What is up with MSNBC's "prison fetish"?

[NightWatcher]

I am troubled by their extensive schedule of prison shows that run nearly every night (late) and every weekend all weekend long.

Is this simply lazy programming or something more?

I studied Penology (hehe) in college as a part of my BS in CJ and I never understood the fascination with prison outside of a power trip on the part of those who like watching and reading about (and even working in) prisons. Is there some power trip that the people get from watching men in handcuffs in uniforms locked up behind bars?

Is this freaking anyone else out? Why do they do it (msnbc)?

[blm]

1. I've said the same for years. Poppy Bush and his buddies in the private prison industry

want to keep it a growing industry, I guess.

[Eurobabe]

2. It's non-stop garbage with them on the weekends

At least CNN has Ballot Bowl.

[question everything]

12. And "on the money"

Without politics or major news events like Katrina, or the California fires, or Anna Nicole Smith, they don't have much to say. We sometimes forget that.

And were it not for Olbermann, they would still be in the basement. Which is surprising, considering they are part of Newsweek.

[JerseygirlCT]

3. I don't know, but it makes me nuts

I keep thinking Dan Abrams has some sort of psychological problem.

[Ian David]

11. Keep in mind that Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock is based on Dan "Mark Karr" Abrams

[Joanne98]

4. Thankyou! I've been bitching about that for 6 months now!

I've even emailed them. As far as I'm concerned they are promoting a POLICE STATE. It's SICK and they should take that shit off the air!

[ixion]

5. our society has become prison happy: it has become the "cure-all"

and a big money maker. The Truth is that putting people in prison who are not violent only makes matters worse, not better. It destroys that persons life, and their families. Our penchant with prisons is destroying our society, not making it better, IMO.

[Cleita]

6. I thought the same thing. It's like everyone goes home at a

certain time and they just put a stack of pretaped shows to run until the next morning. Of course the prison programs are sensationalist and bound to hook viewers who aren't interested in the news but that their sponsors might want to advertise to.

It is laziness and a lack of willingness to do real news and in depth stories. It might get them into trouble with the Department of Propaganda you know.

[SoCalDem]

7. NBC has warehouses full of ancient Dateline shows

and since they focused on crime..they just splice them together and remake them.. just edit Jane Pauley & Stone Phillips out of the realllly old ones, and get Siegenthaler to "intro" them..and voila'.."new show"..

Between MSNBC's crime fetish & CNN's money fetish & C-span's love affair with all-things-conservative thinktank weekend extravaganzas, there's little to watch on weekends..

Cspan is delving back to the old days on book TV too.. Yesterday they had one on from 1990 :eyes:..

I wish they would just do whole days of call-ins..

[DJ13]

8. Its cheaper to rerun old shows than actually cover the news

These shows belong on CNBC after the markets are closed, not on MSNBC.

Theres no reason a news network should be covering anything but the news.

[shaniqua6392]

9. They have been doing these shows for years.

Nothing has changed. Look how much people like the show "Cops" and everything. I don't understand it, but it must be good for ratings to a certain extend.

[Ian David]

10. I'm guessing that it was Tweety's idea, because prison is full of guys who are "Beefy." n/t

[dkf]

13. I don't get it either. I wish they'd do something a little more interesting.

[lligrd]

14. I've Wondered The Same

Who watches these shows week after week?

[peacetalksforall]

15. Combine all the pedophile overt traps, love of crime coverage, prison obsession with

the stories and facts that we are getting about the empty prisons that have been built, rehabilitated, and are being maintained .

Add to that -

many black able bodied men have been taken off the street while white criminals who are in politics go free

a female who carries drugs for someone, possily innocently, is in jail up to xx years while the white corporate criminal gets off in less than two years

many of our prisons are now private and are able to blackmail the government if they want to be paid more money (recent case)

there is probably a high ratio of innocent people in secret prisons all over the world

many have been flown there is government paid white Leer jets

many European countries and others? have freely offered these prisoner jets to stop an refuel intheir countries

we torture and torment

associations that try to help are laughed at and denied access

there is no trial by jurty

Mexicans are picked up secretly and sent to jails or put in trucks, buses, planes to where

drug users get significant jail sentences and white political criminals get a couple of years or not

citizens must obey every law and corporate officers go to resort prisons for a short period that is always reduced

vigilantes are operating on our borders

we have a private mercenaries reporting to the State Dept and answering to Cheney and the military, maybe

we are builing and maintaining prisons on old Army land and bulding others in preparation for what

If true, Katrina victims were shipped off to church campgrounds and told not to contact anyone - cut off from contact

we are sick, very sick

be a saint obey every law so that our leaders can break them at our cost - including our most important possession - our vote

[mitchum]

16. Crime and punishment sell

Who said literature is dead?

[Crabby Appleton]

17. The prison shows are cheap to produce. nt

[daleo]

18. I haven't seen this

But the very idea of it, seems a bit sadistic.