AP: Does Backlash Loom Against Opinion News?

[laheina]

http://www.comcast.net/News/ENTERTAINMENT//XML/1401_TV/...

NEW YORK - Is it time to turn down the volume on TV news? A handful of developments this fall suggest a brewing backlash against opinionated news, most personified by those cable segments that set people up to argue political points, or outshout each other.

<snip>

The Project for Excellence in Journalism noted an interesting parallel trend in its studies of campaign coverage and public opinion about the news. It characterized only 14 percent of newspaper and TV campaign stories this year as being straight news reporting. The bulk fit reporting into some narrative theme; President Bush tries to recover from his poor first debate performance, for instance.

During the 2000 campaign, the journalism think tank characterized 29 percent more of the stories as straight news, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.

<snip>

[NC_Nurse]

1. PLease, please, please

I'm SOOOOO sick of it!

[jdj]

28. And I think 14% is overly generous.

[Seabiscuit]

59. 1% would be overly generous.

[neverforget]

53. I'm so sick of it I canceled cable last friday and feel so much

better for it too!

[still_one]

2. BOYCOTT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA!

I have

[Zorra]

7. Amen. n/t

[genieroze]

25. I am thinking about it

How about boycotting mainstream news media. Maybe if their ratings start going down they will need to do some real reporting, not one sided pseudo reporting like they have been doing. Where's Woodward and Bernstein when you need them?

[greenman3610]

26. well, Woodward is

kneeling under *'s desk

[Psephos]

41. Aha, we finally know who Deep Throat is. lol n/t

[efhmc]

3. Reading books here. No cable news at all. In fact, if I could get any

channels in this godforsaken small town Texas place, I would not even have the expensive, stupid thing. (cable)

[tedoll78]

4. I have not watched cable news since about 6am on November 3rd.

Too depressing.

If the GOP begins to tear-into itself, I'll pop some popcorn and tune-in.

[redstateblues]

8. I'm done with all of them

[tedoll78]

11. I've noticed that my frustration level..

has really taken a dip ever since I made the decision.

Now I get 99% of my news from either online, at NPR, or from AAR. It's a world of difference.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

24. that's exactly when I stopped watching

ALL TV news, not just cable news.

It feels good, actually.

[Maat]

27. Stopped watching 'cable' news too.

I like getting my news from a few internet sources, such as here (truthout, buzzflash, alternet, etc) and listening to AAR.

My frustration level has gone down immensely. I pretty much got rid of them as soon as I got Sirius about a year ago, and I've not watched them at all since the election.

Just watch TDS, Bill Moyers, Bill Maher.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

31. Ditto, with the exception of Countdown

with Keith Olbermann. He was always fun, but now he has become my life line...

[Guaranteed]

35. Yup. Me too. nt

[Isere]

32. Same here!

I cut them all off at exactly the same time you did!

I don't miss any of it. Not even my previously sacrosanct Sunday shows.

After reading all the positive comments about Olberman and the voting machines, I think I will give myself permission to watch Countdown.

[Carolina]

38. Not just cable, the networks too

I had scaled back after theft 2000 with periodic blackouts. But since 11/3, I hardly bother with TV at all except for an occasional, escapist movie.

[Seabiscuit]

61. Ditto.

I was up late that night. Slept in. When I woke up my wife told me Kerry conceded. I haven't watched any cable "news" shit like Tweety or Crossfire, or even Lou Dobbs since then.

The last thing I needed to recover from the sickening results of that election was to hear those bastards drone on about it all. The silence has been refreshing.

[high density]

5. There are so many issues in the world that 24 hour news could cover

Instead they play the same shit over and over and over. These "news" channels are so lazy.

[Chimpanzee]

6. Stay tuned for BREAKING NEWS

in the Scott Peterson trial...

[Protagoras]

14. where will we find that next OJ?

That is all that matters.

And to think there was a time where the ONLY thing I owned a TV for was the news. Now I can save the expense of that dumbass ever increasing cable bill at least.

[drdtroit]

10. Intellectually lazy MF-ers! n/t

[welshTerrier2]

9. i'm done with the lies ...

we are slaughtering people in Iraq ... our government is bought and sold by corporate interests ... crime rates are rising ... many Americans still believe Saddam was behind 9/11 ... our mass media is centralized in the hands of a wealthy, powerful few ...

i will no longer subject myself to the mind control .... i'm done with it ...

paul simon said it best: "i gather all the news i need from the weather report" ... i will keep informed by reading the underground ... the cable and network corporate big mouths are history ...

[Erika]

12. I also won't watch cable news

I weakened, out of curiousity, and looked at Fox on-line. Lieberman evidently was on that channel today. When will the democrats learn they can't do business with snakes? I am really disappointed.

[natrat]

13. mainstream news is bs corporate agenda news

now i just get depressed about the actual news rather than trying to detect corporate nes lies

[jayfish]

17. It's Not Just The Cables.

I watched about 3 minutes of ABC's World News Tonight and that was all I could stomach. That was the first television news program I have watched since 11/2.

