Anyone else sick of this crap?

[LethalWolfe]

Since the terror threat level moved up to orange I've been watching the news channels more to see what's going on and I realized, again, why I had drifted away from them to begin with.

It seemed like no matter what what channel I hit on there was another loud-mouthed jack@ss spewing nothing but bile aimed at the opposing political party. Half-truths, spin, blanket statements, fact manipulation and barely veiled insults seemed to be the weapons of choice. I swear if these @sshats spent half as much time doing their job as they do trying to "beat" the other party the efficientcy<sp?> and effectiveness of our government would triple.

And of course only the most extreme, outspoken politicians get asked to be on TV. Heaven forbid we see Sen. