Keith Olbermann is out at MSNBC.

@Gloomer: How about this: Because living in a properly functioning democracy requires that citizens be informed citizens, and bias like Fox's horribly distorts and under-reports objective facts to the extent that citizens actually become less knowledgeable about issues relevant to their government.

edited 23rd Jan '11 2:29:48 PM by darksidevoid

^ And that's any different than what CNN did for over 20 years?

No. In fact, I almost despise CNN even more because they use so many flashy graphics and unexplained statistics that it's nearly impossible to tell how honest they're being most of the time.

Yeah, true. Unlike the other two, CNN is biased almost entirely toward sensationalism rather than any sort of political leaning.

Edit: Not to say that Fox and MSNBC aren't also biased toward sensationalism, but CNN is moreso, IMO. Maybe it's just that they're more bland, and therefore their tendency for the fantastic stands out more.

edited 23rd Jan '11 2:36:33 PM by darksidevoid

Lolz at equating CNN and Fox News.

If anything, CNN is less biased then MSNBC.

^ I'll admit CNN is less biased than MSNBC, but to equate CNN as even relatively impartial is quite in error.

Only impartial news is The Daily Show.

Wait, that's a lie. The Daily Show is biased towards funny.

Ooo! Maybe Keith Olvbermann will go on The Daily Show?

I don't think he and Jon Stewart are on the best terms...

I don't want his ass crapping up the Daily Show, it's actually a halfway decent source of news.

When the show you trust the most for news is a comedy show, something is wrong.

edited 23rd Jan '11 2:48:05 PM by Barkey

Olbermann? Nah, they're buds~

Yeah.

24 hour news channels are in it just for the ratings, which is why they focus on sensationalist crap.

And seeing insane pundits duke it out is a guilty pleasure, but its not news.

Its why I prefer seeing Brian Williams do the news, as well as the comedy central shows.

How about this: Because living in a properly functioning democracy requires that citizens be informed citizens, and bias like Fox's horribly distorts and under-reports objective facts to the extent that citizens actually become less knowledgeable about issues relevant to their government.

Be that as it may, it is a fact that most people are basically disinterested in politics beyond its most superficial aspects. In most cases they have already made up their minds about the kind of highly visibile issues that can be summed up with a series of buzzwords and soundbites. The news won't change their minds no matter how objective it is, because straight-up unopinionated news simply doesn't make one agitated enough to actually think about issues.

To summarise, biased news media are preaching to the converted so they can't do that much harm.

I would like it if the news outlets were more objective, or at least more professional in the expression of their bias, which means they take a side and defend it rather than relying on childish attacks on the opposition. However, the alternative doesn't strike me as worth worrying about.

^^I swore off NBC news after a week of fawning over charter schools while bashing teacher's unions. Bleugh. I don't know if MSNBC was the same way...

I'm more for honest admittance of bias and attempts at interesting journalism than I am for pretending to be objective by having clips of two people saying two different things without actually trying to work out which one was right.

I typically watch PBS when I want "serious" content.

edited 23rd Jan '11 4:43:52 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Oh right, that's the other most-annoying thing: gratuitous application of the Golden Mean Fallacy.

edited 23rd Jan '11 4:28:13 PM by darksidevoid

Golden Mean Fallacy is my biggest complaint.

Basically, whoever has Golden Mean Fallacy is biased towards the side of whoever is most stupid ;P

^^I swore off NBC news after a week of fawning over charter schools while bashing teacher's unions. Bleugh. I don't know if MSNBC was the same way...

Teacher's unions are the devil.

Teacher's unions are great if you can join one that actually pushes for legitimate progressive reform instead of the ones that let themselves get walked over by the media for whatever stupid reason. That NBC special had exactly one union rep and she was just as interested in bashing the unions as the charter school and voucher people. Nobody from Montessouri schools, studiers of Dewey, members of the Coalition for Essential Schools, or anyone who's actually doing things differently than the charter schools, who seem to consider reform as "the same but more". The one time they didn't do the equivalency nonsense...

When was this, it sounds awful.

I steer clear of the NBC Nightly News, due to my disdain for Brian Williams and the fact that the show is very heavy on the fluff.

Luckily being Belgian-American means that I can go to the French news and catch up on world events.

There is no internationl news on any station, while the bombing in the airport is Russia is unfolding, CNN is talking to some guy about the Golden Gate bridge.

Well they're talking about the Russian bombing right now on the regular CNN.

edited 24th Jan '11 3:06:50 PM by rmctagg09

Necro: now Jon Stewart's weighed in.

edited 5th Feb '11 10:22:50 AM by Linhasxoc

Yeah, that was pretty fun as I recall.

I am the disappoint that Stewart did not include this clip starting at 3:44 onwards.

He's used clips of Cenk before.

Bah, it's only a matter of time...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110208/ap_on_en_tv/us_tv_olbermann_current

I'll take "HUGE step down" for 8.6 trillion, Alex.

Looks like Al Gore is hoping lightning will strike twice.