MSNBC: The Big Corporate Media Chickens Come Home to Roost

[Armstead]

So MSNBC dumps Ed Schultz and replaces him with the lame vacuous dispenser of Conventional Wisdom Fuck Todd. As well as a couple of other intelligent afternoon talk shows, that will doubtlessly be replace by Rat-A-Tat Robo News hosts. Sharpton, Hayes and Maddow and Sharpton are likely next, to make way for the likes of Lyin Brian Williams.

Tweety? Well he's crazy and politically erratic enough that maybe they'll keep him for comic relief.

Rumor has it that Keith Olbermann will return, but don;t bet your lunch money on that one -- unless Keith has decided to go to the dark side or become a conservative bombast.

MSNBC is on the path to becoming a pale imitation of CNN, which is a pale imitation of a cable news station. And those who want something besides Dumbed Down Corporate Conventional Wisdom or Right Wing Lunacy will be left out in the cold. And those of a Liberal persuasion will have to pick through the tea leaves of inane stupidity to try and get any perspective.

Well there's Al Jazerrah, which is a notch above CNN in seriousness, but they're not exactly a liberal bastion.

Regardless of what one thinks of any or all of those personalities and their shows, MSNBC did serve as an island among the drack that passes for television. And an electronic water cooler for liberals and progressives.

This is what we get when we allow a handful of unregulated Corporate Behemoths. Entertainment becomes moronic reality shows. Documentaries become moronic reality shows. News becomes a mildly fact-based but equally moronic reality show.

Thanks to the Deregulatory Fever of the last 30 years, there is no diversity of ownership. Just a menu that rivals McDinald's and other fast-food, chain mentality businesses that create a soul sucking culture, and disorted economic system.

Sure the Internet opens up diversity. But picking ones way through that maze to find substance amidst the You Tube goofiness is not the same as Television, where there is a common and simultaneous conversation.

Thanks to the Conservatives, Centrists and other Corporate Enablers who have allow awful companies like Comcast to get a stranglehold on so much of our communications infrastructure.










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[moondust]

1. If you have broadband with a fairly high bandwidth cap,

another option is a Roku or other such Internet device. I got a Roku 3 a few months ago on sale. I mainly watch France24, BBC, CNN International, and Al Jazeera. CNNI has quite a bit of advertising like regular CNN but the others have little advertising which is wonderful. One of my biggest annoyances with cable is the constant cutaways to advertising: Five words and "We'll be right back...," ten words and "After this...," five minutes and "Don't go away...," another five words and "Stay with us..." Endlessly. I've heard them all so many times I can recite them in my sleep.



You might find other stuff as there is quite a bit of diversity; the above focus mainly on news, discussion, and short features from an international perspective.

Here's one channel list for Roku: http://rokutv.blogspot.com/p/roku-tv-channels.html

I suppose Comcast is gearing up to help Wall Street put a corporatist in the WH. I don't know where the Olbermann rumor comes from but I don't see that happening.

[Armstead]

2. Thanks

Been a longtime BBC warcher/ listener. For many things they cant be beat.

What the real loss is an intabgable sense of community that progressive media brings. There are alternatives but not the same as a nationwide brosdcast service.

Plus it shuts out another source of different perspectives for people who are not political animals.

[SoCalDem]

6. And with foreign news you get "real" people

as newsreaders..no glamour-pusses in skintight red spandex or "ken dolls"

I only watch CNN when CNN-I is on late at night.. Rosemary Church has been a favorite of mine for a long time..

[ibegurpard]

3. special thanks to Bill Clinton

For signing telecommunications deregulation in 1996.

[Euphoria]

4. MSNBC is preparing for the '16

Elections by making sure the messages will be manageable.

[WillyT]

5. Go Here:

Link: http://www.tytnetwork.com/

Over 2.5 Billion Unique Views on the main show alone.