Question If most DUers agree that the MSM is so abysmal

and such corporate right wing generated spew, how come so many DUers watch it so faithfully? Is it because you like getting pissed off, or because it's like watching a train wreck? Just curious.

(except for the French channel TV5) but tonight I'm going to start watching BBC's Hour Long American news program. I haven't watched CNN or MSNBC (except for the first 1/2 hour of Olberman occasionally) for years and years and years though.

I get 95% of my news from NPR.. and the other 5% on the internet.

MSM is necessary (who else would sell detergent?) but not sufficient. Excuse me, Democracy Now is starting now on my local access channel ... it's not perfect either but better than no alternative at all.

Television is a medium that generally doesn't stretch the intellect. One must be fairly selective.

Which means, of course, that much of the conversation at DU passes right over my head. I don't know, or want to know, who all the media devils and darlings are, and I don't really care what they think.

I do care that so many people are locked into what a media talking head tells them, rather than thinking for themselves.

Pick your favorite spokesperson. Listen and cheer him/her on, then attack everyone who disagrees with him/her.

A national sport begun by rush, and eagerly played by too many.

to see what they are, or perhaps more important, are NOT covering.

I don't "get my news" from them.

avidly, tuning in to Chris Mattews, etc everyday.

When it says something they agree with, it is a valuable reference.

(Disclaimer: I do not have cable and rarely watch the Sundays shows.).

1) Know thine enemy. If they are spreading a meme. You can work on countering it with facts or a counter meme.

2) Holding them somewhat accountable. If you can point out errors and ommissions (read the NYT sometimes, inside front page... a whole page of corrections, who do you think does that? not the paper) then they may not get repeated later on.

3) Forewarned is forearmed. I have friends who are more conservative. They have learned not to repeat the biased or misleading crap they read or hear from the MSM because I'm very ready to counter it with facts or correct information. Sometimes straight off the pages of DU.

I used to work in a library and read the Focus on the Family mags for that very reason. With the internet I can read and research at the same time.





My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

That term has become a right wing mantra...and covers the tracks of those who profit from the bile and spinning that goes on.

I used to watch CNN 24/7...and now if I watch an hour a day that's a lot. But I do watch so I can watch how the talking points are being played. It's not like watching a trainwreck, but more how the right wing/corporate spin machine works and to prepare myself for the latest attack. I never watch Faux and only pop on MSNBC to see Keith and sometimes Tweety.

I watch it because I like watching what THEY say, comparing it to what I read on here and then surfing the net to see if I can figure out what the kernel of truth in the story is.

And those of us who do watch TV are much more representative of the general public than those who do not. We use one of the satilite subscription services so we get many channels - and were it not for that all we would ever get as news would be right wing bullshit.

By the way, the left isn't much better.

and trying to get them to apply the same standards to Republicans that they set for Democrats ... like the 24/7 minute-by-minute coverage of John Kerry's "diss of the troops" compared to the barely-heard mention of Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" (media runs to Rush's defense) or Mitt Romney's "my sons are too busy campaigning for me to enlist in the war they believe in" ...

in a nutshell. Plus I don't yell at my wife or dog anymore so that's a good thing.

I had 150 channels and spent my time going through them all looking for something I wanted to watch. I felt the money I was spending wasn't worth it.

great university channels..

Without Dish, you would miss out on them .. That's why we chose Dish :)

I get to watch Mosaic..& Deutsche Welle & other International news broadcasts & great documentaries that you would never see anywhere else:)

Another blessing in doing so is not having to be dazzled by flashing ultra-white teeth and giggling "newsgirls" who read stories about tragedy in voices that sound like a cross between Shirley Temple (aged 5) and a duck.

I dropped cable over 10 years ago, and stopped watching network news when CBS brought Connie Chung on to "co-anchor" with Dan Rather. It's not that I don't like Connie; I just don't like "antiphonal" news reporting (like local news where one "anchor" reads the first part of a sentence and the second "anchor" finishes it. :eyes:). But you're right about the BBC. Due to my insomnia, I'm often awake between 12 midnight and 6am when my local NPR station carries the BBC. I glean a lot of news from the BBC. Then NPR comes on at 5am and the contrast is striking! Usually, though, I'm getting up then and starting on my chores and don't listen to them anyway.

;)

I canceled cable months ago, so I can't get the FauxMSBSNBCCNNcrap anymore, but, I do try to catch some of what they are talking about, especially Fox, periodically.

We need to know what they are telling the masses, especially what Fox is spewing. Sometimes I tune into the "We watch Fox so you don't have to..." sites. Sometimes I visit their sites on line, or, in the case of Fox, catch their hate talk on radio.

If we don't know what they're up to, we can't be prepared.

I'll let others tune in to Faux and CNN. I can't stand the shit they air. And they're so predictable, you know what they're going to spew anyway.

As a person who is out talking to folks, trying to persuade their vote, I have to know what they're listening to -- what they're watching.


You would be surprised to know how many average Americans flip on Fox.

My mom watches it everyday -- she's a Dem who hates what's going on. And I tell her every time we talk what poison it is for her. It's insidious -- but it's flashy, easy to get sucked into and addictive to watch.

I've canvassed a lot over the passed 4 years -- I've knocked on a lot of doors -- thousands. Most of these knocks were for Dem party voters, some not. On average, when discussion of news came up during conversation, it was apparent that many, Dems, Ind, Repugs, etc., all watched Fox at some point. If I am to counter what they are hearing on what they think is a news program, I have to know not only my facts to try to convince them that what they are watching is pure propaganda, but I also have to be aware of exactly what the propaganda is that they are watching.

It's a tactical approach with me.

Hey, someone's got to do it. We can't afford to ignore it.

these news organizations have, we would be ill-informed. We all know they've committed grievous sins, and have contributed to the situation we find ourselves in. But look at LBN any day. You have to look at MSM with a grain of salt -- some things you ignore, some things you protest, some things you are grateful for (personally, every day I find major articles I'm grateful for in MSM).

I don't follow TV news as closely.