Jay

[nashville_brook]

15. jon stewart is my hero n/t

[Dem2theMax]

16. All the news I need is

right here at DU, and with Keith and Jon. That's IT.

[figbash]

18. One would certainly hope there's a backlash

brewing. As they say in the biz, facts are expensive, opinions are cheap. Watching the bloviators bloviate on Sunday mornings finally became so repulsive I just simply quit. No mas! I don't miss it at all and am glad to report that it's been a boon to both my mental and physical health. I recommend it highly!

[cloud75]

20. media sells out!

it's all about the money that is what we've come to...no longer does the media look out for the little guy they are in bed with the big coorporations because they are part of them...most people get into the media business because they want to make a difference in the world...but once they are in they forget about where they came from.

[newyawker99]

47. Hi figbash!!

Welcome to DU!!

[marylanddem]

19. Definite backlash in my house

For months they babbled endlessly about the upcoming election & all the problems that were expected. Then, when the election happened and those problems materialized, they shut up as if nothing happened. It is an eye-opener. Turn off the TV - those egocentric idiots don't deserve your attention.

[mom cat]

21. Mainstream media will die of it's own internal corrosion and from

their new competition, including this site and Air America Radio.

[Gyre]

22. I'd love to see Jon Stewart

but I'm not willing to let the beast into my home. Period. Makes me a pretty boring water-cooler chum.

Gyre

[grasswire]

40. you can see the best clips ..

...of Jon Stewart on your computer. They archive them at Daily Show's web site.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Could we already be havng an effect?

NAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Move along, nothing to see here

[riverwalker]

29. a ratings bonanza

is waiting for any network with enough courage to do an hour long straight news program. The audience is there, people want it, we are starved for it. Just straight news from around the world, interviews with Iraq war veterans, with Iraqi citizens, with NGO workers. No spin, just facts.

[T Bone]

36. Watch Democracy Now! on Direct or Dish TV for that

Direct channel 375, and on Dish two channels carry it World Link at 9410 and Free Speech TV at 9415.

Democracy Now! is also carried on Pacifica Radio network(where it originates), and you can download each days show in mp3 format if you need to from the Pacifica Radio website.

at>>http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/recentshows.html

Much better and informative than the networks or cable pussies.

[dbt]

45. riverwalker nails it DOWN!

An hour-long hard news 'cast (hell, even a half-hour) on a major network would clean up, in terms of both revenue and ratings.

Just for openers, it would be so different from all the happy crappy (thank you Stephen King!) on the other networks that the curiousity factor would guarantee substantial first time tune-ins. After that, word-of-mouth would take off.

Somewhere in Network Land, somebody has been dreaming about this for longer than bu$h has been in office. But somewhere else, there's a guy at a desk in a darkened office who has been specifically tasked with making sure this does not happen.


dbt

[Pithy Cherub]

30. News backlash cubed at my house!

Keith will get me to watch and so will Jon after that nobody is worth it. Too many places to get the news faster, and without some airhead I don't know trying to subtly persuade me they are all knowing. The fact that they used the word journalism to describe someone's overpaid opinion is appalling.

Much more Zen-like in my house. Breathing happier and much healthier!

[janx]

33. There is no such thing as "opinion news." There's news,

and there's opinion--lots of opinion, unfortunately.

I don't watch it. Life is far too short.

[llmart]

34. I stopped watching TV "news".....

and stopped subscribing to a daily newspaper back when all they could focus on was all the so-called "Clinton crises" and they would put up these stupid huge banners with "Clinton in crisis." That was ten years ago and I will not subscribe to a newspaper again. I get my news off the internet where I can choose the sites I trust.

Enough of the corporate-controlled crap. I read. Guess that puts me in the class of "intellectual elites" but hey, I like that.

Wanna take bets as to when they start controlling the "internets?"

[TheFarseer]

37. I haven't watch cable news since "Black Tuesday"

And I can't imagine that now, after the election, there is room for all of these programs.

[bhikkhu]

39. Here's my backlash -

I grew up watching the news every evening. All the spoon-fed baloney during the run up to the Iraq war finally too much. We turned off the cable and haven't watch any media news in two years. At this point, I doubt that my family ever will again. Journalism no longer exists on television, as far as I am concerned.

[abelenkpe]

51. same here

We tuned out during the run up to the Iraq war as well. I simply lost respect for every so-called TV journalist out there. And as it is impossible to forget their actions I can't see ever tuning in again.

I believe there are many who have stopped watching network television altogether. Ironically in a bid to attract more veiwers networks dumb down their shows or rely on shock value in an effort to hold onto their remaining veiwers rather than attempt to appeal to or bring back the veiwers they have already lost.

[Psephos]

42. There are two reasons for the surge in opinion news

1. Because lots of people watch it.

2. Because, compared to the costs of gathering hard news, it is cheap.

Moralizing against opinion news has no effect, except to make more people watch it. Sinful pleasure, and all that. The best way to persuade people to stop watching this shite is to fan the perception that opinion news is sooooooo 2003, so over with. The rise of a similar perception of untrendiness will eventually bring the decline of reality TV, too.

