Comments on: I’ll be darned, I’m right again!

By: No American history at Cal universities? : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:54:24 +0000

[...] am not a Rachel Maddow fan–I think her style is often childish and her “news” program is really just light [...]

By: Historiann

Historiann — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:38:26 +0000

Oh, lord.

We don’t have cable (beyond basic access to our local network channels), so I only see CNN or MSNBC when I’m in hotel rooms. I’m constantly amazed by how little information they pack into their 24 hours a day of broadcast time.

Wev. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now is good, and I think it’s on TV as well as some public radio stations.

By: shaz

shaz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:32:01 +0000

Today’s NEWS !?? clip of the day: Squirrel Trapped in Yogurt. Need I say more?

By: Cassandra

Cassandra — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:23:35 +0000

I have long held the same views as Digger above.

Journalism is effectively dead. There are a few places, here and there, where it still happens …almost by accident.

It’s all about ratings now. And obfuscation.

I also think more people need to read Noam Chomsky’s books Manufacturing consent and Media Control.

But thinking about such things hurt people’s brains. Especially dainty undergrads who think Communication courses are all about watching films and chatting about how much they love Disney movies.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:49:44 +0000

Hi everyone--thanks for minding the store while I've been out. The lesson libs seem to have learned from the 90s and 2000s is that turnabout is fair play, rather than doing it right is the right thing to do. We're all Faux News, now! I will differ only slightly with anon. The Beeb is much, much better than most American TV news of course, but I listen to the World Service on the radio, and have been disturbed for several years by its emphasis on business news. I thought maybe the world economic meltdown brought to us all by the banks and corporations they report on so breathlessly and uncritically might change the emphasis, but no such luck. I guess finance is still the real lingua franca now. Eduardo: good point about the "Beaureguard" issue. Excuse me, but someone whose middle name happens to be "Hussein" was the subject of that kind of childishness last year (and still is, sometimes, I gather.) You'll all be pleased to hear I haven't given up on my idea to run for the U.S. Senate seat that's up for re-election in 2010, currently warmed by the lackluster preppie born-on-third-base-thinks-he-hit-a-triple Michael Bennett. My new campaign slogan? "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." But I hear someone already used that before. I'm also thinking of changing my name to Kennedy, or Cincinnatus, but I hear that's been done already too.

By: twandx

twandx — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:49:13 +0000

Many of us were right and many of us are sick about the way she is acting. She had such promise but obviously no self respect.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:00:13 +0000

PS The thing that upset me the most after returning to the US from Europe during the war was that everybody in the US – once the lack of WMD was revealed – went around (and still go around) going: Oh, we had bad intelligence! Nobody could have known better! Except *everybody* knew better, just not here.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:59:02 +0000

I’m always freshly appalled by American “news” cycles after seeing BBC news, or basically any European coverage. (I remember with great nostalgia the year I was in Spain during the build-up to the Iraq war, and the Spanish news media was like, um, there are NO WMD in Iraq, there just *aren’t*. It was very disturbing to return to the US.) Is it really impossible that Americans could watch and enjoy a literate news program that provides information, not entertainment? I refuse to believe it.

I join the general loathing and disdain for Maddow and Olberman. I especially loathe that people assume because I am a liberal that I watch and enjoy these shows, that I take them seriously and think of them as legitimate news sources.

By: Shaz

Shaz — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:02:34 +0000

As a current expat, I watch msnbc clips online these days. I spent all day today with clips playing in the background as I worked: US politics, Olberman, Maddow, US general news, etc. 7 hours straight. I think 1 clip was on healthcare. And may I add: I’m loving being in a country with socialized medicine — even though I’m not eligible, I benefit greatly from overall lower and sane cost structures!

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:40:14 +0000

Wow, it’s good to be back on this side tha’ water where you can actually get the whole blog, and not just the cached version, without the pictures or access to the comments page! I didn’t see a whole lot of media in the U.K., and very little of the telly kind, but Our English Cousins seem to be a) very freaked out about Afghanistan right now, b) transfixed and/or outraged by their own political scandals, which are far more about fiscal venality than about sex, and c) paying lots of attention to summer sports, such as cricket and golf. Also lots of attention to Obama as the world traveler, but not so much on the family side. And almost nothing, that I saw anyway, about Michael Jackson.

Now, that I’m back, I’m not leaving kansas for a good long while. Well, except for going down to Jersey tomorrow, but that doesn’t count!