Thursday, February 04, 2016

Political News Coverage is Just Plain Insulting

My now-approaching 12 years of not watching political news came to an end yesterday as I brought the bike into the mechanics to have them give it the once over before I continued on my cross-country trip.  The mechanic informed me there was a waiting room where they had comfy couches, internet, coffee, and TV.  As I grabbed my gear, looking forward to park my rear for a while, I was let down to see they had CNN on. 

It didn't matter, I had brought my laptop in anticipation of having some down time.  But I still could not help but watch the 60 inch TV that was sitting directly in front of my face, and it was one word;

Insulting.

Perhaps I've been inoculated against political news coverage. 
Perhaps I've just gotten older and, thus, wiser and can ID BS when I see it.
Or maybe my most recent book made me even more disdainful of what the commoners consume.

But as I watched Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer cover the recent kerfuffle between Trump and Cruz, Hillary and Bernie, not to mention their representative mouth pieces, my mouth dropped not because of what they were saying, but because all of them:

The politicians
The spokespersons
The interviewees and
The CNN staff

treat you people like genuine f*cking idiots.

First the drama (and I use that euphemistically) between Trump and Cruz was soap-opera worthy.  Cruz stood accused of telling people during the Iowa caucus that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, thus begetting more votes for him.  Cruz accused Trump of being childish and acting like his daughters.  They covered this cumulatively for about 15 minutes of my precious life I'll never get back.

Second, there was also drama on the democrat side.  Here the big to-do was Bernie Sanders accusing Hilary of not being "progressive enough."  Never mind it isn't a real word.  Never mind she'll do whatever the population wants her to.  Never mind post-Obama anything more to the left will be 100% socialism.  No, Bernie insisted he was more progressive.  And that was newsworthy enough for Blitz and Coopy to waste 15 additional minutes of my life. 

Then there were the politicians.  News clips of them talking to their respective bases, but by god, the idiotic things they were saying.  It was worse than any presidential speech (which is what originally made me swear off of political news).  Generic pablum that is made for people with low IQ's who are the epitome of those who'd rather hear what they want to hear over the truth any day.  Mindless sycophants, with nothing better to do in their lives than take up political crusades, hinging on every word of their politician (who all magically utter thousands of words, but still managing to say nothing).

And then the spokes people.  Hilary's spokesperson I wanted to beat.  A pretty boy-Floyd from the east coast who did not answer ONE question directly, but always managed to turn his answer into a scripted, puke-inducing, ass-kissing ad for Hilary.  A congressman came on for Ted Cruz, and during the interview was the only person who was honest and not rushing to plant his ass on some politician's behind.  But this was a fleeting moment of genuine political insight as he was quickly replaced by spokespeople for Cruz, Christie, and Sanders.

In the end 90 minutes of my life was wasted, and I was further validated to have abandoned paying attention to politics for these past decade-plus worth of years.

But as mentioned before, the one thing I could not believe was just how degrading and insulting this entire experience was.  It was BARELY better than the fake speeches and drama I watched as an 8 year old watching the WWF.  But whereas I could be forgiven at the time for believing Macho Man Randy Savage truly had it out for Hulk Hogan (because I was 8), somebody tell me the excuse millions of full-grown adults have for watching this spectacle of BS.

Not one of these politicians said anything insightful or meaningful.  The media (CNN) should be ashamed of itself for instigating, drumming up, and concocting a really lame afternoon political drama that, like all soap operas, proved nothing and only managed to waste billions of human hours.  And the spokesmen.  Oh, the spokesmen.  How do you have no soul and just stand there and lie?  How?  Doesn't your stomach churn when you have to pull down into the deep recesses of your mind and pull up the slop you think it going to convince the average voter idiot your candidate isn't the scum-bucket life-long career politician she/he is?

Of course, like Amy Schumer stand up or a Will Ferrell comedy, this wouldn't sell if there wasn't demand for it.  And so the real culprit is not the politicians, the media, or the spokespeople.  It's the average American idiot who is so stupid, so ignorant, they don't realize how insulting and degrading this political news coverage is to them.  And so once again, I have to let go, not bother watching this slop, wait for it to get above 60 degrees here in Phoenix, hop on the motorcycle, and enjoy that decline!

10 comments:

TheTooner said...

They didn't waste 90 minutes of your life. You got your bike sorted.

At worst it may be said that in that ninety minutes you didn't get even more done than the thing you needed to get done. Or look on the bright side, you just reviewed and validated your decision twelve years ago to not bother watching the news coverage of politics.

Ed Hamilton said...

What?!?! You're in Phoenix and you didn't warn us?!??!?!
Ahhh...a stealthy entrance. I get it!
Let us know if you need a cocktail or two!

Jamie MacMaster said...

"It's the average American idiot who is so stupid, so ignorant, they don't realize how insulting and degrading this political news coverage is to them. "

You forgot "North", however, I'm with you.

What we are witnessing is the aftermath of the death of curiosity: blind, dumb, servile, acceptance.

grey enlightenment said...

no one is missing out on anything urgent or important by tuning out the election nonsense

Anonymous said...

Ya think?!
Count the chins on this 'hunger striker' in Canada.
She 'ends' it after 42 days; Bobby Sands DIED after 66 days on a hunger strike.
The liars in the media covered this utter bullshit daily for 6 weeks.

8 days in:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/attawapiskat-chief-s-hunger-strike-part-of-wider-movement-1.1144409

6 weeks in:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chief-theresa-spence-to-end-hunger-strike-today-1.1341571

leeholsen said...

Captain, if you gotta watch news, watch fox; their women are practically all hot and their business channel goes 1-4 with hot female hosts on a business channel; fox apparently figured out that guys watch business news and like eye candy. i'd pay a monthly subscription fee if fox would just make andrea tantaros and anna kooiman do broadcasts in swimsuits.

but yeah, new channels are pathetic and and useless since the internet.

Anonymous said...

I live in Canada, we have the idiot trust fund son of a former communist prime minister. The news today was the our young dilettante selfie collector has hired a consultant the "help him make better decisions". Yes, that was the line in Canada's leading left wing rag the Globe and Mail. http://hellobirdy.blogspot.ca/2016/02/trudeau-hires-adviser-to-help-him-make.html

You think you have idiots running your country ... you do, but we have dumber idiots they actually believe their bullshit. At least yours know it's bullshit but that it is necessary bullshit in order to even be considered. So in America people depend on bullshit to make their political choices. In Canada we believe the bullshit then are incensed and cannot believe that is was bullshit. Then they swear they will not vote again or will leave the country or even vote for the NDP ... the union commie party.

I watch your election circus with great interest and amusement. If Trump wins the establishment will assassinate him.

Hey Cappy, I bike too .. if you make it up to Canada's west coast ... you have a stop-over here let me know.

Anonymous said...

Further to ....
http://motor-psyche.blogspot.ca

Anonymous said...

Insulting waste of time is right. Politicians' speeches are nothing but escapist fantasy.

Robert of Ottawa said...

Actually, you only need to get above 49 degrees in your neck of the woods :-)