Anybody Else Watching Cable News Less- And Feeling Better?

[redstateblues]

I have cut way back- no more Tweety- No more CNN- I'll watch Keith- Listen to AAR- that's it- I'm lovin it

[Jayster84]

Gave it up completely...

and I'm much happier.

[donco6]

1. We just picked up Air America last week

here in Denver. I listened for the first time on Friday. Breath of fresh air.

[redstateblues]

7. Here In the soon to be blue state of TN we have to get satellite

[Cha]

2. ANd du for those of us who gave away their

cabal in 2002!

[nradisic]

3. Yup...Me too!

C-SPAN, a little PBS, and Air America. If it weren't for HBO and the likes of Disney and Nick for the kids.....I'd cancel cable.

[jean]

4. I do the same plus add some c-span as needed

[belle]

5. Yup. it makes a HUGE difference.

I don't watch it at all unless there's something really important breaking or something that affects me directly--big storm, say and I can usually get that on local news NY1, which is much better anyway.

Other than that, Daily Show, C-Span for things like the Dem convention, and I might start watching Olbermann. But that's it. i don't even really watch TV anymore, come to think of it. I'd get rid of it altogether, but I like my HBO programming and the occasional movie rerun or Food Network show a bit too much to wean off completely yet. saving the money wouldn't exactly hurt either. maybe one of these days.

[umtalal]

6. I lost CNN, was hanging on to MSNBC but no more except for Keith

but what is AAR? Do tell.

[kainah]

10. AAR -- Air America Radio

http://www.airamericaradio.com/

[umtalal]

20. Air America Rocks.

[redstateblues]

11. Air America Radio- on the net @ airamericaradio.com

It's a radio network that counters the lies spread by the corporate media- Al Franken is hilarious, Randi Rhodes is great, Jeanene Garafolo rocks- You will be hooked in about the same amount of time it took you to get hooked on this site

[Mr_Spock]

8. Yeah, I've given it up too - I wonder if they're noticing yet?

Seems like they should have noticed a reduction in viewership.

[Downtown Hound]

14. Oh they have

CNN's ratings are going into the toilet, so much so that even MSNBC is occasionally beating them. Fox has gone down a lot since last year, but last year we had the war (I mean the initial invasion, not the post Mission Accomplished show) so Fox saw a spike then. The reason CNN is becoming more like Fox all of the time is that they're trying to compete for Fox's share of the viewers. It's a stupid strategy and it hasn't worked, but they have yet to get a clue. Stupid bastards.

[kainah]

9. I'm trying

I've been a news junkie since I was 15 and am now 52 so that's a lifetime habit to break. Of course, when 24 hour news came, I thought it would be heaven. I've learned much since then, needless to say. But I'm trying, trying, trying.... And doing better. And feeling better for it.

I'm also a 25 year C-SPAN junkie but the House of Representatives has become so completely dysfunctional under Tom DeLay that it nearly crushes my belief in our country to watch much of them when they are in session.

I also have Dish so I get FreeSpeech TV and World Link TV, along with a number of great public stations through universities and such.

[TXDemGal]

12. I gave it up years ago.

The internet (thank you, Al Gore ;-) ), some radio (public and short wave) and C-SPAN are much better sources of news.

[Mrs. Overall]

13. Don't watch it all anymore! Only watch "Democracy Now"

with Amy Goodman on Free Speech TV and listen to Air America.
I can't listen to CNN or MSNBC without getting very upset.

[Zech Marquis]

15. cable news?

what's that?! you mean back in the good old days when they actualy reported the NEWS and not simply repeat what Karl Rove wants to hear and see? :wow:

Naawwww, I get my news online and the BBC :evilgrin:

[Maat]

16. Yep. Now, it's...

1. Air America (listening to),
2. C-Span (occasionally .. heard Edwards speak last night),
3. the Daily Show, and ..
4. my favorite progressive internet sites.

And I'm quite a bit less stressed!

[Kahuna]

17. Me!!! No cable since the repuke convention. Not much before the RNC.

nt

[LibDemAlways]

18. Turned on CNN briefly today

to hear Clinton's Drs' news conference and was treated to a CNN whore asking, "Can a staff shake-up reverse Kerry's slide?" Said, "Get out of my house you idiots," and swirched to MSNBC where the guy reporting from outside the hospital said "It remains to be seen whether Clinton will be able to help Kerry's troubled campaign."
Absolutely shameless whoring.

Watched a few minutes of the doctors. Got the impression Dr. Schwarz was a Dem - more anxious to get Bill back out on the trail. Not surprised that Smith is a repuke -- obviously talented surgeon, but something about him wasn't comforting.

[milkyway]

19. Gave up most corporate media 6 months ago. I use DU's LBN as my main

news portal. Like a lot of people here, my regular sources are Air America, Daily Show, Democracy Now!, NY Times, books, and lots of Internet sites like Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, Kevin Drum, Matthew Yglesias, Greg Palast, Center for American Progress, The Nation, Tom Tomorrow, Michael Moore, Baghdad Burning, Juan Cole, Common Dreams, Eschaston, Orcinus, and way too many others to list.

The 24 hour cable "news" channels hold a peculiar place in the history of the press in that, even though they operate around the clock, they do little news reporting. They mainly just pass along government statements in their news segments. The amount of reports they show that are original journalism is almost non-existent. (It doesn't count when they say, "CNN has learned..." The only reason they learned it is because somebody in the government wanted them to pass it along to the audience, and with the bush people it's usually meant to deceive. CNN and the other networks role is to legitimize government propaganda).

And in the talk show segments it is absolutely amazing how so many people can talk so much without saying anything. I realized just how empty the news channels are during the Florida recount in 2000. I would watch something like Chris Matthews' show where a panel would talk for an hour and none of them had even taken the time to find out what they were talking about. During the recount I had gone online to the state of Florida's website and downloaded the pertinent election laws. To read and understand them would take five minutes and an eighth-grade education. Yet none of the people yapping on cable TV even knew what the law said. They would make wild misstatements or act as if you needed to be a lawyer to understand it.

I used to watch CNN until I couldn't stomach it anymore. They made a real bright move when they decided to become a weak imitation of Fox at exactly the time most Americans had become disenchanted with bush and were looking for something else (it seems the bookstores are loaded with successful progressive and anti-bush books). If CNN had wanted to make a change, they could have become the Fox of the left--a partisan network that puts a much higher value on low-brow entertainment than on journalism. If they had, their ratings would be at least quadruple what they are now. Instead, they decided to become the "reasonable" Fox. They picked the wrong side of the political spectrum for that.

[umtalal]

21. It seems to me the publishing press is doing more anti bush books

and obviously they are making money because there is a demand. But the other media is just on the opposite track. And I wonder if the publishing world is not telling us something about the reality out there?

[sandnsea]

22. Yup

I watch local evening news and get my main news in LBN. Fuck those newsmodels, don't need them.

[ILeft]

23. I quit watching after the Right Wing Coup of December, 2000

I feel that I am mostly deprogrammed by now, but it pains me to see what it is doing to those still watching that calculated, mind-altering propaganda. The Right Wing extremists control the message and the medium... hence the Country.

[Carla in Ca]

24. I used to tape Inside Politics

and crossfire. Now I only tape crossfire

[theoceansnerves]

25. if you can get the BBC...

either via bbc america, pbs, or when they sometimes show it on cspan, i'd recommend that. that and only that, really. cnn, fox, msnbc, cnbc are all just horrible, even if you don't care about the biases and whoring and just want news!