Why I Don't Turn to CNN (or Any Other News Channel)

Hear, hear:

It's nice to see somebody else asking the same question I ask nearly every day when I see some GOP has-been pontificating on my TV: why are we listening to these people?

Turn on CNN and chances are you won't have to wait long to see the face of Stephen Hayes, who distinguished himself earlier this decade for his insistence, long after it was clear that the opposite was true, that "there can no longer be any serious argument about whether Saddam Hussein's Iraq worked with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to plot against Americans." He also penned a fawning biography of Dick Cheney.

Or pick up the Washington Post, the same paper that gave Mr. Gerson his post-Bush home, and you'll find a regular op-ed column from William Kristol, the tireless Iraq war champion whose offerings, worse than being wrong, are usually unreadable; Or there's Ron Christie, a little-known Bush and Cheney aide who has somehow become one of the cable networks' go-to guys for the conservative viewpoint - which he unfailingly expresses with the language his old bosses favored when they were in power.

All of these people, of course, are entitled to their views. But, besides outdated and discredited bluster, they add nothing to the current discussion.

Thank you.

Since reclaiming dominion over my teevee, I've watched exactly 0 hours of CNN. I caught Rachel Maddow's show and liked muchly, but when it comes to news, I still turn to the blogs and, sadly enough, Comedy Central. As far as the 24-hour news stations, I don't believe I've lived a bad life, and thus see no reason to punish myself by watching the endless mindless blather. Calling it a "discussion" is generous.

There was a time in America when you could turn on news programs and get substantive analysis, reporting, and actual journalism. There was a snippet of time when you could actually watch CNN without wanting to beat all of the talking heads with the nearest boom mic. That, of course, was before Bill Clinton got caught with his pants down, and before the O.J. Simpson circus. Things just haven't been the same since.

Now we seem to have an endless parade of clueless Cons and dumbfuck media personalities doing a poor imitation of news anchors. When they aren't dead wrong on every single subject they're discussing, they just sound like a bunch of paranoid nuts who stopped taking their meds. This is the kind of shite I expect from photocopied screeds and pirate radio stations, not major news channels. And the saddest thing is, people actually watch this shite and believe they're becoming "informed."

The only reason to ever turn on one of these programs is to point and laugh, and sometimes weep.