The Weirdness of Cable News anchors...

[PCIntern]

Is it just I, or does anyone else feel vaguely uneasy by the on-air reaction of these anchors like Betty Nguyen, Contessa Brewer, TJ the Prince of Men at CNN, and others, to stories about subjects like the teenage girl pregnancy pact?

Now I am fairly appalled at these girls and their families and the men - some of whom are over the age of majority and thus statutory rapists - but the anchors are reporting these stories with an emotionality and personal disturbance overtones way out of proportion to the severity of the issues.

Before you lecture me on the importance of appropriate behavior, let me just add that when I say 'out of proportion' I',m referring to the fact that these same anchors report the casualties of useless and lied-into-war very casually, without the head-shaking, without the "I don't understand this" tone of voice, without the tears, without the emotionality which one would expect from someone who's just 'perfectly appalled and dismayed' by the actions of ordinary people doing ordinarily idiotic things which they do on a daily basis. They are trying to portray themselves as 'feeling' people and moralistic...we know just how moralistic they are from their bathroom conversations when the mic was accidentally left on, don't we?

Of course it's all BS and a fraud, but the selective sanctimony is just so outrageous that it's embarrassing and I would be well-pleased if someone beside Keith would show some emotionality when it is so clear that this country has been decimated in almost every way, shape, and form by the Administration. I don't' see them feeling this upset for flood victims in the Midwest, nor for those horribly wounded in 'collateral damage' in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, or Darfur.

But imagine the horror of working-class girls getting pregnant? Stupid? Yes. Life changing? Yes. Moronically trendy? Yes. A novelty? No. This has been going on for a long long time. Just not in communities like the one in question here.

[polichick]

1. Contessa Brewer behaves like an idiotic airhead...

She has no ability to understand the issues the network allows her to discuss ~ imo she should stick with stories about other airheads purposely getting pregnant so they'll have "something like a kitten or a puppy to love them," as the story goes.

[PCIntern]

2. Her Monty Python idiocy yesterday

was beyond comprehension. Anyone else see that?

[polichick]

4. Yikes - thankfully, I didn't. I just can't listen to her anymore...

Wish they'd hire people based on their intelligence instead of their looks ~ I don't know where you can go for real news on TV these days (though I still love Keith).

[TexasObserver]

16. She's like having a thirteen year old girl report the news at a lunch table.

She isn't behaving like an idiotic airhead, she IS an idiotic airhead.

Honestly, I have wondered for years who she is married to or sexing on the side, because she does not have the basic skills to even be a bad news reader.

[polichick]

18. There must be some reason she's there...

It's maddening when you think of hard-working, prepared, intelligent and dedicated (possibly average-looking) newshounds who don't have a chance because of all the pretty-faced airheads that suck up the jobs.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Bobblehead "News"

I used to watch Chicken Noodle News 24/7 back in the day when it actually covered News. Now you have "personalities" reading stories sitting in what appears to be a newsroom, but that's about it. It's more like Reality TV now with its non-stop facination with the excesses of our society and focusing on stories that titilate rather than inform. If it bleeds, it leads...and the news readers in the studio are nothing more than color commentators in this reality show. The look good or sound good...they're surely not in the job due to their Peabody or Pulitzer prizes. It's small market television on a national level...cheap "content" as opposed to information.

My late mother used to look at things such as this with the "you never heard about these things in my day"...and I used to always reply that they probably went on but there were few ways for people to learn about them. Today, we live in a 24/7 "wired" world where the taboos of our society are always on display and always in conflict with the "moralists" who attempt to use these stories to create some narrative or push an agenda. The fact it's teen-age sex is going to get a lot more attention than, say a middle-aged stock speculator who is strangling the economy...the economy doesn't get ratings.

I can't stand when these bobbleheads find the need to inject their own opinions into a news story or when a network obsesses with something that is pure titliation and exploitation. We get only a broadbrush as to what's happening with these young girls and once the story gets "stale", off they go to the next titilation...and where does that leave those girls? I don't need these airheads to tell me the outrage.

[Demit]

5. I'm happy to say I've never heard of Betty Nguyen, Contessa Brewer, or TJ the Prince of Men at CNN.

So what they say can't annoy me. They are ciphers to me. Occasionally I'll accidentally have my local news on, so I know who my local anchors are, but when I see how nowadays they are so obviously there to 1) hawk upcoming television shows on their network and 2) to promote buying various products, I tune out anything they say.

I've just recently got cable for the first time ever, and I'm still fascinated by the number of available programs worth watching, but cable news is not one of them.

[TexasProgresive]

6. I don't get cable news but it sounds like they would like this

to be the new dead/missing pretty white girl or Britney/Paris story they can beat to death instead of actually covering the real news.

[blue sky at night]

7. i have an idea....

turn off the TV for a week. Go to the park, take a walk, mow the lawn....just stay away from the idiot box! You may end up leaving it off.

[PCIntern]

8. With all due respect...

no thank you. someone has to be informed as to what the MSM is sayng and to call them on it for the rest of those who take them at their word. My niche IMO here at DU is to be one of those who lets them know that they can't always shade things the way they want and get away with it. Sorry.

P.S. I take lots of walks, deal with 50+ patients a day, rasied a family, read and write novels and short stories. And watch Max After Dark sometimes.

[Kali]

10. you can get all you need to know right here on DU

I haven't had any kind of teevee for over 10 years - when I first started here I didn't have a clue what was going on in mainstream "news" I get it here - along with the much needed reality of real facts and discussion.

Turn it off. Be a real revolutionary.

[PCIntern]

11. why bother going out of the house?

You'll just meet people and the vast majority of them will betray and/or disgust you...the odds of meeting anyone whose thoughts and deeds are congruent with your own is infinitesimally small.

:sarcasm:

[Kali]

14. huh?

Not sure what you mean there. I was just advocating against tee vee. It is insidious and reduces your intelligence. You should DEFINITELY get out of the house and meet diverse peoples. Beyond national borders if at all possible, but beyond any boundaries you can manage is good.

:hi:

[PCIntern]

17. I was sort of just funnin' ya...

I have an active and diverse life which includes some observation of the TV, since I have it on during my practice day...I 'listen' to it in background when I walk into my office and/or between patients. This is how I know what's going on and am not wedded to it as some are.

But there is a necessity for one to know what the public views are and there should be a few of us here on DU who watch TV, to let others like you when to 'duck and cover'.

[spanone]

9. looks over substance

[Echo In Light]

13. ...makes for suitable, effective distraction/indoctrination

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. As Colbert said...

They don't reasd the news to you, they feel the news at you. By their tone and demeanor they inform the viewer what the viewer should be concerned with or outraged by, and what the viewer should ignore or ridicule.

[cliffordu]

15. I got no time for Contessa Brewer or the rest of them spokesmodels-

I go to the source -

The Naked News.