Is the world ready for a Cheney campaign for the Presidency in 2012? Immediately, the left wing extremists out there cry out, “No! No! Cheney is evil and will destroy America! Cheney is a war crimes criminal and should be arrested! Oh, the horror! The despair! NO!!!” If I may respond…shut up. Besides, I’m not talking about Vice President Dick Cheney, no. Instead, I’m talking about his daughter Elizabeth Cheney. Why Elizabeth and not her father? Read about it after the jump.
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Ugh… None of These Media Types “Get It”
What does “middle of the road” mean in today’s mainstream media? Are we still stuck in the 1980’s and early 1990’s time warp when it was okay for the mainstream media to openly bash conservatives and Republicans while fawning over liberals and Democrats? Is it still okay for a news organization to call a sitting President of the United States “stupid” on an on-screen graphic because they fundamentally disagree with his economic policies? The New York Times printed an interesting story on this subject just the other day.
And in their article they made the following suggestion:
Since the beginning of March, CNN has fallen behind both the longtime ratings leader, Fox News Channel, which, as the voice of disaffected conservatives, again has an imposing lead, and the upstart MSNBC, which has tried to mirror Fox’s success by steering to the left.
CNN has even dipped behind its sister network HLN (formerly Headline News) on many occasions. Since the beginning of 2009, CNN has finished fourth in prime time among the cable news networks on 35 out of 84 weeknights.
The development raises an obvious question: With its rivals stoking prime time with high-octane political opinion and rant, can CNN compete effectively with a formula of news delivered more or less straight?
Alright, there are a couple of things here that need to be addressed and I’m annoyed that they need to be addressed because I’d prefer to comment on the actual article’s content, not the worldview of The New York Times. First of all, FOX News is not in the lead because it is the voice of disaffected conservatives (in fact, most studies show that more than half of their viewership consists of independent and democratic voters). It is in the lead for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is that they’ve managed to successfully marry entertainment and news as well as entertainment and commentary.
No one can watch Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Greta Van Susteren and suggest that they are not in the midst of some type of performance. O’Reilly has the American Culture quiz, for Pete’s sake! Hannity has the Great American Panel which introduces an X-Factor (usually an entertainer) into the show plus he’s got that Liberal Translator thing which is clearly a form of entertainment. And Van Susteren is constantly jumping out of planes or throwing out first pitches, plus she’s put together two new segments at the end of her show called “Best of the Rest” and “Last Call” to get people staying tuned. And I’m fine with all of this stuff because these shows are commentary and should show some personality. Nothing wrong with that on FOX or any other cable news channel.
My next problem with the view presented by The New York Times is the idea that MSNBC is an upstart company. Are you kidding me? They were a failed cable news outlet before FOX News was even an idea! The biggest problem on MSNBC right now is the unchecked hatred that they allow to spew on their airwaves, not that they have competition from CNN or FOX News. The difference between CNN and FOX News and the folks over at MSNBC is that they allow completely absurd statements to be made without a strong counterpoint. You absolutely will not find that on O’Reilly’s FOX News show, political leanings aside.
The other problem at MSNBC is talent. Who the hell wants to watch Keith Olberman? The man is a failed ESPN broadcaster and MSNBC gives him his own show? What’s next? The Money Hour with Bernie Madoff? Give me a break.
And the problem with CNN is that they cannot fathom that their opinions are anything other than 100% correct and middle of the road. Look, CNN leans left; not hard-left or hateful like MSNBC, but they do lean left. And the thing is – they don’t get it. For example, I posted a few days ago about that crazy woman reporter from CNN that attended one of the tea parties and was so self-centered that she claimed the tea parties were anti-CNN! Ha! Can you imagine that?!
I’ve seen FOX News reporters go into rallies that truly WERE anti-FOX News and present a set of fair questions to the protesters. Maybe the best thing for CNN, MSNBC, and even The New York Times to do is sit down and actually watch a few hours of FOX News for a change.
Update: The real, straight shooting numbers on who is really winning (“hammering the competition” is more like it) in the ratings war are available at NewsMax.com.
A Little Late on this One, But Why Not?
Okay, so I’m about ten days late on this entry to the blog – my apologies. The topic of this entry is the tea party events that took place on April 15th as a sign of disgust with the increasing number of taxes that Americans are being asked to pay. I didn’t attend any of these tea parties (even though one was taking place literally one block away from my office), but I did watch the coverage on the news and I engaged in a lot of post-party reading on the internet.
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Tax Day 2009 Cometh!
Today is tax day. Whoo hoo! Or not… I’m only putting up a brief post this morning because I want everyone out there to keep an eye on their local media to see if the “Tea Parties” are covered. Some of the major cable news channels have been talking for a while about how Americans of all political parties will be taking part in “Tea Parties” today to protest the growing feeling of taxation without representation.
Granted, I don’t think that we are taxed without being represented, but we are definitely subjected to expenses (i.e. uses of our tax dollars) with which the majority of Americans would disagree. For example, when there is poverty in America, I’m confident that a majority of Americans would support using tax dollars to alleviate American poverty before alleviating poverty in other countries. That’s a random example, I know.
Anyway, keep an eye on the media to see if they have any coverage of these “Tea Party” events.
Could 2012 Be the Year of the Third Party?
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recently suggested that 2012 might be the year that a third party takes a big bite of the Republican Party. More specifically, Gingrich states:
“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012,” Gingrich said Wednesday during a speech at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, the local television station KY3 reported.
That’s no joke, folks. If it’s coming from Speaker Gingrich then you know this discussion is taking place at the highest levels of the conservative base. Conservative voters in America want something to vote for and everyone knows that what they want does not look like Senator John McCain (for better of for worse).
Speaker Gingrich makes an excellent point here and it follows something that I’ve been thinking for a while, namely that the two major political parties in America are too big and trying to serve too many masters. Americans like options. Right now, we don’t have any substantial options between our big political parties.
By the way, some third parties are already chomping at the bit to become the new political party of choice for conservative Americans. Some of you may remember after the election when I spent some time analyzing the voting results in my hometown. I mentioned at that time that the Constitution Party did relatively well (one or two votes, can’t remember) in one of the smaller districts that I was reviewing. Anyway, I received an e-mail from the Constitution Party talking about how they want to be that third party. They cite how they are the fastest growing political party in the country and after reading what Gingrich had to say and watching the flow of American politics on my own, I can’t say that I’m surprised.
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