How much do the "talking heads" really know about what they are reporting on?

[kentuck]

Are most of them just readers of the news? Do they study what is going on in the world? Or are most of them just ignorant of what is happening?

Did they get their job because they "looked good" on camera? Or did they have the right "connection"? Or did they get their job because they are knowledgeable about what they are reporting on?

It seems to me that there are very few that know what is really going on. They only report what is put in front of them. So long as their hair looks good...

[hippiechick]

1. I'll take "looks good on camera" for $500, Kentuck ...

:hi:

[ComerPerro]

6. Dirty Laundry, Don Henley

The bubble-headed bleach-blonde comes on at five,
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye,
its interesting when people die, give us Dirty Laundry...

...

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here,
I just have to look good I don't have to be clear...

[napi21]

2. Some just read, but some really do know what's going on too.

The ones you see traveling to Iraq, New Orleans, or even some on the WH Press Corps seem to know what they're talking about, even if you disagree with them.

[tridim]

3. Olbermann: 99% - Rita Cosby: 2%

Katie Couric: <1%

[Cocoa]

4. some are more knowledgable than others

Wolf Blitzer for example knows quite a bit, relatively speaking.

But the ones that know the most don't see the light of day on TV, like Robert Fisk.

[Missy M]

8. Wolf Blitzer has always seemed to like repeating White House..

talking points.

[ComerPerro]

5. actually, David Byrne has been really outspoken against the war

:silly:

[nam78_two]

7. I know that that asshat Glenn Beck was talking about global warming one time

and said about something "That was published in something called 'Nature' and I think the Bush admin. has a leetle more credibility than this 'Nature' or whatever...."

Its just shameful that CNN allows some idiot to talk about science when they don't even know what 'Nature' is...:eyes:



"Something called 'Nature'"....feh...

[Bitwit1234]

9. Newsreaders....

This is what they have started to be called in UK...they got sick and tired of the way the media screwed them over with the news. They said none of the newsreaders care a bit about the truth, they READ what the owners put in front of them....I think that is what we should call the ones in front of the camera here. They never go out and do journalist reporting, except for people like Anderson Cooper and a few others.

[Alamom]

10. Kentuck, you talkin "Blonde Barbies" or "Plastic Hair Kens"?

Disclaimer: I am not into bashing people's looks. I flipped from channel to channel one morning and they all are beginning to look just alike. I have no idea what their names are anymore...

We use to know their names due to differences in how they reported AND from WHERE !

Now, they are all behind a desk and you wonder if they even get out in the weather...much less where the news is happening.

There are a few who have my upmost admiration for being in Iraq and other places where conditions are terrible and dangerous.


The rest are Desk People. They read what is put in front of them.

That's my answer.....they can read, Kentuck.

[trof]

15. As much as I dislike Candy Crowley...

She's about the only one left who looks like somebody you might see at the Winn-Dixie.

[Armstead]

11. It's a feedback loop -- They watch and read the same stuff we do

The ongoing evolution of "conventional wisdom" in the MSM seems to merely be a self-perpetuiating feedback loop. The same concepts -- and even exact phrases -- just seem to go around and around.

These dorks watch and read each other and then regurgitate what they hear as pundits. Maybe they make a few phone calls to be "reporters" but they all call the same few people, and repeat the same s
The whole spin about Howard Dean was a classic example.He is basically a moderate liberal pragmatist, but because he dared to veer slightly from the beltway Wisdom, and has a real personality, he was characterized as a representative of the "far left."

Once the media echo chamber started repeating that, it just looped and looped and fed itself.

So, the short answer is that You Too Could Be Pundit and "Reporter" if you watch an hour or two of television and read a couple of magazines and newspapers.

[zbdent]

12. Most could be replaced by that "text reader" you get with a new

computer ...

You know, on Windows (xp):

click on start
All Programs
Accessories
Accessibility
Narrator

And, with today's computers, they could hire a smart guy to have a virtual person on screen move its lips in sync with the sounds ...

Many people wouldn't be able to tell the difference ...

[Imagevision]

13. If you can't read a teleprompter? - you're pretty much screwed!

[tinfoil tiaras]

14. Like the female Faux anchors?

All of them are suspeciously typical-pretty girl looking, imho.

Don't know if I can say the same about the guys on Faux (Billo? Brit Hume? :puke: ), exept for Hannity. Even though he may be a major douchebag, the man looks like Brad Pitt compared to Alan Colmes (sorry, Alan).