Due to the fact that a growing portion of the news on TV in recent years is blown up as BREAKINGNEWS, it’s a wonder there’s any news left in one piece. It strikes me that TV ‘journalism’ has fallen into such a decrepit condition, even Humpty Dumpty wouldn’t want to trade places with what remains of it. To those of us who fondly remember the class of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and the like, cable news overkill is a heart-breaking state of affairs — and heart-breaking affairs, of course, can only leave….
Yes, friends, I’m afraid this world has come to a pretty pass. My heart aches for the return of the good old days when men were men, women were women, news was news, and Presidents were a cut above a pain in the dis-ass-ter. Pardon my language, but that’s the….
When we have a fake President calling everything that displeases him “fake news,” even the real news suffers because many people don’t (want to) know enough to tell the difference.
Carmen, it’s like seeing a bad movie over and over again, and that same movie is on every channel (and the ‘commercials’ on the Fox News Channel are delivered by integrity-impaired Trumpites)
I wish that news would go back to being just that… news. This happened on this day, period. No hour long diatribe filled pundit’s opinion. Report the facts, I’ll make up my own mind.
It’s probably wishful thinking, but maybe the news will return to some semblance of normalcy after Trump is voted out of office in 2020 (except Fox News will undoubtedly continue to rant and rave and cry foul ad nauseam).
“Faux News” is the perfect name for the Republichristian channel. Congrats on putting your Carmen Miranda rights to good creative use (forgive me, Carmen, for I have punned).
I doubt we’d even notice a change, Ricardo. Trump is so obsessed with tweeting, he’d probably switch to using his toes….and though his tweets would likely appear as gibberish, how would that be any different than now?
Thanks for sharing my disgust with “breaking news.” I will adopt your phrase “aching news.” Or maybe “braking news” as in I am putting the brakes on hearing any more news.
My mom used to talk about Ted Weems. Fun photo. Have you seen the wonderful Good Night and Good Luck film? I watch every few months just to marvel that we had journalists of that caliber, courage and integrity.
I haven’t seen the movie (about CBS coverage of the McCarthy hearings), however I was a teenager at the time of the hearings and remember watching some of it because, even at my tender age, it was a compelling spectacle. The film, as you know, was directed by George Clooney, and the actor who played Edward R. Morrow played the part perfectly, according to film critic Leonard Maltin. Incidentally George’s father, Nick Clooney, was a long-time TV news anchor on the local CBS affiliate.
I guess news reporting (except for Fox News) can’t be all that bad if our laughable fake President calls it “fake news” and calls the news media “the enemy of the people.”
With the passage of time so many things changed. We watch so many BREAKING NEWS every day, but actually people and society need MAKING NEWS now. Media has totally changed and it needs improvement also.
Here in the U.S., BREAKING NEWS is overused (in my opinion) by cable news and local news, not by network news (ABC, NBC and CBS). Apparently it’s meant to keep viewers tuned in, but when overdone, it comes across as hype and a gimmick more than anything else.
Yessss! I so agree with you on the news. Also, I can’t stand the media bias. Even if I have the same bias I just want the facts. Let me use my own brain to decide what I believe. Ugh. Thank you for saying what most of us are feeling.
You said it, Alison. In-depth news and commentary seem to be taking more and more of a backseat to ideologically-slanted news and commentary with each passing season. This would be called playing to the base if politicians did it. When “base” news channels such as Fox do it, how they can claim to be “fair and balanced” is beyond me.
Tomorrow, Sept. 11, is NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS DAY, which celebrates a truism that isn’t necessarily true….but, if we apply it to covering this Presidential campaign season in America, no news would be good news every day until election day: No more being subjected to The Donald’s incessant Barnum-esque babblings, or to Hillary trying to overcome being Hillary. No more spin from their political shills on cable TV. No more polls. No more any of it. Let’s just vote and get it over with. I’m ready. I’ve been ready.
