What Has Happened to the News?

Dinosaurs Bite

I had to stop watching the Sunday morning news talk shows. Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and This Week With George Stephanopolis were always good for a laugh and a few good arguments with family and friends. Unfortunately political discourse has become like religion, if you don't have facts, go with opinion. What people want to think is more important than analysis of facts. Opinion trumps news.

I have been watching the Sunday morning news talk shows since I was a child and my mother had the shows on as she prepared bacon and eggs for the family.  I watched for forty years, but I can't watch them any more.

These political discussions have become all about who is winning the political popularity contest, or how a particular person should handle a situation for political gain. There is no insight into current events, no pithy one liners that really make you think, too many old white men, the same tired old faces, and still too few women bog these shows down.

The same kind of ideological gridlock that keeps Congress from earning it's salary is echoed in the hollow talk that passes for discussion on these programs. The same old politicians show up with very obvious exclusions to keep the conversation tame. No one challenges outright misinformation. OK once in a while on Meet the Press David Gregory will give it a go. But not like I remember it in the past.

Moderators used to have facts and figures at their fingertips and challenged guests when they played fast and loose with the facts. You cannot really discuss any issue until you can at least agree on the facts. So there you go. I cannot listen to the silliness that passes for news anymore.

I guess I will get all the news I can use on the weather report.