When Did American Politics Become a Reality TV Show?

[JCMach1]

Did I sleep through it?

I can't help but end up screaming at the T.V. every time I see the MSM's 'so-called' coverage of the midterm elections. It really hit me in the face with a report on President campaigning with his wife for the first time in a couple of years. The president and the first lady obviously gave speeches at this event. However, the whole story was about what people (including the Repugs) felt about this. Not ONE issue was mentioned during the entire 5min. segment. And that was IT! That was the political news for the day.

It was if the Democrats and Republicans were competing in some BS contest of Survivor... or maybe worse, an episode of Teabagger Shore.

With all the 'reports' about the Teabagger movement, the only serious look at who these people are was done by MSNBC (of course).

There is no serious reporting going on at all and no one is calling the MSM on it!

Just one small example. The Republicans (including teabaggers) are fielding a group of the most anti-choice candidates that we have ever seen... EVER! And yet, there have only been some little peeps about this in newspaper articles.

If all you watched was the coverage, the only thing you would think the election is about is 'loser' democrats and rabid teabaggers. That's their story line and they are not talking about anything else!

And you would think... think the only issue is who gets voted off the island of Washington, D.C.

:grr:

[MissHoneychurch]

1. I remember when I lived in the US in the 90s

that when I watched TV I was amazed at how little news was on. Back then it was mainly no news outside the U.S. I guess it got now to no news inside the U.S. as well.

[JCMach1]

2. Yeah, but the 'actual' news was quite a lot more than now...

Issues have been completely buried in this cycle of elections.

[Skittles]

3. exactly why I do not watch ANY of it

[savalez]

6. +1

[Skidmore]

4. When a greedy conniving Aussie bought the Republican Party so

he could start to corner the world's media markets. After destroying our media, look to where he's moved on the globe. Rupert Murdoch is a terrorist in his own right.

[savalez]

5. self deleted

[LARED]

7. About twenty years ago. nt

[JamesA1102]

11. Yes it was during the 1992 election

when the MSM started going after Clinton.

[Bitwit1234]

8. For example CNN on it's website is again running Sarah Palin -Sarah Palin

So on ticker we have that little thing where you can post. Well as per usual the posts are about how batsh*t crazy and stupid and money hungry she is, and guess what. They cut the comments off after a couple of posts. All telling her to "go back to Alaska" and shut up.

Now, the difference is if you have a ticker post about a Democrat and the post are panning that person they let them go on up to 100's. CNN is trying their best to out fox the old crap spewing fox crowd.

[WinkyDink]

9. Ratings = $$. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

[customerserviceguy]

10. I'd say that it goes back to the Kennedy-Nixon debates

That's the first time TV was used as a means of persuading people to vote for one candidate or another, in a "reality show" type of way.

Getting three 24/7 news channels on cable just accelerated the process.

[political_Dem]

12. Since Reagan came to power and a man named Lee Atwater began his Reign of Terror.

Along the same time, Rush started his ascension as a conniving blow-hard who reveled in racism, misogyny, and outright bigotry against the folks of the LGBTQI community. In the 1990's, the contagion of RW spread attacking anyone who was forward thinking, decent and caring in society. Rush and his Shock Jock cohorts ( O'Reilly, Hannity, Elder, Beck, etc.) caused an outbreak of ignorance and hatred of such proportions that it screwed up the current generation of American citizens into Nazi-wearing, Palin-worshipping, moronic Teabaggers.

All Rush and his comrades proved that politics is just like the WWE and Ultimate Fighting Tournaments in their world: politics has turned into a brutalized bloodsport in which one person is left standing.

Funny that person happened to be a Black man who outsmarted their daily tripe and harnessed it into a win. Now the RW is reeling from the blow and becoming uglier as it struggles to get up as the count occurs.

[JCMach1]

13. It has slipped so far that John Stewart is the only SERIOUS news anymore

that deserves a serious :wtf:

Oh yeah and Al Jazeera...

[mrcheerful]

14. Yeah I agree with you on it started with Reagan though my memory of the news was every time Reagan

opened his mouth news shows would spend 1/2 an hour explaining what you heard coming out of Reagan's mouth wasn't what you really heard but the opposite of what Reagan said. Before the news started doing that Reagan speeches would have Reagan coming back 3 or 4 times saying the same thing only changing key code words, so much for the great communicator title as everyone I knew was left confused by what Reagan said. Except the wing nuts who seemed to get a different meaning from Reagan which varied from person to person which left me to wonder what they were hearing because what they were saying wasn't what I heard.

[bemildred]

15. Yep, that's when the Full Tilt Boogie began.

Dirty politics has always been there.

[Javaman]

16. It became that when ordinary people stopped talking to other people

and chose to a sedentary life of sitting in front of their TVs/computers to get all their brainwashing propaganda.

part of being a good citizen is not only being informed but also getting to know those around you.

Do we talk to people? or do we talk at people? Do we help our neighbors or do we watch as they struggle? Do we agree to disagree or do we just say that?

this is what we have become.

[kctim]

17. When 'The People'

willingly gave up control of their lives for 'gifts.'
Politicians now know that "I'll give you this if you give up that," will no longer get them voted off the island.