Today is one full week of no Cable news for me. Even the one we call ours.

[pwb]

It made me think back to when elections and politics lasted only a month or so every year. These channels invented politics everyday and now we are at each other daily about stupid invented rage.
Hour after hour of the same dribble from different mouths. Opinions of the same people over and over again. Always asking what are your thoughts as if it was news. 24 hour news is 23 hours too much. IMO. Go Networks.

[NewHendoLib]

1. welcome to a happier day! 17 years for me.

[PortTack]

2. Same..been a lot more than a week. Even with "our" network there's a lot of ranting for ratings

It’s very divisive

[RussBLib]

3. there is so much news out there to cover

and yet, it's Covid, Afghanistan, Covid, Afghanistan, Congress, Covid, Afghanistan, etc.

I wish MSNBC would actually take 5-10 minutes each hour for actual news, international and domestic. Some weather would be good too.

I hardly watch much these days if it isn't already on the DVR.

[GoodRaisin]

6. Not if it's Fox.

Fox still finds opportunities to mix in their regular “coverage” of border, illegals, crime, socialism, crt, etc., in addition to their Biden bashing. If this Afghanistan withdrawal was going on with a Republican President, identical circumstances, Fox would be praising him around the clock and blaming Democrats.

Democrats don’t have a propaganda channel.

[RussBLib]

11. I guess it's a good thing

that the Dems don't have a propaganda channel. We are not "like them" which is true, but then we sit and watch the populace get brainwashed by bullshit and we basically wring our hands. There has to be a counter to the lies and distortions, but I don't know how we get it thru to the people that most need it.

It's maddening when Dems take the high road only to watch the road erode from under our feet.

[GoodRaisin]

19. Maybe.

It could have worked. It would be nice right now to have a channel with a viewership like Fox but where they talk nice about Joe all the time just to offset the channel that bashes him all the time. Don’t want lying, hateful propaganda like Fox News. Just talk up the good things that Dems are doing that pushes back on all the lies by Fox News. We are certainly seeing that CNN and MSNBC aren’t helping us much to that regard.

Unfortunately, it’s a little late in the game to establish that now.

[LearnedHand]

4. Well done, and I hope this works out for you

I think the 24-hour cycle was the beginning of it, yes, but the death knell of trusted, factual broadcast news was the 1996 telecommunications act that allowed consolidation of televised media with entertainment companies.

I gave up TV broadcast news altogether, including local, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Still hung on to NPR, with increasing disgust, until TFG was installed. Since they treated the election as a choice of equally valid candidates, that broke it for me. I get 100% of my news from online trusted sources (The Guardian, WaPo, etc.) and believe it or not, from DU, who is the best news aggregator ever. I prefer to never again have my news predigested by “analysts.”

A note about subscribing: The Guardian (my fave) is a membership thing for which I pay $69/yr. Very reasonable. RE WaPo: Anyone with a valid .gov, .mil, or .edu email address can get a FREE basic digital subscription. Search their FAQs for how to do this.

[CrispyQ]

5. This: Hour after hour of the same dribble from different mouths.

I still like Joy Reid & Chris Hayes, but I don't watch them every night. By the time you've read DU you know what's happened in the world. Recently I checked out Cheddar news & like it a lot. Not much politics.

[Ocelot II]

7. I went out of town to wander in the north woods,

and because I didn't miss all the repetitive hullaballoo I haven't had the tv on since I got back except for Netflix movies. I listen to music during the day instead, when I'm not outside. It's nice.

[tetedur]

8. I don't want to hear the bat shit from Greene

I don't need the insanity from Gatz. I won't tolerate the ludicrously hypocritical statements from Lindsey, McConnell, McCarthy. I won't listen to the mind-bending ridiculousness from Cruz, Boebert, Gaetz, Moran, Tuberville, Gomert and Gym jacket-off Jordan.

I don't think that the bile that spews from Fox News' Carlson, Ingraham and Hannity is newsworthy. I refused to support Fox news so I cut the TV cable years ago.

I would love to hear sound, reasoned debate on the issues of the day from knowledgeable people. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a place to go to find such. Imagine that, no place to go to hear real debate in this country!

I did hear a theory that the churning of the shit-show cycle triggers anger in people and it can be addictive. I think that is what the talking head shows are selling because the more controversy they can stir the more viewers tune in. They do not ask what is the overall effect on the American people and what does it do to our collective psyche.

[pwb]

16. I cut the cable long ago too but

some cable channels are on HULU so I still have to, as you said avoid the impulse. We have pretty good debate here?

[msfiddlestix]

9. Good for you! Isn't it Liberating? it is for me.

[Tink41]

10. 13 yrs myself N/T

[cally]

12. I only watched one hour of Rachel in 10 days

I don’t think I missed anything and I am less stressed about current events. Worried about California fires but less Afghanistan for now. I find cable news is constant fear promotion.

[ananda]

13. I don't like to add to their ratings if they don't deserve it.

And lately they have been VERY undeserving.

[oioioi]

14. Television

[pecosbob]

15. Fifteen years cable free

Would rather have my toes chewed off by rats.

[brooklynite]

17. Elections never lasted"only a month or so"

You just weren’t aware of them.

[Elessar Zappa]

18. I just watch CBS Evening News.

The cable networks suck.