Good Evening from CBS ABC NBC NPR FOX CNN MSNBC PB

[Eagle43]

The question is, how do you get your news? During the recent Dan Rather fiasco, it was implied that anyone who could control their bowel movements and didn't attend early-bird specials watched network news. If you do watch network news, which one?

Also, what about the newspapers? Here in Texas I still get the local morning paper delivered, but, by my observations, my neighbors do not.

Has the internet replaced everything? You can find a forum to discuss just about everything, from politics to medicine, to ahhhh......retirement.

How about talk radio? You listen, or just discount it as people of similar beliefs talking to themselves? Hey, we got all day, so can afford to be selective and to be informed or not.

I watch a half hour of network news each evening. Doesn't matter to me which network as they have about the
same stories anyway. We don't have cable and the only newpapers we take are free. If I was in Texas, I might pay to get the
Dallas Morning News. Really like that paper.

Talk radio usually bores me, even the ultra-conservative shows ( Limbaugh, Hannity, etc).
Sure, I mostly agree with them, but I already know what I think and before long they will get a caller
who is unable to string 2 sentences together.
I might
last 10 minutes, tops.

A lot of the mass media is so infused with pop culture
it makes me want to puke. I don't care much about
what's new in fashion, TV shows, entertainers, etc.

I also have little interest in high profile legal problems,
Martha Stewart being an exception. Scott Peterson,
Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, I don't care about.

Bottom line, I mostly ignore the "news" in general
unless I accidently find a tidbit that applies directly to me and my life. Otherwise I usually just avoid it.

JG

[bruce1]

News is not a high priority but will visit local and remote newspapers (New York) websites. Also CNN web site. Never watch network news in the evening, but once in a while a morning news show.

No talk radio! Boring! Radio is for Rock and Roll!

Bruce

[brewer12345]

At work there is usually a pile of Wall St. Journals, so I will pick one up. Its a very good paper (aside from the editorials) and free at work. Otherwise, actually buying a newspaper is a luxury for me that I usually only undertake on a weekend. Otherwise, I get news from online sources (Yahoo) or occasionally listen to Air America in the car.

I'm not much for network news.

[charlie]

I mostly watch Fox news on cable.

JG, the Dallas Morning News has been leaning
left in recent years .... I still read the funnies
and sportspages, however.

Cheers,

Charlie

[Cal]

I will not watch any network news program on TV with the exception of occasionally watching the News Hour on PBS. Like Brewer, I will sometimes pick-up the Wall Street Journal at work. Rest of the time, I pick-up news from the internet or NPR.

[Nords]

I don't watch much TV-- "Star Trek" or an occasional This Old House. *I think the last video I could sit through was Kill Bill (gee, someday I'll have to track down vol 2). *I haven't been to a movie theater since Star Wars II so I'm not eager to repeat the experience...

Radio-- classic rock (is there another kind?) mostly fossilized in the 1974-77 era. I hardly listen to radio since I stopped commuting (most of our home audio equipment was purchased in the 1980s). Even when driving today we usually play CDs that we've burned off MP3 downloads. I'm seeing a number of Sirius & XM Satellite radio-equipped cars around here, which is pretty ironic considering that Hawaii isn't in the satellite footprint.

I don't enjoy the newspapers since Dave Barry went on "sabbatical". *Our local paper ended the Sunday-only subscription and only offers daily or Fri-Sat-Sun (at the price of the former Sunday-only subscrption). *Pressure to subscribe daily (gotta raise those circulation numbers!) is so relentless that we're on their "DO NOT CALL" list. Our newsprint recycling has tripled and spouse has three times as many classified ads to peruse. *Grocery-coupon inserts are barely paying for the subscription. *None of this can be good.

I routinely read the local daily paper on the Internet. *I also read the local Pacific Business News, Hawaii Business Magazine, and Business Week online. *(By the time we receive our print copy of BW I'm usually two-thirds through it via their website.) *I can read just about any comic strip I want on the web if I'm willing to wait a week or two. *And when spouse sees an interesting crawler on CNN, I can usually find the details via Google News before CNN gets around to an "update".

After three decades as a CBS news/sports technician, my FIL can barely stand to watch the news anymore. He welcomes Rather's retirement and mostly critiques the cameras/editing. Their TV is more likely to be tuned to CSPAN or Jon Stewart. Somehow our PC has acquired browser bookmarks for the NYT and the Washington Post.

In our house, lloss of DSL or computer hardware is a crisis leading to severe withdrawal symptoms within 24 hours...

[Spanky]

I listen to MPR during my commute to work. I also visit USA site and the local newspaper site. Therefore, there is no need to watch the news from TV.

Cheer. Spanky.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I get it online from various sources. I usually hear about it a day or two before it hits the papers, and hear about what interests me. Who blew what up, who shot who, or what celebrity is dating/hating/divorcing/shooting what other neo celebrity is of absolutely zero interest.

The 'news' is what will pull the eyeballs of the intellectually challenged, spun and packaged at least two and usually more times. You have what actually happened, the three versions of what happened by the witnesses, the spin by the publicist/press secretary/press liason, what the reporter heard, what they wrote down that was their interpretation of what they heard, the editors spin, the stations spin, the rewrites to 'spiff it up', what comes out of the newscasters mouth, and your own interpretation.

"Man gets hangnail" turns into "Man taken prisoner by alligators from another planet" pretty easily...

I watched almost no tv (some movies and sport) before getting the devil box known as a tivo. Now i have a dozen or so shows I watch every week, albeit sporadically. I've got about a months worth of a half dozen shows piled up as its been in the 70's outside and while its good weather for surfing on a wireless laptop, it aint satisfactory for sitting indoors watching tv.

