Nancy Sculco, you are soo right. Of course, the nation can no longer afford to pay for PBS because it has nothing to do with guns. Not like the money the military spends on Nascar, or army bands, or …
Does anyone remember Don Adams? He did a bit fifty years ago on one of his comedy records: he hosts a ‘World News Roundup’ in which correspondents from around the world introduce themselves and by the time they get back to the anchor man in New York, there is no time left for the news and they have to rush through the roster so each correspondent can ‘sign off’.
CBS? Let’s see, the “C” stands for “commitment…” which brings us to the BS…
As for PBS, it appears they get only a small fraction of their funding from the government these days. Most comes from viewer contributions, and a big chunk (about a third, I think) comes from “foundations and grants,” which is PBS-speak for “corporations.” Which leads to the odd situation of a “NOVA” episode about climate change being funded by David H. Koch. Yes, that Koch.
I stopped listening to news months ago because (1) Just blah, blah, blah as said in previous comments, and (2) I can’t afford to pay over $40.00 a month to stuff I barely watch, (3) I cannot stand those commercials about every physical alilment that can afflict you that run endlessly during the news hours, and (4) I cannot afford to support PBS AND pay $40.00 or more every month. Yep, I see the way of the telly fading off into the horizon before long!
Did someone say commercials? I wonder how the residuals are distributed. Do the comedians who write them or the idiots who star in them get the money? The guys in the Geico commercials (except the blimey lizard) must get rich if they are paid for each presentation on the 24 hour cycle. Would you live under a rock? How can you save 15% on your car insurance when it costs more than that for the commercials. My USAA insurance runs more than 15% less than Geico and the actors in the commercials are in uniform.
Except for PBS I don’t watch news on tv, but I take it Doonesbury is mocking the claims of the big networks to be “exclusive.” And evidently they do manage to exclude from their coverage any news that lies outside the anchor’s personal experience or the interest of their sponsor.
About mid-2008, my wife decided to ditch the cable (which was fine by me). The vitriol and ugliness of what passed for campaigning was making her angry and sick constantly. And we have been perfectly fine without for almost three years now.
With the canning of Keith Olberman, the official installation of Jeff Immelt (President Obama’s pet CEO), and the buyout by Comcast, GT is making it official that the great love affair between General Electric/NBC and the liberal confederation to be officially over. After supporting Obama unflaggingly, now it’s time for Immelt to reap his due commercial rewards, in the form of cap and trade contracts, Amtrak engines, electronic medical records systems for Obamacare, embryonic stem cell marketing, etc. GE’s 5-year marketing plan looks a whole lot like the White House’s 4-year goals plan, and MSNBC has kept their end of the bargain - until now . Rachael Maddow tries hard, but she’s only a token 3rd-stringer that tries desperately - yet unsuccessfully - to keep the Bush-bashing ball rolling.
GE is one of the world’s worst irresponsible polluters, Wall Street manipulators, arms systems dealers, global outsourcers, and political dealmakers, cozying up with politicians on all sides to manipulate as many contracts as possible to keep their billionaire investors happy. Only now that their usefulness to the left cause is over does GT notice for the first time that from the corporate perspective, it’s all about them. Of course it is.
Maybe he is questioning the recent merger, and canning of Keith Olbermann. Don’t know. I do recognize all of the comments of Brian Williams, however they all have their little quirks. Maybe a little residual bitterness at NBC for the canning of his wife at the Today show. Remember Jane Pauley, anyone?
I agree with Nelly but here BBC World News America comes on first. PBS is generally decent but I worry about how much the broadcast is being manipulated by the Koch brothers and other corporate sponsors. Factcheck is great. Then there is the computer which has become my main source of information. As for network news, it’s become 5 minutes covering things I read on the computer that morning, 15 minutes of feel good fluff and ten minutes of stupid commercials. FOX? Whats that?
Granting that Obama is so desperate that he’s ready to take into his bed any bank or corporate whore who might help him fund government programs, what are we to make of Tea Partiers who are prepared to let the government collapse again the way it did sixteen years ago?