[Miss Authoritiva]

43. Maybe we should e-mail the URL for this thread to the relevant people.

If I worked for cable news, broadcast news, etc, I would be alarmed by the "I turned it off" statements here.

By the way, there are numerous ways of getting decent (which in my case means non-screeching, non-partisan, non-hack talkingheads) news on the web. I run the self-updating BBC news ticker on the top of my screen. When I see something interesting, all I have to do is click on the link and I get the full story (text, audio, video) plus numerous related links. And just for pure entertainment value, BBC Radio is a treasure.

There are also sites for downloading English-language and foreign-language newscasts from around the world. And for really advanced online junkies, there are sites providing downloadable independent movies and music from around the world. More than ever before we can just walk away from the juvenalia that is American news and entertainment.

It was my 14-year-old niece who pointed out the entertainment options to me. Giving me that grown-ups know nothing look, she instructed: "Burn the DVD on your computer and then, if you want a bigger screen, play it on the DVD hooked up to your TV. If you have this compatibility problem, then do this....." Her techno-proficiency was amazing.

So take that FOXNews, CNN, CNNHeadline News, MSNBC, and CNBC. And take that all you moronic network reality shows.

[Carolab]

44. Pew's survey

said the same thing, and cited a rapid growth in people getting their news off the 'net!

Bye-bye MSM!

[dbt]

46. Miss Authoritiva makes a damn good point above.

There are a lot of people in this thread who have already voted with their feet--who have shut off the network "news" shows. I also think we need to email the Whore Nets with the URLs of the article and of this DU thread.

Not that such messages would ever get too high up the food chain, but it would sure ruin someone's day to hear from us rats who have already swum away from the ship, no?


dbt

[dkofos]

48. I will still watch BBC and CBC.

They at least report news without opinion.
Link TV is good also. Great documentaries.

DOWN WITH CABLE OPINION NEWS

[bunny planet]

49. In addition to our boycotting the faux news stations

I think we should make a concerted effort to write to our representatives in government, Democrats and progressives, and ask them to consider not appearing on any of these 'news' programs, essentially asking them to boycott too. This will force the stations to continually air broadcasts with Republicans and conservatives, all fighting with each other, or even better, being boring with each other. Even if we stop watching, the others who are brainwashed will still be watching,unless we give them nothing to watch. Let's help de-program the propaganda junkies by ending the flow of entertainment for them, namely the evisceration of liberals and moderates that passes for news on those stations.

[w4rma]

50. Is it time to crack down on the few open Democrats left in the media? (nt)

[Jester_11218]

52. CNN = Contains No News = 1 hour of CNN = 5 minutes of news

A Detailed Analysis by TvNewsLies.org
08-September-2003

http://tvnewslies.org/html/cnn___contains_no_news.html


I wrote about this last year.
FYI:
Jesse

[donkeyotay]

54. add my household to the television free!

Haven't watched any of those evil fucks since black tuesday. A guest tried to turn it on once or twice, but they couldn't hear it over the stream of profanity from me anyway.

I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE THE MEDIA. Who would have thought they could kill off the golden goose - I mean, I WANTED to watch. But, oh no. They absolutely drove me away. It took years, but this "election" cinched it. And guess what? I love not watching TV. I am getting so much more reading done, and it makes for a day-to-day reality that is more life-sustaining.

[mhr]

57. TV Free For Three Years Now - Liberation Is Wonderful

eom

[Misskittycat]

55. First thing to do: fire all the pundits.

And when we get our own liberal cable TV network, we should avoid pundits like the plague. They are self-appointed celebrity blowhards who add nothing to journalism.

[jefferson_dem]

56. An end to the clash of the talking (hack) heads would be so welcome!

I used to be roped into actually caring what the "left vs. right" scum had to say. John Stewart has this nailed. This is NOT news. This is NOT part of the solution but part of the problem. Fuck both sides of that worthless game.

[proudbluestater]

58. Get a satellite dish! Free Speech TV! Democracy Now!

Somebody at the Kerry Forum once mentioned this little known channel called Link TV, which is on Dish and DirectTv (Rupert's newest baby.) Free Speech TV is only on DISH. If you want real news, not Bush propaganda, these networks are for you. Democracy Now, the news show ROCKS. The first to bring you Bev Harris and the voting problems. Both of these networks are totally funded by people, unlike PBS which takes corporate donations.

Before the election I completely stopped watching the news, except for Jon Stewart.

After the election, I pared my selections down from 120 channels to 60 and was able to eliminate Faux News and MSNBC.

I get my news now on the internet only. Today I also canceled Newsweek and told them there is evidence of voter fraud which they ignored, while they took advantage of the access they were given by the Kerry campaign to write a smear piece, while never reporting the Bush campaign gives NO access whatsoever.

Rant off.

[JOEMENTUMSUCKS]

60. Hi

The media sucks.

[republikkkon]

62. add me to the list

of people that have stopped watching cable news. and before the election i used to have it running constantly!!! it is a good thing, though. i find myself much more relaxed actually.