Pundits talking to pundits ain't "NEWS"

[Cyrano]

Most of what we're watching on CNN, MSNBC, and yes, even FOX "news," is, for the most part, not what was once called "News."

It's pundits talking to pundits.

NEWS, is what's happening, or what just happened.

Either way, it's not what we used to call "News." It's the opinions of both informed people, in the case of respected outlets, or the lies/propaganda/imbicilibty of those on wingnut outlets.

Whether or not we agree with what is being said, the term "News" has been distorted, abused and turned into a joke.

A hurricane is news. An earthquake is news. A mass shooting is news. A traffic tie up is news. Everything else is pundits expressing their opinions.

We now have an enormous asshole in the White House spewing some shit out of his stupid mouth. And that is now called "news."

I guess that my bottom line here is that Trump has distorted the English language, turned his followers into a distorted "real life" form of the "Living Dead." And turned America into an unrecognizable land of fools who refuse to understand that he's destroying everything we are, and everything we ever aspired to be.

Yet the pundits keep talking and talking and talking about what a horrible aberration he is.

Wake up. He's no longer an abberation. He's become the voice of insanity that we once called America.

He has to go.

Then again, what comes next is an Evangelic lunatic named Pence. And the next in line is an Ayn Rand imbecile called Paul Ryan.

Are we fucked beyond repair. Or can someone tell us how to stop this?. How to end the insanity? How to return America to what we once thought of as America?

Suggestions???

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. That is why Rachel and Lawrence are so valuable, they provide facts and they

get right down to it.

Without MSNBC we would already be in a full dictatorship.

[Cyrano]

2. You may be right.

Rachel and Lawrence analyze news. Virtually everything else is someone's biased viewpoint.

[MineralMan]

3. Precisely. Many people don't understand that, though.

They think that talking heads on the tube mean that news is being disseminated. Instead, it's just opinion based on the news.

We really, really need to separate the two in our minds.

[Cyrano]

16. I believe we've crashed past that point

Far too many people don't distinguish, or are incapable of distinguishing, the difference between opinion and news

[FSogol]

4. K & R. n/t

[Nitram]

5. It can be "news analysis," if done properly with credible academics and journalists.

The meaning of the word "pundit" is "an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public." Of course that rules out anyone you'd hear on Fox. I hear some excellent analysis of the news, providing context and background I wouldn't otherwise get, on NPR. "Just the news" would be fairly meaningless without information that provides context, and illuminates the significance of a particular piece on news. I read the Washington Post for that very reason. If I wanted "just the news" I'd invest in an AP news feed.

[Mediumsizedhand]

6. I agree. I stopped watching this years ago.

These people defining and structuring a story rather than presenting the news for the people to process.

I prefer reading actual words and the fact, myself.

[C_U_L8R]

7. Journalists ought to stand up for their own profession.

Too many have rolled over to make a buck...
true journalists (with integrity) need to police their own profession
and toss the poseurs out while they can.... if it's not already too late.

[Cyrano]

9. Don't you find it incomprehensible that

George Will is now a "spokesperson" on MSNBC?"

Who's next? Hannity? O'Reilly? Limbaugh?

As much as I love Rachael, why is MSNBC willing to hire any wingnut whore who they think people will watch?

[C_U_L8R]

12. George Will and Sean Hannity are not the same

That said, MSNBC is in the media business not the news business.
They make their money by building audiences that they can monetize through advertising.
I don't blame them... that's just what they are. There really aren't any completely trusted news sources any more.

[Cyrano]

13. I still read the NY Times and Washington Post

every morning. Maybe I'm a fool, but I still trust their reporting.

I guess that when I stop believing them, I'll go out and buy a crystal ball.

[C_U_L8R]

14. Far too few.

C'mon journalists...

[C_U_L8R]

11. CNN is off to a good start with this ad

[jrthin]

17. Yes, it's an apple. But if you bring another person

'sTo the conversation, as is CNN's format, to say it's a banana, and the listener to this conversation does not know the difference between an apple or a banana, they leave the conversation, at best, confused, not knowing whom to believe. I think a poster, Cyrano describes it best: circle-jerking.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. It's called "circle-jerking"

Mutual masturbation.

[spanone]

10. it's 'panel news'

they don't have to go out and do any leg work....

every story is a 'breaking news' story

even though it broke many, many hours or days ago

[Cyrano]

15. It pays them a salary

Beyond that, it's a circle jerk that is destroying any sense of what a normal human beings would see as "reality."

[Boomerproud]

18. "Pundit" in the dictionary is described as "Wise person" (I kid you not).