Cable News

Just read the long but good piece on Chris Matthews that will be in the magazine of this Sunday's New York Times (c'mon, click on that one). I have to say, Chris Matthews is pretty entertaining to watch....not his show, but HIM. While the article does a great job of conveying what Chris Matthews is like in person, all of the qualities written about are easily apparent after watching him for only 5 minutes. And I definitely recommend the Daily Show interview where Jon Stewart ripped him a new one (if you can find it).

A few months ago I decided I was really, really sick of CNN. So I ordered the "news specialty pack" from Rogers. Best $2.99/month I've ever spent. Among other things, I get BBC World News, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC. I've now realized that CNN is by far the worst of all the American cable news channels. Fox News is still laughable (and therefore entertaining), but it's actually mellowed out a bit. Even Bill O'Reilly seems more interested in waxing nostalgic about music from the 60's then yelling at people who lost family members in 9/11. And at least it's watchable. CNN just makes my brain numb. Do they really think that being "balanced" means presenting an issue, then finding a hack on each "side" of said issue and giving them each 30 seconds to scream about why their side is right? (There's never more than 2 sides, and 1 side is never more right....see evolution, etc.)

It's very apparent, as mentioned in that Chris Matthews article, that MSNBC is slowly trying to become the "cool liberal news channel". They still have a long way to go, but if the Democrats win the White House then I'm predicting MSNBC cable news dominance in a couple years. And Chris Matthews will be replaced by David Gregory...or dare I say Anderson Cooper? Or George Stephanopoulis?? Or George STROMbolopoulos??

I wonder if Strombo and Stephano have ever met.