The one government expenditure the Tea Party insists on keeping intact is Bush’s huge tax expenditure: paying the taxes owed by the wealthy.
Expecting the economy to grow (as in fact it has not), Bush added that giveaway to those already enjoyed by big corporations like the oil companies, by agribusiness and by employers who get to deduct part of our salaries that go to healthcare.
These tax expenditures, to use the technical word for what critics of the tax code call “loopholes,” amount to one-and-a-half trillion dollars—over $2 trillion, if you add in the deduction for home mortgage interest.
The obvious way to eliminate our $1.6 trillion deficit is to eliminate most of these tax expenditures. But the Tea Party instead tinkers with a $60 billion (less than 4% of the deficit) cut to things like Head Start, regulating our food and water, and Planned Parenting. Why can’t they see that the government is no longer able to afford these huge loopholes that skim off revenues for the benefit of the wealthy?
The Boston Tea Party’s motto was “No taxation without representation.” The motto of our Bush-inspired Tea Partiers is “No taxation with representation.”
Yesterday and even last week things happened. Today things are happening. Tomorrow other things will happen. Everything is happening right here right now and we are telling you about it.
Here in South Florida, BBC World News is on WXEL (PBS Palm Beach) at 5:30 PM. I get WXEL on cable. I’m a bit too far south to get it on air. BBC World News audio version, like what was on short wave, is on the internet.
palin, all very interesting, but the relationship between all that and GT’s cartoon today is exactly…. what?
Your argument, however irrelevant, eloquently supports a flat tax system. No loopholes, top or bottom. I would endorse that, as do many conservatives. Would you? I suspect not, since it would eliminate your argument against “the rich not paying their fair share”, which seems to find its way into every single conversation that one can ever have about anything.
In the meantime, you deliberately misquote - again - the Tea Partiers by stating that they stand for no taxation.
Did anybody notice the character watching the news is eating popcorn and drinking a canned beverage?!?! Last I checked, that kind of partaking usually involved entertainment, NOT news! (Unfortunately, American network news usually does not even entertain anymore - above comments are mostly right on. Notice he flatly does not enjoy watching the trollop.)
—
@GEE1A - Thank you for listing a few more for me to check out. Currently I go for Aljazeera English and BBC (internet versions), but I don’t put a lot of stock into PBS - too much bed-sharing going on there. The others you list will definitely be looked into in this American household!
Good catch, ANQuixote. Mike Doonesbury is known to lean slightly to the right - if he’s watching NBC News, it’s either purely for entertainment value or to supplement what he usually watches on Fox News, which is normally shown on his TV. Mike prides himself in being intelligent and informed and thus monitors broadcasts from both sides of the spectrum, but it is true that he seems to take his Fox watching more seriously.
Besides, Fox has seriously hotter trollops to watch than does NBC, but the alphabet networks have gotten the hint and are stepping up.
I really love the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but for serious information, I usually hit “informationclearinghouse.info.” The right wing sociopaths hate that one.
luckylouie almost 14 years ago
Too true to be funny.
FriscoLou almost 14 years ago
Gawd, Trudeau nailed it, the audio sounds just like Brian Williams.
nancysculco almost 14 years ago
PBS “News Hour”, anyone? Trust me - you’ll never go back
mjd.kwanyin almost 14 years ago
lol
Doughfoot almost 14 years ago
Nancy Sculco, you are soo right. Of course, the nation can no longer afford to pay for PBS because it has nothing to do with guns. Not like the money the military spends on Nascar, or army bands, or …
Does anyone remember Don Adams? He did a bit fifty years ago on one of his comedy records: he hosts a ‘World News Roundup’ in which correspondents from around the world introduce themselves and by the time they get back to the anchor man in New York, there is no time left for the news and they have to rush through the roster so each correspondent can ‘sign off’.
Which is what I’ll do now.
brick10 almost 14 years ago
RIGHT ON nancy!
Sandfan almost 14 years ago
The only justification for TV news is the income stream it provides for the hair spray and blow dryer industries.
