>> ^dag:
While I find this stuff entertaining- it's the equivalent of starting a flame war.
Pretty soon GE security forces are going to start doing drive-bys on NewsCorp.
Instead of MSNBC always calling attention to Fox - I would prefer that they took the high ground.
Maybe I should be watching the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS.
You darn kids with your fancy cable news channels. I don't need no fancy infographics or CGI transitions.


Watch 'em both. NewsHour will spend most of its time talking about real-world events, and will keep its distance from most of the spin from cable news, while Countdown will highlight the latest events in the partisan spin-wars from the Democratic point of view. They'll cover world events only if there's some U.S. politics involved, but you'll never hear about Myanmar, Darfur, Zimbabwe, natural disasters in other countries, etc. on Countdown.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

While I find this stuff entertaining- it's the equivalent of starting a flame war.

Pretty soon GE security forces are going to start doing drive-bys on NewsCorp.

Instead of MSNBC always calling attention to Fox - I would prefer that they took the high ground.

Maybe I should be watching the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS.

You darn kids with your fancy cable news channels. I don't need no fancy infographics or CGI transitions.

"osama never once said he was responsible for 9/11"

how do you back that up? A 2 second google will show every news outlet on the planet reporting the video tape in which *he* takes credit for it.

eg.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/binladen_10-29-04.html

>> ^doremifa:
After following the news for some time I have come to this conclusion:
Fox News = anti-Obama
CNN = Pro-Democrat
MSN = Pro-Obama (except morning Joe Scarbourogh show)
I admire NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS) and CSPAN.


Really, CNN is Pro-Democrat? I don't watch a lot of CNN, but I generally think of them as Fox-lite these days.

MSNBC is all over the map in my opinion. Olbermann is strongly pro-Obama, but the rest of the network is pretty neutral. Except all the Republican analysts are uniformly pro-Clinton, though I find that's consistent right now across all media everywhere.

PBS is wonderful. It reminds me what real TV journalism looks like. They try their best to provide an even-handed report of the facts, sans spin.

After following the news for some time I have come to this conclusion:

Fox News = anti-Obama
CNN = Pro-Democrat
MSN = Pro-Obama (except morning Joe Scarbourogh show)

I admire NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS) and CSPAN.

Are you saying there are pro-war news stations? Oh, you mean pro-Iraq war; Fox News. Well sure, Fox News could show funeral processions for fallen soldiers or hospitals full of Iraqi civilians after a bombing run... the footage exists, but we both know why they don't.

I think you should give the NewsHour a chance sometime if you havn't. Its no-frills national and world news free of opinions and commentary. I first really started watching it because their embedded journalists were letting the soldiers do the talking (instead of some asshat in the greenzone giving their opinion). If they have a slant thats against people dying, well, I would hope that is just a reflection of the default human condition.



In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
That's good to know, but don't you think that a Pro-war news station should be doing that?

In reply to this comment by bamdrew:
... not a PBS watcher? NewsHour with Jim Lehrer closes with name, rank, and hometown accompanying a picture of every fallen soldier as the news is broken and pictures are made available, each shown in silence for 5 or 6 seconds.


In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
I'm not saying that each one should have a detailed write-up - but would 15 fucking seconds really hurt that bad? Rank, name, location and event of death - Is that really so much to ask? Regardless if you support the war or not, you should still care about the troops.

@MG; ... not a PBS watcher? NewsHour with Jim Lehrer closes with name, rank, age and hometown accompanying a picture of every fallen soldier as the news is broken and pictures are made available, each shown in silence for 5 or 6 seconds.

That's good to know, but don't you think that a Pro-war news station should be doing that?

In reply to this comment by bamdrew:
... not a PBS watcher? NewsHour with Jim Lehrer closes with name, rank, and hometown accompanying a picture of every fallen soldier as the news is broken and pictures are made available, each shown in silence for 5 or 6 seconds.


