I rather doubt that the selection of Gaetz, Gabbard, et al. had any nuance we need to understand. The jagular that wants to eat my face doesn't have any nuance either.
I listen to CSPAN Washington Today for ACTUAL sound clips, no video or political commentary. Just original sources and factual reporting.
I follow Sarah Kendzior on here (she does NOT believe in a paywall) and her two books *They Knew* and *Hidden in Plain Sight* are must reads, but not at bedtime! 🫣
Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show podcast is great, at length commentary.
Quit cable over a decade ago and the bias scolding of NPR, PBS NewsHour and Democracy Now is exhausting.
I lean towards actual government conspiracies, because of deeply personal factual occurrences, like my late-drafted grandfather, who liberated concentration camps and pointed at me as he was dying and said “Don’t you let the military use that big ol’ brain of yours. Even the Air Force!” Looking at Operation Paperclip, I am inclined to believe Hitler got to escape to Argentina and NASA got a buncha Nazis, to compete with Russian scientists who were hacking cats.
Also, Michael, I doubt aliens would bow to our corrupt governments, out of moral/temporal superiority. I believe in both suppressed ancient world history (a series of polar flips and pyramids were cosmic free energy generators) and centuries of suppressed technology, like DaVinci, Tesla and hovercraft/hyper-speed aviation.
Also, I saw Elvis in 1989 at a truck stop, on a cross country family trip. He left in a hurry when my momma was staring too hard. He was driving a big rig, solo.
"It is that he embodies lawlessness, and can be counted upon to abuse law to pursue Trump's political opponents. The end of the rule of law is an essential component of a regime change."
I may agree with your headline's premise: It's NOT a freak show! After all, one would expect an actual show to be better run than the freak fest that's shaping up.
It would would look more like PBS. Which is government funded… for now. But wouldn’t fix the issue that 24 hour news is just another business that needs to make money and their model up until now, for all of networks, is to give the people what they think they want.
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has a more significant portion of federal funding than NPR (which has its own approach to funding), but the breakdown is as follows:
Federal funding through Corporation for Public Broadcasting: About 15-20% of total funding
(This varies year to year and station by station)
The rest comes from:
- Viewer contributions/memberships (~30%)
- State/local government funding (~15%)
- Corporate underwriting (~15%)
- Colleges/universities
- Foundation grants
- Product licensing (like PBS Kids merchandise)
- DVD/digital sales of programs
Important to note that like NPR, PBS is a network of independent local stations. The funding mix can vary significantly between stations. Rural stations often rely more heavily on federal funding (sometimes up to 30-40% of their budgets) because they have smaller local donor bases and less corporate sponsorship opportunities compared to urban stations.
The federal portion largely flows through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which acts as a firewall between political pressures and programming decisions. The CPB distributes federal funds to both PBS and NPR member stations based on various criteria like size of market served and matching fund requirements.
Stopped watching NewsHour with the host(s) shift. The bias is apparent and frankly, I can barely watch any PBS docs anymore because it’s all trauma or NOVA.
NPR started have subtle bias and advertisers in 2016. Branded mentions in articles, assumed listener groupthink or scolding of “the ignorant”, when much of MAGA is gleefully sociopathically capitalist/nationalist/racist/misogynistic.
Well, then I guess there are no good alternatives other than to limit what we consume and scrutinize it all. Which is probably a good course of action in any case. 🤷🏻♀️
the need for factual reporting over trying to balance every viewpoint is spot on.
I like Robert Reich's alternative to freak show; "A Star Wars cantina of idiots."
I don’t know Michael, I think the liberal media already included the opposing view points when they discuss politics.
The question is does the conservative media include liberal guests to balance things out?
Not sure, I haven’t watched cable news in almost 8 years, but we should examine both sides.
Tapper has been auditioning for the lead in show to Hannity for at least three years.
Normalizing the freak show makes people feel better about facing the end of their society, maybe?
I don't know about you, but it only pisses me off more.
