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Let's face it folks, cable news sucks. It's be up there with alcohol in stunting your intelligence, and up there with weed in stunting your memory.I'm not just talking about Fox News. All cable news is seriously flawed. Here's why: 1) coming up with 24 straight hours of quality programming is damn-near impossible 2) despite all of the time they have, they rarely delve into a subject in any detail, 3) it is highly subject to "cat in a tree" reporting (i.e. focusing on trivial stories that have compelling pictures) 4) it buys into the idea that there are only two political parties in America even though that is obviously false and 5) like all corporate media, it takes money from people it is supposed to be reporting on, creating a conflict of interest.
The 24-hour news cycle almost guarantees that most of the programming will be repetitive and of low quality. Think about how hard it is to come up with just one hour of quality programming per day. Then multiply that effort by 24! The format virtually guarantees failure.
The reporting fails to delve. It is generally headline driven. Typically no more than 5-10 minutes will be spent discussing any single idea or issue. This isn't enough time to be intelligent and complex.
Cable news totally obsesses over glossy images that don't matter much for the country as a whole. For example, cable news almost inevitably gives a play-by-play of forest fires in California, even though they almost never affect many people.
Cable news, like all of the corporate media I'm aware of, virtually ignores emerging parties, and peoples' movements in the streets. For example, earlier in 2008, the ANSWER Coalition did an anti-war march in Hollywood that drew thousands of people and ended at a CNN skyscraper. No coverage. Most importantly, there are more people than two running for president, yet cable news delves into the most trivial details of the lives of two of them and ignores the others who are on enough ballots to win: Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader.
How media are funded matters. Cable news is funded by corporations. Therefore they won't do anything that scares their corporate donors. Many of these corporations are engaged in lobbying for dirty energy, private health care, and other social ills.
