If you believe that the cable news landscape is symptomatic of our two-party political system, then you also probably, and predictably, saw a different tone in last nights election results. Fox News presented its coverage with a patina of celebration, while MSNBC’s took a more gloom and doom approach. But there was one important distinction between the two outlets: Fox News offered a far more balanced set of analysts for the election coverage than did MSNBC.
I watched the coverage on MSNBC and Fox sandwiched around my watching of the best show on television right now "The Sons of Anarchy". My personal observations were I couldn't stand the coverage on MSNBC for more then 10 minutes at a time. Instead of analyzing the races with any sort of serious discussions, as the results would come in, normally proclaiming another Republican pick up, the panelists would launch into a series of personally derogatory name calling or snarky comments. It was like watching some sort of weird MST3k. Even when the Democrat won they still took time out to make some sort of smarmy personal comment about the Republican loser.
Fox on the other hand played it straight down the line offering background on the dynamics of the race they were talking about, giving background on the candidates involved and never did I hear them refer to anybody in disparaging terms or using derogatory terms. The panelists engaged in lively discussions that provided insight into the race.
My wife watched some the regular NBC coverage and she was pleasantly surprised at the way they covered it which she thought was decent.
Somebody needs to get some adults in charge over at MSNBC and get this sad parody of 24 hour SNL skit in order.
No comments:
Post a Comment