The Idiot Box
Posted by Jeff on October 14, 2010
How Punditry is Taking Over My TV
I hate to say this and please don’t quote me but… Rush Limbaugh was ahead of his time. From 1992 to 1996 Limbaugh had a 30 minute television show that was syndicated across the United States. Ratings were enough to keep him on the air for four years but eventually the individual stations’ ratings forced him off air. His ego would only allow him to say that he preferred radio to TV but the reality is that the show was wearing thin.
Bill O'Reilly
About this same time, Roger Ailes, who had produced Limbaugh’s show hired Bill O’Reilly to do a political commentary show on the new Fox News Channel. And that, my friends is what started it. O’Reilly was certainly not afraid to say what he believed. Or perhaps what he believed would make people watch. O’Reilly was an immediate hit for Fox News and because of it spawned numerous other clones.
Fox News, in trying to maintain its trademark, “Fair and Balanced” image added Hannity & Colmes in 1996. I have long been a fan of Alan Colmes. His radio show used to air on the same station as Limbaugh’s here in NWA back in the early 90’s. But on this show, Colmes tended to lean further to the right than the liberal viewers expected from him and after 13 years of fending off Sean Hannity’s lopsided conservatism, Colmes left the show.
Glenn Beck
Seeing the ratings success that Fox News was earning with these right-wing pundits, CNN Headline News (now HLN) tried adding its own by bringing Glenn Beck aboard in 2006. After only two years, Beck left for the safer studios of Fox News where he now has an enormously free reign over his own content. Beck has quickly turned unabashed punditry into a combination of Sunday morning televangelism and Saturday at midnight UHF conspiracy mongering. The show is vastly unwatchable. Someone is watching but even the most conservative people I know can’t tolerate more than one segment of his show.
Keith Olbermann
Not to be outdone, MSNBC decided to give Keith Olbermann a try at news commentary. Countdown with Keith Olbermann premiered on March 31, 2003. Olbermann quickly found an audience for his left-leaning show that made a lot of hay attacking Bill O’Reilly for his views and for what Olbermann felt were disingenuous or hypocritical comments. Their feud was legendary and lasted for over half of a decade until Beck came around and gave Olbermann someone a little more “out-there” to lambaste and to label the Worst Person in the World.
Others have come along… Greta Van Susteren, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell. But where did the news go?
I miss the old Headline News. Remember the old format? Every half hour, the same news wheel: News at :00 and :30. Dollars and Sense at :15 & :45. Sports at :20 & :50 (Jerome Jurenovich, anyone?) and lifestyles (entertainment news) at :25 & :55. It was great. You always knew exactly when the news would be on or the sports or whatever. Don Harrison, Chuck Roberts, Lynne Russell. Van Earl Wright! They came on, they read the news, they moved on. I miss that.
But just presenting the news doesn’t sell ads anymore. If it did we wouldn’t have to put up with Nancy Grace droning on about all the bad people in America every night. For whatever reason, people prefer to hear the talking head’s opinion on the news as well. And sadly, the more divisive (O’Reilly on the right, Olbermann on the left) the better. I guess I will just DVR Brian Williams and call it good. The cable news channels just won’t tell the news straight. It doesn’t sell. And yes, I blame Limbaugh.
My TV says I should vote for Sarah Palin
6 Responses to “The Idiot Box”
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Brett Kincaid said
Fox is the only station that reports the REAL news, Jeff. You’ve clearly been brainwashed by the liberal media elite.
Adam Butler said
Well, while the cable news shows are out there, I’m not sure the real news is about giving us the news, anymore, either.
It’s too bad an actual news person can’t make it on these newtorks, because people (on both sides) don’t want to hear moderation and objectivity. They want to hear that their team is the best and the other side is stupid.
Kris' Factor said
I actually (I can’t beleive I am admitting this) used to love to watch Bill O. I watched him in the late 90′s and even had an e-mail read on his show once. However, for those of you (nobody on this board I’m guesing) who watched him back then know, his show now is NOTHING like it used to be.
Jeff said
By the way, Lynne Russell was a big gun rights advocate. She admitted to Conan one night that she had a concealed weapon permit and sometimes had a gun on her while broadcasting the news.
That’s awesome.
Jeff said
Apparently O’Reilly needs more viewers. He was on The View:
“Whoopi Goldberg asked why it would be inappropriate to build the center near ground zero, to which O’Reilly responded, “Muslims killed us on 9/11.”"
At that point Whoopi and Joy Behar walked out of the show.
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/14/oreilly-visits-the-view-and-two-hosts-walk-off/?hpt=T2
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