Normally it’s just
“filler” until the election.
Let me tell you about an event so deliciously special it
remains carefully secured in the Safety Deposit Box of my mind.
Sometimes, I wonder if the cable news community secretly reveres this incendiary confession, or
if they are horrified by it, or both,
sneaking out a “bootleg” copy of the tape for “subversive viewing”, or at
Christmas parties, and then stashing it away, fearing its general promulgation
would send the entire cable news operation crashing down around their heads.
It probably wouldn’t.
But why take chances? You get
free clothes and meet attractive commentators.
Too “catty”? Probably, yeah.)
Okay, here’s the story.
Tell everyone you know. This
deserves widespread distribution.
Unavailable at this venue.
It concerns the late John McLaughlin, host of the longtime,
cable political slugfest The McLaughlin
Group. McLaughlin was probably in
his late seventies when he said this, giving credence to the saying I am
inventing on the spot:
In Senility Veritas.
(Or maybe it was powerful medication?)
(Or maybe he was simply finally “coming clean.”)
Here’s the situation.
Liberals and conservatives are ferociously attacking each
other, as was traditional on The
McLaughlin Group, screaming, spitting and vituperating, the “debate”
ascending to a cacophonic crescendo.
Moderator McLaughlin breaks in to restore order. Drawing on decades of experience, in his
trademark stentorian delivery, John McLaughlin capsulizes the conversation
thusly:
“The question is not
(concerning the issue under discussion) ‘Is it good for the “Left” or is it
good for the “Right”?’ The question is….
“Is it good for our show?”
The panelists immediately turn white, for the first time,
uncharacteristically speechless.
That’s one
example.
More recently, a couple of weeks ago, the intervening period
between this and the story I have
just related being… maybe fifteen years?… I am guessing here, because I was not
aware there would be such an enormous gap before cable news said anything
newsworthy again and I neglected to keep track.
Alex Wagner, had a regular hosting gig on MSNBC but now doesn’t – possibly due to a propensity for candid remarks, although
the following “boat rocking” assertion
could have equally been “sour grapes” because they canned her; these things can
legitimately go in either direction.
(Nah, it was probably just bad ratings.)
It’s some backwater Sunday afternoon cable news program. Nobody’s watching because there’s football.
The subject at hand is candidate Donald Trump’s latest “shooting
himself in foot” – the man has shot himself in the foot so many times, he is
now relegated to shooting himself in the calf. (I’m not sure about that one.)
This happened a couple of weeks ago, making it four weeks
before the election. The Access Hollywood “They let me do it because
I’m a star” video has just emerged and the guest expert political operative on
the show – a Republican – has just declared, as a result of this damaging
revelation:
“The election is over.”
To which invited commentator Alex Wagner responds,
“Then what are we doing
here?”
The show’s host almost swallowed his microphone. (Unused to hearing the truth on his TV show.)
That’s the second
example. In fifteen years.
It is not news that cable news is a business.
It is news when
they acknowledge it on the air.
2 comments:
My son is convinced that the 24-hour cable news channels and even our local news stations are actually pleased when reports of hurricanes or huge fires start to arrive. He says they're relieved they won't have to worry about what to talk about for a few days. But they seem so empathetic while they're reporting on it. Surely it can't be true.
One of the sillier things our local news stations do is on the first snow, and any time there is more than a few inches of accumulation, at least five or six reporters MUST sent out to various locations around the area to "report" on the conditions there. The requisites are that a snowball MUST be made (and often thrown at the cameraman) and someone must be interviewed. It's best if the person being interviewed is either wearing something funny or is especially attractive.
And this being New England, there MUST be a picture shown of Tom Brady playing with his kids in the snow. The newscast CANNOT end until that has happened.
A couple of things about cable news:
I’m always amazed that in those few instances when an actual information-laden conversation is happening (often on Joy Reid’s MSNBC slot), it is stopped – often mid-sentence – because they are “running out of time”. It’s 24 hour news! That’s lots of time!
Also, after sitting through what is maybe the millionth time the same story is played/discussed…I find myself wondering, is the only news in the world American News?
When the Brexit vote went so incredibly sideways, I’m sure that there was no regular cable news- watcher who had any idea of what Brexit was.
There’s lots of news in the world…not just in the America.
Also.
I’m a big fan of Alex Wagner.
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