MSNBC's egregious misrepresentation of 'BREAKING NEWS'

[Sympthsical]

40. I honestly don't know how y'all watch the stuff

One of the odder things I experience with DU is how people will just discuss what's going on with cable news all day long.

The vast, vast overwhelming majority of Americans do not watch cable news. Only 16% of Americans get their news from these networks. If you look at prime time ratings for the biggest shows on these channels, they don't get the same ratings as mediocre sitcoms no one's really watching.

The only reason we hear about it all day is because journalists who need a job, politicians who need exposure, and pundits who couldn't get an actual job doing actual work need them. It's about money for them. Now they're all hanging out on Twitter all day, which is even worse. And because journalists like it for exposure and access (and they're lazy), it gets written about endlessly.

We haven't had cable in quite awhile. We use Locast for local channels, then an array of streaming services. But I will see clips of things online. Let me ask this:

Why are people watching this?

They talk around shit, because they need to fill time. They present the most facile explanation humanly possible. If there actually is a major story, it's already on the Internet. I can spend one minute reading and skimming through a detailed article and come away with three times more information and understanding than I can from 10 minutes of these people on TV rambling on and on in an attempt to seem interesting and relevant.

It's just not a good source of information. "Random pundit, what do you think about Jimmy getting gum in his hair?" "Well, you know, I think Jimmy has few options here, but it's clear he'll use peanut butter." "This just in, Jimmy cut it out of his hair."

Seriously, no matter how wrong these commenters are - which seems like constantly - they are never fired. They rarely know what they're talking about. Have you ever watched one of these cable news people discuss a topic that you yourself are really knowledgeable in? They have no idea what they're talking about. And if they don't know what they're talking about with topics I know, why do I think they know anything about topics I do not?

I seriously don't get the appeal.

I get leaving things on in the background. I work from home. I like distracting noise all day, too.

Podcasts. Just get podcasts. Or shit on YouTube. Find good, informative channels. Leave it on in the background. You will learn a hell of lot more in the same amount of time. I had a ton of paperwork to do last week, and I ended up going through Last Podcast on the Left's series on the Black Death. Informative, funny, learned things I didn't know.

Cable news rots brains. We're dumber as a country for having invented it.