As I don’t choose to get CNN, am spared finding out how boring they can be. Couldn’t watch Lou Dobbs, though, any more than I could take Rush or Beck. Nielsen hasn’t asked me lately to tell me what I think of teebee, or I’d be among the consensus that CNN rates ‘way below the internet here.

Lou and Telemundo in the same sentence! Attaturk, you are a riot. Thanks for the full-on belly laugh this morning.

The last time anyone at CNN made news by reporting an uncomfortable fact was 2005 with ol’ AC and Katrina. That’s a long time to wait for some honesty. CNN’s ratings are in the tank because their credibility is in the tank.

In Today’s Washington Post, America’s Concern Troll, seems to have forgotten there are these things on the internet called “archives”.

The Kaplan 20 Mule Team layoffs are coming. Don’t pull your weight, out you go. Who, oh who will hire the Concern Troll? His column smells of fear — Cohen’s fear that he’s so eroded his credibility, he’ll have to find honest work after they let him go.

Try soaking your hands in brine, Richard. Those blisters are a’comin’.

On 19 September 2006, Turner said in a Reuters Newsmaker conference, of Iran’s nuclear position: “They’re a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can’t they have 10? We don’t say anything about Israel — they’ve got 100 of them approximately — or India or Pakistan or Russia.” He facetiously advocated banning men from public office: “Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world… The men have had millions of years where we’ve been running things. We’ve screwed it up hopelessly. Let’s give it to the women.”[20]

Quotes from wikipedia

A proponent of Obama’s healthcare bill, Turner has said: “We’re the only first world country that doesn’t have universal healthcare and it’s a disgrace.”[21]

I’ve often wondered if our media landscape might be different today if
Ted Turner hadn’t gotten merger fever.

Well, when your news broadcasts become as creepy as Fox News as a whole, it makes sense your ratings would drop.

Good morning, pups. It’s Bobo, Cohen and Herbert today. In “The Fatal Conceit” Bobo says the effort to cap executives’ compensation is a good example of an overconfidence in government to solve everything. Mr. Cohen is all in favor of sending people off to get killed. In “Britain Resolves, U.S. Wavers” he asks more troops for Afghanistan? As Barack Obama hesitates, a talk with David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, offers as good an indication as any of what the president will do. In “Changing the World” Mr. Herbert says Americans need to shake off their passivity in confronting today’s problems and believe that their actions can make a profound difference.

Here they are.

The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got a variety of bagels with cream cheese. CNN is unwatchable. I wonder if they’ll go the way of the History Channel, which now seems to devote about 85% of its programming to Nostradamus, various conspiracy theories and Dan Brown’s shtick. Oh, and Dracula. They had a program on last night about Dracula. Cripes. Have a grand day.

Dracula says No to health care, doesn’t he? Thanks again for reading Bobo and Cohen so I am spared.

Yeah, but the History Channel manages at least one half-way decent show a month (like this month’s JFK:3 Shots that Changed America — which for once wasn’t about conspiracies, but just archived real-time video of events as they occurred, if nothing else it was a good fact check for “Mad Men”).

CNN relys on stuff like Balloon-Boy or celebrity deaths to be novel.

Ick.

I’ve started watching CNN in the morning. At least I get world news rather than only politics. I have a bit of a beef with Keith and Rachel. They’re outstanding, of course, but there’s an emphasis on politics rather than reporting ALL the news.

Morning all. CNN sure has some allstars. Pentagon spokesperson Barbara Starr is exciting but in the morning I will switch to CNN to avoid the incredible stupidity of Joe Scarborough.

You forgot one other stunning characteristic of Wolf Blitzer: he says ‘now’ about 6 times/minute.

And don’t forget. Time Warner(CNN’s parent company), used to be headed by a Michael Steele wanna-be.

Larry King is a horrid mix of Charlie Rose and Methuselah.

That’s the show I don’t get. How does the man keep his job? Truly awful.

CNN International is still decent, last I looked.

Anorexic to boot. Painful to watch.

He’s in favor of blood banks, however.

I like Fareed Zacharia on sundays. He seems pretty bright and brings on good guests. His show is followed by Christian Ammenpour which can be good too.

Way back when, when my children were young and I didn’t work, I never missed Phil Donahue. Such an informative show. I’d like to see a show like that again, with the same format.

I got turned off to Zakaria a couple of weeks ago. He had a rep of govt of India on who was sprouting utter nonsense, and Zakaria didn’t challenge him at all.

Didn’t catch that but he has done a lot of good ones.

I suspect Zakaria’s a “soft” interviewer like Rose & King. So the guest gets to say whatever he wants without any comments or probing Qs from the host. Consequently, if the guest is good, the program is interesting, but if the guest is bad, the program sucks bigtime. I’m not interested in watching that kind of program anymore. Even if I agree with the guest, I’d like to see him challenged.

You’re reminding me of George Hamilton saying “Only in America”: Dracula’s version of The Cure.

MSNBC does not claim to be a news channel. Their motto,after all, is: “The Place For Politics”.

I thought he was serious!

Do you think Lou speaks Spanish?