In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
I'm not saying that each one should have a detailed write-up - but would 15 fucking seconds really hurt that bad? Rank, name, location and event of death - Is that really so much to ask? Regardless if you support the war or not, you should still care about the troops.

... not a PBS watcher? NewsHour with Jim Lehrer closes with name, rank, hometown and age, accompanying a picture of every fallen soldier as the news is broken and pictures are made available, each shown in silence for 5 or 6 seconds.


In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
I'm not saying that each one should have a detailed write-up - but would 15 fucking seconds really hurt that bad? Rank, name, location and event of death - Is that really so much to ask? Regardless if you support the war or not, you should still care about the troops.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

My point was more that because the belief systems on the coasts and the middle are so different- a "one size fits all" federal government doesn't work. A "loose confederation" is more appropriate. We can't avoid the fact that the majority of Kansas voter want ID in the classroom, that's their problem - not Oregon's.

In reply to this comment by guessandcheck:
In reply to this comment by dag:

...IMHO this is not a bad thing. The disharmony between the coastal states and "Jesustan" in the middle, highlights that the US is made up of regions where the majority have very little in common with each other.

Kansas wants to teach Intelligent Design in the classroom? OK, fine. Thank Darwin, I'm from the Republic of California.

no, we need a federal government that keeps kansas from doing this kind of thing. i'm from iowa and was very upset that our highschool(in 2000 mind you)let christian church youth ministers in to eat lunch with the students and hand out free snacks to people that would sit with them. there's no reason religion belongs in our schools. students have the right to their own beleifs, but religion should be taught in a classical lit class and not as a science. the midwest needs some outer influence to keep it from being absorbed into the religious abyss, for the sake of the minority that can't abandon their homes for a coast (though most want too ).

In reply to this comment by dag:

...IMHO this is not a bad thing. The disharmony between the coastal states and "Jesustan" in the middle, highlights that the US is made up of regions where the majority have very little in common with each other.

Kansas wants to teach Intelligent Design in the classroom? OK, fine. Thank Darwin, I'm from the Republic of California.

no, we need a federal government that keeps kansas from doing this kind of thing. i'm from iowa and was very upset that our highschool(in 2000 mind you)let christian church youth ministers in to eat lunch with the students and hand out free snacks to people that would sit with them. there's no reason religion belongs in our schools. students have the right to their own beleifs, but religion should be taught in a classical lit class and not as a science. the midwest needs some outer influence to keep it from being absorbed into the religious abyss, for the sake of the minority that can't abandon their homes for a coast (though most want too ).

set up cameras to record this kind of stuff because they are the ones that get off on it.

Then it is, by definition, snuff - filming of a death for entertainment purposes.

I think it should go, because as lucky points out, it will encourage stuff like this. In other words, even though this particular vid doesn't show a human being torn in half, it might as well have done so for the effect it has.


I've yet to see a local newspaper that actually lists pictures and names of every single American that dies over there.

It's not a newspaper, but the Newshour on PBS has a silent tribute to every soldier KIA at the end of their broadcast. I agree with gorgon that this does not tell us what's happening over there. There are many sources of information about what is happening, and random vids of people getting blown up is not one of them.

I'm surprised the Zapruder film would have been denied a place here, as it is clearly more than random violence. It's a historical document.

Every time you think reporting in the US couldnt possibly get any worse, they come up with shit like this and sinks to a new low *terrible

Thankfully, there are some exceptions in this madness, watch this interview with Gravel thats actually about politics instead of this crap.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Mike-Gravel-on-PBS-The-NewsHour-with-Jim-Lehrer

I just heard one of the greatest quotes about poetry last night in an interview with the new Poet Laureate, Charles Simic. The text is unfortunately not up, so I'll have to paraphrase. A student asked him "What good is poetry?", and for a moment Simic was taken aback, because it is a very serious and profound question. Another student raised her hand and Simic asked her what she thought about it. To which she responded, "The purpose of poetry is to remind us of our humanity."

I disagreed with the premise of Andrew Keen's book, "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture", when I read his interview on the newshour, but I think he may be right after all.