn’t find this very interesting to watch and I stuck with my Network News (CBS btw, I’m a Dan Rather fan).
But like the rest of the world, I was glued to cable news during 9/11. I don’t think I turned my TV off once for that week after it happened and it was regular viewing in the months afterwards. We knew that bin Laden was behind these crimes and living in the mountains of Afghanistan. So I was definitely interested in watching cable news to see what our troops were doing in Afghanistan and if we had caught bin Laden yet.
But then cable news failed me and it failed us. On the turn of a dime, bin Laden was like yesterdays’ news and the Bush administration was ready to blame Iraq for 9/11 even though the terrorist groups were in Afghanistan, none of them were of Iraqi descent and it was a known fact that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were at odds with each other over style of government (Hussein was a secular government whereas bin Laden preferred more of a fundamentalist theocracy.) Cable news forgot all about Osama Bin Laden, our troops in Afghanistan but instead became the Bush administrations number #1 cheerleader for why we need to go to war in Iraq. Even when other countries were questioning the intelligence (and I use that word loosely) from the Bush Administration as to why this invasion was necessary, cable news treated everything like solid indisputable evidence.
And I was realizing that I didn’t care much for cable news. Newsreaders would present the story but with a slant towards the republican viewpoint. And the talking head shows – what a joke. O’Reilly, Hannity, Matthews and a host of other right-wing screeds editorialize the news and why I must believe it with no questions asked. I wasn’t getting the news from cable news, I was getting an opinion that I was suppose to accept without question and personally I find that offensive.
My opinions perhaps were harsh that day of the post I made which you quoted but re-reading them again I stand by most of them (BBC kept calling them ‘Asian’ which to this American means from Eastern Asia but perhaps to a Londoner means something else). Even MSNBC.com(1) reported that there was conflict over when the arrests were to be made, with London wishing to wait a bit longer until more evidence and perhaps even more suspects were rounded up whereas the US wanted to get this out right away. And ironically it happened right after Joe Lieberman lost and Dick Cheney went so far to “suggest that the ouster of Mr. Lieberman might encourage “al Qaeda types.” (2). I use to worry about those Orange Alerts until I realized that they always seemed to happen at strategic times when elections are nearing or perhaps a bad story is about to come out about the Bush administration. So color me cynical for questioning.
So there you have it, my confession that not only do I not watch cable news, but haven’t so for a very long time. I’ll stick with my NYTimes, WashPost, PBS and NPR thank you very much.
Sincerely
Cable News Boycotter
LynneSin
PS: I’m still ticked from my last airline flight when I found out I was going cross-country and the only food they were providing was overpriced snack boxes that they ran out of halfway through the cabin.
Footnotes:
1.)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/2.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/washington/10senate.html?ex=1312862400&en=3509ffa426b27fda&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
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