Wasnt watching much in the way of movies until I got netflix, which we went off of and then back onto recently. Twenty bucks to go to the theater, twelve a month for HBO and their 2-3 new movies a month, or four a pop for blockbuster doesnt cut it...but $17 a month for all you can eat is a good thing.

Still singing for Martha, eh John? Its hard to imagine why you'd want to admire someone who steals from, lies to and cheats almost every friend and business partner she's had and feel sorry for her because she thought it was a good idea to tell thin lies to the Feds.

Okay TH, you have lured me out on the "Martha thing".

It's not just Martha, but my almost complete
contempt for authority in all its forms and guises.
For example, I can no longer stand to watch "COPS" because I sympathize so strongly with
the perps. Even the 'Law and Order' shows are annoying. So, it matters very little if Martha lied, cheated, misappropriated, or is mean , thoughtless
and clueless. I don't care. It's her critics I can't abide.
Most of them (probably you included) have no chance
of coming close to what she has accomplished. They can only throw rocks and try to bring down those who
can achieve. Pretty sad.

JG

[Chester_A._Riley]

I definitely agree on the "Martha thing", JG; must be a product of aging because I cannot remember being too excited in the past by the most obvious abuses by authorities. Now, I notice that even the good guys on "Law & Order" seem to routinely overstep.

As to getting the news, only the on-line sources seem worthwhile. Yeah, I understand what Nords means. A loss of my cable modem connection, my lifeline, is truly a crisis.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Last time I checked she was convicted of the crime by a jury composed of 12 people who also found that she lied about a crime and tried to cover it up through conspiracy. Despite the best defense money can buy.

What was the alternative? The feds arent supposed to investigate a billionaire using inside information to make a small profit on the backs of less informed investors? When they do and are told multiple implausible and unmatching stories and are told to take a hike, they just head back to DC and forget about it?

I get my news from a wide variety of sources. The Internet, Network news, CNN, BBC and Public Radio. Newspapers - New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Minneapolis Tribune.

Talk radio is not news.

And as Aaron Brown of CNN said recently "Don't Confuse Fox News with Real News, it is an entertainment program fed like pablum to the far right - successful at making money - Yes! - Just don't be confused that it's news"

[Martha]

I listen to Wisconsin public radio and Minnesota public radio on the way to work or when driving. I read the Wall Street Journal. I talk to people. Don't get much news off the internet. Haven't watched TV news for years.

We listened to Rush Limbaugh yesterday on the radio when we couldn't find anything else. He was on a major rant about how people who call themselves "moderate" were just chicken s**t. He is the master of divide and conquer.

I like my news fact based and it is hard to find. The news media seems to delight in reporting on the contest--x says no, y says yes, we have balanced coverage--not on finding out what are the facts.

Nords, Kill Bill 1 and Kill Bill 2 were the only movies I have liked for a long time. You really should rent Kill Bill 2.

I like my movies violent and outrageous. Entertain me! News, on the otherhand, should inform.

Martha

[KB]

I get a daily newspaper and the little local paper which comes out weekly. I read both.

I watch the evening news occasionally, KOVR in Sacramento, and CNN occasionally. During NBA basketball season, my TV watching is more directed to watching that than the news. Off season, I watch the evening news every night. I actually plan my evenings around the games (Sacramento Kings). Sad, but true.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

...I actually plan my evenings around the games (Sacramento Kings). Sad, but true.

C'mon. They aren't THAT bad...

REW

I mainly watch MSNBC. I enjoy Imus in the morning when drinking my coffee and working up a good crap.

[Marshac]

NPR, Seattle Times, and Google News

A quickie about Rush Limbaugh (disclaimer: I am not a
"dittohead").

I discovered him on a road trip to St. Louis many years ago. I was dialing around and when he came on I thought "Damn, where has this guy been all my life?"
I used to listen to the whole 3 hours on the road.
Now, if he is on and I am in the car, I will turn him on
but usually can't stick with it. I could stand him
pontificating, but he will get an annoying (or clueless)
caller and that's it for me. Anyway, I agree with his
politics in almost every case, save 2. First, he is way
too liberal (that's right, compared to me even Rush is a liberal).................. secondly, he is very optimistic that the leftward drift in this country will be reversed (is being
reversed?). I don't see it.

JG

[Eagle43]

http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001161.asp

Here's another view. You can read the entire article, if interested.

Broadcast networks are resistant to real change, and when it comes to network news, they've got reason to be careful: Despite the hemming and hawing of pundits, the nightly news isn't actually dying. It may not occupy the central place in American lives it once did, but it still garners more viewers than its cable news competitors, and it still makes money. Considering those facts, executives are much more likely to tinker cautiously than to overhaul.

Which is too bad, because they should overhaul. And not simply because two of the big three anchors are moving on. The real reason the time is right for change is that the rise of cable news, the Internet, and the insidious persistence of he said/she said journalism have come together to offer the nightly news a real opportunity to reconnect with Americans.

--. As we've noted all year long, major papers and cable news channels have become so wary of media bias charges that they treat the most dubious of positions with respect, despite the fact that even a cursory analysis would show the overwhelming preponderance of evidence favors one side or the other of an issue.

The thrust of this essay is that the news tries to put both sides of any/all issues into play, even if one side is manifestly wrong. Further on in the article they advise to call out the drivel; when a public official lies, say so. Wouldn't you just love to see someone tell oh let's see, Rumsfeld or Hillary, "That's a lie." It would be refreshing.