What could cable networks be without punditry?

[frazzled]

5. What would they be without viewers?

I too recall the early days of CNN, with broad coverage and special in-depth documentaries. Long gone.

I used to watch all the cable yakety-yak during the early years of the 2000s (during the depredations of the Bush administration), but gave it up entirely pretty much by the end of the decade. Not only did it stop being informative, it also stopped being entertaining. I read two newspapers a day (the local one and the New York Times), so I keep up to date on local, national, and international news. And I turn into PBS NewsHour while making dinner, where I get national and international news and some in-depth reporting on issues and interesting foreign topics. That's enough news. The cable fare is pretty much just endless jibber-jabber. Even when there is an event such as a presidential debate or the SOTU, I avoid the cable networks. I go to C-Span. I don't want to listen to the pre- and post-spin.

If we all stopped watching this drivel, the problem would be solved. The cables would shrivel up and die. They're not going to change: we have to ... step away from the vast wasteland.