NET STUPIDITY. I'll write more about George W. Bush's news conference tomorrow. Tonight, just a brief observation about CBS's and NBC's decision to dump out of the closing minutes so they could switch to their entertainment shows: unbelievable!
I'd been watching NBC when, a few minutes before 9, the network suddenly cut away to Brian Williams. Williams chit-chatted with Tim Russert for a few moments, and that was that. I also noticed Bob Schieffer wrapping things up on CBS. Of the three broadcast networks, only ABC stuck with it until the end.
Mind you, just before 9, Bush made a joke about wrapping up so that the networks could get back to fun and games. Little did he know that two of them had already left. And it's not as if he went over by much. By my watch, he ended at 9:01.
I'm not sure how to characterize the nets' decision. Disgraceful is a bit much; pathetic is more like it. Do they really expect anyone to take them seriously?
8 comments:
Are you weally surprised, Dan?
Just because they say they are legitimate news doesn't make them so. I even wonder why a serious writer on the news media like you would even cover this garbage called network news.
It is a jike and becoming more and more like"inside Edition".
The upswing is people can find greeat news sources. But isn't it time to start treating the network news broadcasts with respect they deserve. As in very little.
What about the messenger? I don't think Bush said anything that was worth reporting or showing. His "good ole boy" thing is tired and he keeps repeating the same talking points for every question. If it's not on his list he doesn't talk about, but he'll talk about what on his list, i.e., what Carl Rove wants him to say.
The networks never should have aired this political ad in the first place. And they should have given the Dems a rebuttal period. Sorry-but this wasn't news-it was an informercial and a bad one at that!!
As much as I dislike Bush, a presidential press conference is a presidential press conference. You can call it an infomercial if you like, but the American people should still have the opportunity to hear about what the supreme leader is trying to sell.
I was actually a bit surprised by the lack of content during the press conference compared to the one he did after winning the election. It was like an info-mercial and the reporters didn't ask very hard questions compared to how they would go after Clinton [and rightfully so].
I was listening to it on the radio - so I heard the whole thing - and the simiplicity of it all was really shocking. On No Child Left Behind, paraphrasing, Bush said it was 'workin' ... cause we're measurin' ... measurin' is important ... kids need to learn to read and write ... lit-ter-ah-see ...' emphasized in that special way he does. Lots of umms and ahs ... I thought he was a Kennedy for a minute there. So, yeah, stupidity of the networks, puzzling to do it during May sweeps, a whole lotta nothing as far as content.
The interplay between politics and corporate news media continue their degeneration into the worst of all possible worlds. Karl Rove ordered last night's press conference in the hope of repairing Bush's miserable poll numbers, not to communicate anything newsworthy.
It was only the fourth such press conference of Bush's presidency, and had nothing to do with educating or informing the public. It was 100% about manipulatiing public perception that Bush is doing something when he's actually doing nothing --no different than what Coca-Cola does when their sales start dropping.
Why should the networks treat this un-serious president's un-serious media schtick any differently than the junk that constitutes it Regularly Scheduled Programming? At least the programming brings in hard advertsing dollars (Bush can give more coporate tax cuts off camera, thank you very much).
Neslon, Roslindale
Htank yuo, Neslon!
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