Mornin’, gang -

America has spoken and it has decided that the charisma of Wolf Blitzer, Lou Dobbs and Larry King is just not charisma enough.

And what are the common characteristics (if any) of all three of the above?

Wolf Blitzer & Tim Russert were both from Buffalo, NY.

Lou Dobbs and Telemundo. Ja ja ja.

But. For those who don’t know, Telemundo and Univision have some of the best, most thorough, and often most interesting television news operations of any American cable/broadcast outlets. They win awards for their reporting, and they are well-deserved.

Of course, it’s in Spanish. And what that means is that Spanish speaking Americans are often better informed than Anglos who only speak English.

Ja ja ja, indeed.

Since we tossed the TV cable two years ago, I only watch CNN at the gym and Fox at McDonald’s with the “old” crowd.

Lately, like since the election was finally over, I got fed up with the banality of the CNN early morning people and switched my headset to watch and hear “Mike & Mike,” who are just as bad, but don’t pretend.

I think CNN would save itself if it went back to the “all news” format that made it great. OR, they could run their international format, the one you see in Europe, which is really pretty good.

Having to watch Lou Dobbs on CNN in the late afternoon is what motivated me to work out at 5:30 AM…no Lou Dobbs.

McDonalds won’t turn off Fox; I’ve asked repeatedly. I’m working on friends to switch the “old” crowd meeting across the street, but they charge much more for coffee across the street. I sit with my back to the Fox screen and far enough away that I can’t hear much.

If Lou wants to work in TV, it looks like he’ll have to do news on Telemundo

ROTFLMAO! Telemundo!

I thought that it was just me,on Blitzers blandness.

Those are two true and honest people. There is NO spin. I love FZ-GPS, the Man is very intelligent. You also get a worldly view from both of those shows.. Wolf needs to dump Jack Cafferty… he is a nauseating, bitter, old bastard… Too bad those shows are on during NFL Sundays.. I would see it more.

Old and white and old….

Well I hear what you are saying about JC however Wolf is so wimpy that his show actually benefits from having some bitterness to cut through all the BS. imho.

Every time that I have turned on CNN during the day all I see is Wolf. How many hours a day is he on? 10? The only good thing is Jack Cafferty. It looks like CNN is a 1 anchor channel. Just Wolf. Of course with the age of the “celebrity millionaire anchor” rather than the way CNN used to be- ie; the newsreader like on BBC-I guess that every channel just has to have the plastic person with the plastic smile and brain pushing the corporate line over what is really happening in the world. All hail the american (sheeple) the most ignorant nation in the world. A corporate run country since the 1960s.

I can’t watch Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper for the same reason. They come across as complete morons. I can’t count the times they have asked some question that shows a complete lack of understanding not only of the subject but of common knowledge and common sense. At first I thought maybe that wide eyed stupid question or comment thing was to be the voice of the viewers who might need a guest to slow down and make sure they filled in all the blanks for those not very informed, but I came to believe they were really that stupid.

I’ve pretty much given up on almost any US tv station (cable or network) to provide any kind of decent news. CNN used to be good, and their International version remains worthy. PBS used to be more substantive and less biased, but in the push by conservatives (or bc they felt that they had to do it to retain funding) to make PBS “fair & balanced” (choke), their reporting has become boring at best, and stupid at worst, plus generally biased to conservative and/or vapid viewpoints (other than Bill Moyers, who usually is worth watching).

I get tired of KO and RM, too, but appreciate their shows greatly. KO deserves a medal for his almost single-handed push-back against the Bush Admin. but they don’t purport to be “news.” They are politics, so they fit a particular niche, and both state outright that they are personally and politically biased to the left. Watch as you choose, but you’ve been forewarned. That’s not how Fox presents themselves, no matter what they say.

I watch the BBC and other foreign news as I can grab it; there’s a cable station that I get that provides international news from Germany in English (it’s interesting). I agree that Telemundo has much better news programming, but my Spanish is vague and I can only grasp part of what they’re saying (I try to watch to improve my language skills). I don’t have access to Al Jazeera in English, but I’m told by friends that it is also quite good.

Local news programming is ok where I live, although local news channels tend to focus on the sensational local stuff. But I watch local news here and there; the newscasters tend to offend me less, even though some are clearly not all that bright (kind of like Ted, the anchor on the Mary Tyler Moore show).

I tend to avoid the Sunday am shows altogether bc I find most a tedious waste of my valuable time and much too heavily slanted to conservative babbling junk.

If CNN in the US dies a thousand deaths, I won’t be sad at all. They should just switch over to using CNN International and work real hard not to dumb that down to the lowest and stupidest common demoninator. I might actually go back to watching that. Don’t get me started on the insufferable, racist moran goul who appears to be inhabiting Lou Dobbs’ body these days… ugh.

celebrity jeopardy scores

Andy Ricter, $68,000

wolf blitzer, MINUS $400

why does chicken noodle network waste their time with an idiot like blitzer ???

hire Andy Ricter. he can read the cards better than wolf, and he’s a WHOLE LOT SMARTER than wolf blitzer

stop listeniong to stupid people

if wolf blitzer is on your screen, change the channel, to prevent creeping stupidity from catching you