I rather doubt that the selection of Gaetz, Gabbard, et al. had any nuance we need to understand. The jagular that wants to eat my face doesn't have any nuance either.
I listen to CSPAN Washington Today for ACTUAL sound clips, no video or political commentary. Just original sources and factual reporting.
I follow Sarah Kendzior on here (she does NOT believe in a paywall) and her two books *They Knew* and *Hidden in Plain Sight* are must reads, but not at bedtime! 🫣
Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show podcast is great, at length commentary.
Quit cable over a decade ago and the bias scolding of NPR, PBS NewsHour and Democracy Now is exhausting.
I lean towards actual government conspiracies, because of deeply personal factual occurrences, like my late-drafted grandfather, who liberated concentration camps and pointed at me as he was dying and said “Don’t you let the military use that big ol’ brain of yours. Even the Air Force!” Looking at Operation Paperclip, I am inclined to believe Hitler got to escape to Argentina and NASA got a buncha Nazis, to compete with Russian scientists who were hacking cats.
Also, Michael, I doubt aliens would bow to our corrupt governments, out of moral/temporal superiority. I believe in both suppressed ancient world history (a series of polar flips and pyramids were cosmic free energy generators) and centuries of suppressed technology, like DaVinci, Tesla and hovercraft/hyper-speed aviation.
Also, I saw Elvis in 1989 at a truck stop, on a cross country family trip. He left in a hurry when my momma was staring too hard. He was driving a big rig, solo.
I like you. Bravo.
https://youtu.be/rl_NpdAy3WY?si=eH5zY4yrKnrc84gO
Definitely both, watch Have I Got News for You and subscribe!
"It is that he embodies lawlessness, and can be counted upon to abuse law to pursue Trump's political opponents. The end of the rule of law is an essential component of a regime change."
Timothy Snyder on this nomination abomination
Good piece.
I may agree with your headline's premise: It's NOT a freak show! After all, one would expect an actual show to be better run than the freak fest that's shaping up.
Fair point.
It was Republicans who ended the Fairness Doctrine in media. If they were serious about « balance, » they would be clamoring to have it back.
More nationalists and evangelicals would not make the news more reliable. Both are strongly dedicated to disbelieving facts.
RIP The Fairness Doctrine.
It would would look more like PBS. Which is government funded… for now. But wouldn’t fix the issue that 24 hour news is just another business that needs to make money and their model up until now, for all of networks, is to give the people what they think they want.
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has a more significant portion of federal funding than NPR (which has its own approach to funding), but the breakdown is as follows:
Federal funding through Corporation for Public Broadcasting: About 15-20% of total funding
(This varies year to year and station by station)
The rest comes from:
- Viewer contributions/memberships (~30%)
- State/local government funding (~15%)
- Corporate underwriting (~15%)
- Colleges/universities
- Foundation grants
- Product licensing (like PBS Kids merchandise)
- DVD/digital sales of programs
Important to note that like NPR, PBS is a network of independent local stations. The funding mix can vary significantly between stations. Rural stations often rely more heavily on federal funding (sometimes up to 30-40% of their budgets) because they have smaller local donor bases and less corporate sponsorship opportunities compared to urban stations.
The federal portion largely flows through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which acts as a firewall between political pressures and programming decisions. The CPB distributes federal funds to both PBS and NPR member stations based on various criteria like size of market served and matching fund requirements.
Stopped watching NewsHour with the host(s) shift. The bias is apparent and frankly, I can barely watch any PBS docs anymore because it’s all trauma or NOVA.
NPR started have subtle bias and advertisers in 2016. Branded mentions in articles, assumed listener groupthink or scolding of “the ignorant”, when much of MAGA is gleefully sociopathically capitalist/nationalist/racist/misogynistic.
Reading Rainbow RIP
Well, then I guess there are no good alternatives other than to limit what we consume and scrutinize it all. Which is probably a good course of action in any case. 🤷🏻♀️