Now that that’s settled, I am going to start the celebration a day early by not mentioning either candidate for the remainder of this post. Furthermore, I’m not going to subject you to my babblings for the rest of this post; instead, while I’m off celebrating, I’ll let what others have said on the subject of news take it from here. Is that good news, or what?
But first, the news: The House of Commons was sealed off today [while in session] after police chased an escaped lunatic through the front door. A spokesman at Scotland Yard said it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. –Ronnie Barker
It’s not a 24 hour news cycle, it’s a 60 second news cycle now, it’s instantaneous. It has never been easier to get away with telling lies. It has never been easier to get away with the glib one-liner. –Malcolm Turnbull
We all want to get the news objectively, impartially, and from our own point of view. –Bill Vaughan
Public opinion is the God of democracy, and the journalist is his prophet. –Evan Esar
We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks — that’s show business. –Edward R. Murrow (broadcast journalist)
It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. –Jerry Seinfeld
The American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator. –John Oliver
I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true. –Katherine Hepburn
Some people commit a crime for no other reason than to see their name in print. –Gustave Flaubert
Live long enough and nothing is news. ‘The News’ is ‘the new thing.’ That’s fine, until a hundred years go by and you realize there are no new things, only deep structures and cycles that repeat themselves through different period details. –Glen Duncan
Having already passed my biblical “three-score and ten” years of life, I know what you mean.
Probably one of the oldest expressions of that belief is from the only bible book I really know (and the one I think got in there purely on poetic merit):
“The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
—Ecclesiastes 1:9
Shakespeare had a funny take on that in one of his sonnets where he says we still run around like someone giving birth to a baby that’s already been born before:
“If there be nothing new, but that which is,
Hath been before, how are our brains beguil’d,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child….”
—Shakespeare, Sonnet 59
That would be work, which would take time away from my celebration (which, come to think of it, this has done anyway — but, for you, Ricardo, it’s worth the sacrifice).
Don, if you had included the Mets, you would have batted .500, because they won (along with the Giants) while the Jets and Yankees lost. But if it makes you any happier, I won’t rub it in about the Bengals beating the Jets by one point, because the game could’ve gone either way. 🙂
The American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator. –John Oliver
Pretty sad when a comedian has a better take on the news than the news media.
Unlike Hillary, The Donald has played the media like a drum for months. If he wins, it will be because she seems never to get the hang of it or learn from what has caused her problems in the past. What a pity that someone so experienced keeps being her own worst enemy.
Thanks — the video is a clip from the 1947 movie musical based on the 1927 stage production “Good News” which included such hits as “Lucky In Love,” “The Best Things In Life Are Free” and the title song.
eths, 
The Observation Post 
Don Ostertag 12:06 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
AMEN!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 1:31 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord our President not to keep
LikeLiked by 2 people
obbverse 12:16 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
I elect we spurn Don, tune out and switch off. If only it was that easy though.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 1:33 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Ditto my previous reply.
LikeLike
calmkate 12:19 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
lol very clever post … oh my achy breaky heart 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 1:34 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Thanks — I hear you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
lexborgia 6:05 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Roger that. Back then the news was a ‘serious affair’ (only our parents and proper adults watched it). Now it’s just a show…with plot points.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:00 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
When we have a fake President calling everything that displeases him “fake news,” even the real news suffers because many people don’t (want to) know enough to tell the difference.
LikeLiked by 1 person
lexborgia 2:06 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink
Roger that.
LikeLike
Carmen 6:54 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
News as entertainment – who’d a thunk it? 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:12 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Carmen, it’s like seeing a bad movie over and over again, and that same movie is on every channel (and the ‘commercials’ on the Fox News Channel are delivered by integrity-impaired Trumpites)
LikeLike
Rivergirl 7:54 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
I wish that news would go back to being just that… news. This happened on this day, period. No hour long diatribe filled pundit’s opinion. Report the facts, I’ll make up my own mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:22 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
It’s probably wishful thinking, but maybe the news will return to some semblance of normalcy after Trump is voted out of office in 2020 (except Fox News will undoubtedly continue to rant and rave and cry foul ad nauseam).