UrsaNC almost 14 years ago
people in love with the sound of their own voices
lewisbower almost 14 years ago
Now now. They only thing CBS can’t do is line my parakeet cage.
puddleglum1066 almost 14 years ago
CBS? Let’s see, the “C” stands for “commitment…” which brings us to the BS…
As for PBS, it appears they get only a small fraction of their funding from the government these days. Most comes from viewer contributions, and a big chunk (about a third, I think) comes from “foundations and grants,” which is PBS-speak for “corporations.” Which leads to the odd situation of a “NOVA” episode about climate change being funded by David H. Koch. Yes, that Koch.
woowie almost 14 years ago
I stopped listening to news months ago because (1) Just blah, blah, blah as said in previous comments, and (2) I can’t afford to pay over $40.00 a month to stuff I barely watch, (3) I cannot stand those commercials about every physical alilment that can afflict you that run endlessly during the news hours, and (4) I cannot afford to support PBS AND pay $40.00 or more every month. Yep, I see the way of the telly fading off into the horizon before long!
fdgsr almost 14 years ago
Did someone say commercials? I wonder how the residuals are distributed. Do the comedians who write them or the idiots who star in them get the money? The guys in the Geico commercials (except the blimey lizard) must get rich if they are paid for each presentation on the 24 hour cycle. Would you live under a rock? How can you save 15% on your car insurance when it costs more than that for the commercials. My USAA insurance runs more than 15% less than Geico and the actors in the commercials are in uniform.
cdhaley almost 14 years ago
Except for PBS I don’t watch news on tv, but I take it Doonesbury is mocking the claims of the big networks to be “exclusive.” And evidently they do manage to exclude from their coverage any news that lies outside the anchor’s personal experience or the interest of their sponsor.
TexTech almost 14 years ago
About mid-2008, my wife decided to ditch the cable (which was fine by me). The vitriol and ugliness of what passed for campaigning was making her angry and sick constantly. And we have been perfectly fine without for almost three years now.
Nemesys almost 14 years ago
With the canning of Keith Olberman, the official installation of Jeff Immelt (President Obama’s pet CEO), and the buyout by Comcast, GT is making it official that the great love affair between General Electric/NBC and the liberal confederation to be officially over. After supporting Obama unflaggingly, now it’s time for Immelt to reap his due commercial rewards, in the form of cap and trade contracts, Amtrak engines, electronic medical records systems for Obamacare, embryonic stem cell marketing, etc. GE’s 5-year marketing plan looks a whole lot like the White House’s 4-year goals plan, and MSNBC has kept their end of the bargain - until now . Rachael Maddow tries hard, but she’s only a token 3rd-stringer that tries desperately - yet unsuccessfully - to keep the Bush-bashing ball rolling.
GE is one of the world’s worst irresponsible polluters, Wall Street manipulators, arms systems dealers, global outsourcers, and political dealmakers, cozying up with politicians on all sides to manipulate as many contracts as possible to keep their billionaire investors happy. Only now that their usefulness to the left cause is over does GT notice for the first time that from the corporate perspective, it’s all about them. Of course it is.
Keithhays almost 14 years ago
I get my news the old fashioned way, by reading the newspaper. It comes every day on my iPad
Dtroutma almost 14 years ago
Did GT get copyright permission to use this transcript? But it does represent the depth of ALL network “news”.
montessoriteacher almost 14 years ago
Maybe he is questioning the recent merger, and canning of Keith Olbermann. Don’t know. I do recognize all of the comments of Brian Williams, however they all have their little quirks. Maybe a little residual bitterness at NBC for the canning of his wife at the Today show. Remember Jane Pauley, anyone?
Nelly55 almost 14 years ago
PBS, BBC and then to Factcheck.org
all else in Infotainment
John Foster Premium Member almost 14 years ago
I agree with Nelly but here BBC World News America comes on first. PBS is generally decent but I worry about how much the broadcast is being manipulated by the Koch brothers and other corporate sponsors. Factcheck is great. Then there is the computer which has become my main source of information. As for network news, it’s become 5 minutes covering things I read on the computer that morning, 15 minutes of feel good fluff and ten minutes of stupid commercials. FOX? Whats that?
cdhaley almost 14 years ago
@Nemesys
Granting that Obama is so desperate that he’s ready to take into his bed any bank or corporate whore who might help him fund government programs, what are we to make of Tea Partiers who are prepared to let the government collapse again the way it did sixteen years ago?
