WaffleStomp

CptlA

Wow, can't believe they haven't gone HD yet??

1inxs

MSNBC was one of many news networks included with my cable package. I tried watching a few of them, but only for a short period of time. Most of them seemed to be making news instead of reporting news. I felt they were more propaganda than news. MSNBC is included with the worst of them. I found myself disagreeing with their point of view most of the time on many issues. I have since disconnected cable and therefore I am no longer supporting those channels. I have discovered a whole new world of OTA TV.

antkmom

For some reason when we go on vacation we always watch MSNBC. I guess because we really don't sit down and watch tv, but like to have it on while we are getting ready to hit the beach.

WaffleStomp

Yeah, MSNBC always does seem to take a bias, same with FOX- that's why I prefer CNN.

Same here! I have no idea but whenever I'm on vacation I watch MSNBC over CNN/FOX too, weird eh?

Piggie

They are all bad. 24/7 news cycle is the worst thing that ever happened. Less news more often.

This is my take.

MSNBC - leans left
FOX - leans right
CNN - Leans toward tabloidism

I do watch Rachel Maddow if nothing else is on. She isn't in a war like Keith has started with O'Reilly and Hannity. She brings up things I don't see on other cable news shows. Some times even calls the Obama admin on the table but not much.

To me being an independent, she is too much a Democrat.

Days I miss her I don't miss much.

===
Cable News is just a huge wasteland.

Think about what they have really brought to the table. A lot of we are right the other channel is wrong. Asking people to side with them. Then you find out your neighbor watches the "other" cable news channel. So he is a idiot right? Or and idiot left?

They thrive on the idea of us or them. Forget the fact we are all Americans and each bring things to the table. It's as close to starting a civil war with the media starting it over nothing. Meanwhile anything that is real news or not biased by the corporations isn't reported.

A classic was a story on NBC 6:30 news tonight. They said that responsible credit card users were going to see higher rates and fees because they will need to because the new law won't let them rip off the bad payers, people that should never been approved for a card to been with.

This is hog wash and as a Pig, I know hog wash. My credit union in 30 years has never charged me a fee for my Visa. They have always had the lowest interest. They have zero late fees. They won't give cards to people that can't pay for them. They have very few bad accounts, because they were selective to begin with. They didn't make stupid loans on houses.

The meer idea that the good payers are now on the chopping block, is insane. It means they are ripping everyone off or incompetent or both most likely.

But NBC News just bares the bad news, that rates for good customers are going up. No mention that banks are ripping off the people to begin with. That many current credit card rates would put you in jail for being a "loan shark" just a couple decades ago.

After all the same people that own the banks own the networks. So really, is it possible to believe anything they tell us? No..

They are all a waste.

Aaron62

Gone are the days of unbiased news. I'm pretty conservative but I can't stand talk radio. The thought of someone telling me what and how to think just because I agree with a couple of their issues makes me want to spit. I'm talking about you Limbaugh! and don't get me started on Keith Olbermann.

Where do you go today for completely un-opinionated news? Even our local news the other night judged a police officers actions by what they saw in a few seconds of a video clip. Let the the court or even the viewer make the judgement.


ROFL.

Piggie

News has always been biased. But now it's mega biased. But the dangerous part is with hate and seriously divisive attacks to those not of your view. This helps viewership, that's all, yet it makes people at the water cooler point at people that believe different. That is NOT America.

I resigned from the Republican Party 4 years ago. I refuse to join another party, because they want to tell me how to think. More hogwash!

The other dangerous practice is the use of "experts" to replace what used to be real Investigative Reporters. To me Investigating Reporting more dead than unbiased news. Embedded reporters in a war zone is not the same as free lance reporters wandering around a war zone. Yeah, it may be safer but it's nothing like the nightly news during Vietnam, compared to the sanitized garbage we got from Iraq.

Remember Ashleigh Banfield what worked for MSNBC? She was fired for questioning the war, questioning the way MSNBC and FOX was covering the war. She was too "liberal" for MSNBC, but more over she was exposing the corporate and govt control of the news. She was the last of a new generation of real investigative reporters, but there was no place for her, anywhere. She took a job with court tv, not her forte' (it's now TruTV) but now sure where she works now.

So anyone dumb enough to think that either Fox or MSNBC is telling you the real story needs to do some research on the internet, read some books and open their eyes.

Since I don't think there is any such thing as unbiased news, I just read a lot, listen to various views. A lot of my sources are considered "liberal" by people like Limbaugh, O'Rielly, Hannity. And admittedly a lot of it is with left bias, but it tends to be more inside information than cable or network news. Shows like Bill Moyer, NOW, Frontline on PBS. BookTV on C-SPAN.

Now the problem is the conservatives don't have anything equivalent. The country needs some source of real inside conservative news. Fox news totally misses this and really was never formed to fill that void. All the right wing news is designed to be divisive, us against them, sharp tongued propaganda.

I take that back, there is one person doing some fairly honest conservative news. Don Imus. He is a moderate conservative that also has some liberal values, but over all he is on the right. I don't agree with everything he or anyone says, but he often have guests that present eye opening presentations.

Yeap, it's a wasteland. No it's worse because so many people buy their news.

======

I agree on your last point. The news interviews a law enforcement officer about someone arrested. The reporter to sensationalize determines the person guilty. Anyone heard we have a court system so law enforcement can't just arrest people they don't like? What kind of news is that where they become the judge and jury?

More hogwash.

Aaron62

Completely agreed.

Don shoots a little too much from the hip sometimes too for just the pure shock value. I realize that it gets him viewers but it's a huge negative in my book.

I get most of my news now from internet rss news feeds (from AP) and I know I'm not alone. Media bias is all the fad right now.

Piggie

I agree Don shoots from the hip, it's his style, what kept him on the air (and off the air) over the years.

But more so since he moved to RFD (more so since canned by MSNBC) I Tivo it and forward to the guests. More so than other hosts, he lets his guests talk. He steers the conversation less than most hosts. And he really does get people from both sides.

Politically he is a softball, but that also keeps both sides coming back on the show. But on some other social issues he lets his guest go for it with their opinion.

No it's not perfect, I was just trying to find someone that was a little different from the clones on the 3 big cable networks.

I get my news from a variety of sources, some very biased. But knowing the agenda of each side, you can filter a lot of the news.

But maybe more over it's not really news.

Good example. While the local channels in Florida were worried about this or that missing child, murder, house fire, etc. The FL Legislature passed and the Governor signed a bill doubling car tags, drivers licenses, etc.

They reported it after the fact. Not during the debts. By the time their viewers knew about it, it was too late, except to not vote for them again, but that's not likely.

Or is it the minds of the viewers that don't want real news? I say it's both.