LikeLike
Carmen 8:30 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink
Faux News is manna to the Republichristians . . . mind-boggling, really.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 11:03 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink
“Faux News” is the perfect name for the Republichristian channel. Congrats on putting your Carmen Miranda rights to good creative use (forgive me, Carmen, for I have punned).
LikeLike
Carmen 11:46 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink
Blessed be the hoot. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Garfield Hug 10:07 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Very good post!!👏👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 11:08 am on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Thanks, G H. I hope Garfield liked it as much as you did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Garfield Hug 1:20 am on June 23, 2019 Permalink
For sure Garfield did! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
arekhill1 1:54 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
I don’t know, Sr. Muse. If Trump broke all of his Twitter fingers in a golfing mishap, I’d want to hear about that right away.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 2:27 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
I doubt we’d even notice a change, Ricardo. Trump is so obsessed with tweeting, he’d probably switch to using his toes….and though his tweets would likely appear as gibberish, how would that be any different than now?
LikeLike
Elizabeth 2:13 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
Thanks for sharing my disgust with “breaking news.” I will adopt your phrase “aching news.” Or maybe “braking news” as in I am putting the brakes on hearing any more news.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 2:42 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink |
I’m so sick of seeing Trump’s face on the news, “braking news” is probably the way to go, if only for that reason alone.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mlrover 5:35 am on June 25, 2019 Permalink |
My mom used to talk about Ted Weems. Fun photo. Have you seen the wonderful Good Night and Good Luck film? I watch every few months just to marvel that we had journalists of that caliber, courage and integrity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 4:13 pm on June 25, 2019 Permalink |
I haven’t seen the movie (about CBS coverage of the McCarthy hearings), however I was a teenager at the time of the hearings and remember watching some of it because, even at my tender age, it was a compelling spectacle. The film, as you know, was directed by George Clooney, and the actor who played Edward R. Morrow played the part perfectly, according to film critic Leonard Maltin. Incidentally George’s father, Nick Clooney, was a long-time TV news anchor on the local CBS affiliate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mlrover 10:15 am on June 26, 2019 Permalink
Take the time to see the film. It’s worth it just to hear the words of Murrow and the rest of the cast is splendid. You’ll also love the music!
LikeLiked by 1 person
D. Wallace Peach 5:36 pm on June 25, 2019 Permalink |
Nice. I could use some news that isn’t about the presidential dis-ass-ter. Usually it makes me cry, so thanks for the laugh.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 8:12 pm on June 25, 2019 Permalink |
I guess news reporting (except for Fox News) can’t be all that bad if our laughable fake President calls it “fake news” and calls the news media “the enemy of the people.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
J.S - WEW 1:59 pm on June 28, 2019 Permalink |
With the passage of time so many things changed. We watch so many BREAKING NEWS every day, but actually people and society need MAKING NEWS now. Media has totally changed and it needs improvement also.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 6:05 pm on June 28, 2019 Permalink |
Here in the U.S., BREAKING NEWS is overused (in my opinion) by cable news and local news, not by network news (ABC, NBC and CBS). Apparently it’s meant to keep viewers tuned in, but when overdone, it comes across as hype and a gimmick more than anything else.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Alison 8:29 pm on June 30, 2019 Permalink |
Yessss! I so agree with you on the news. Also, I can’t stand the media bias. Even if I have the same bias I just want the facts. Let me use my own brain to decide what I believe. Ugh. Thank you for saying what most of us are feeling.
LikeLiked by 2 people
mistermuse 10:29 pm on June 30, 2019 Permalink |
You said it, Alison. In-depth news and commentary seem to be taking more and more of a backseat to ideologically-slanted news and commentary with each passing season. This would be called playing to the base if politicians did it. When “base” news channels such as Fox do it, how they can claim to be “fair and balanced” is beyond me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
America On Coffee 3:26 pm on July 6, 2019 Permalink |
This is definitely our current state of affairs.
LikeLiked by 1 person