The one government expenditure the Tea Party insists on keeping intact is Bush’s huge tax expenditure: paying the taxes owed by the wealthy.
Expecting the economy to grow (as in fact it has not), Bush added that giveaway to those already enjoyed by big corporations like the oil companies, by agribusiness and by employers who get to deduct part of our salaries that go to healthcare.
These tax expenditures, to use the technical word for what critics of the tax code call “loopholes,” amount to one-and-a-half trillion dollars—over $2 trillion, if you add in the deduction for home mortgage interest.
The obvious way to eliminate our $1.6 trillion deficit is to eliminate most of these tax expenditures. But the Tea Party instead tinkers with a $60 billion (less than 4% of the deficit) cut to things like Head Start, regulating our food and water, and Planned Parenting. Why can’t they see that the government is no longer able to afford these huge loopholes that skim off revenues for the benefit of the wealthy?
The Boston Tea Party’s motto was “No taxation without representation.” The motto of our Bush-inspired Tea Partiers is “No taxation with representation.”
Carolo1 almost 14 years ago
I remember Jane. Great newsperson. Don’t forget NPR.
junco49 almost 14 years ago
Yesterday and even last week things happened. Today things are happening. Tomorrow other things will happen. Everything is happening right here right now and we are telling you about it.
W6BXQ, John almost 14 years ago
Here in South Florida, BBC World News is on WXEL (PBS Palm Beach) at 5:30 PM. I get WXEL on cable. I’m a bit too far south to get it on air. BBC World News audio version, like what was on short wave, is on the internet.
Nemesys almost 14 years ago
palin, all very interesting, but the relationship between all that and GT’s cartoon today is exactly…. what?
Your argument, however irrelevant, eloquently supports a flat tax system. No loopholes, top or bottom. I would endorse that, as do many conservatives. Would you? I suspect not, since it would eliminate your argument against “the rich not paying their fair share”, which seems to find its way into every single conversation that one can ever have about anything.
In the meantime, you deliberately misquote - again - the Tea Partiers by stating that they stand for no taxation.
ANQuixote almost 14 years ago
Did anybody notice the character watching the news is eating popcorn and drinking a canned beverage?!?! Last I checked, that kind of partaking usually involved entertainment, NOT news! (Unfortunately, American network news usually does not even entertain anymore - above comments are mostly right on. Notice he flatly does not enjoy watching the trollop.)
—
@GEE1A - Thank you for listing a few more for me to check out. Currently I go for Aljazeera English and BBC (internet versions), but I don’t put a lot of stock into PBS - too much bed-sharing going on there. The others you list will definitely be looked into in this American household!
Nemesys almost 14 years ago
Good catch, ANQuixote. Mike Doonesbury is known to lean slightly to the right - if he’s watching NBC News, it’s either purely for entertainment value or to supplement what he usually watches on Fox News, which is normally shown on his TV. Mike prides himself in being intelligent and informed and thus monitors broadcasts from both sides of the spectrum, but it is true that he seems to take his Fox watching more seriously.
Besides, Fox has seriously hotter trollops to watch than does NBC, but the alphabet networks have gotten the hint and are stepping up.
FriscoLou almost 14 years ago
Look at who’s trying to co op Mike’s self image as personal validation.
woowie almost 14 years ago
Is that all there is!? To watching news now-hot trollops? Is that why his wife was canned? I do remember her and I wouldn’t consider her a trollop.
oh, by the way, Frank Goodman-maybe you should switch to Allstate.
randolini Premium Member almost 14 years ago
I really love the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but for serious information, I usually hit “informationclearinghouse.info.” The right wing sociopaths hate that one.
surveyingsam Premium Member almost 14 years ago
The News Hour rocks. Local news for weather only.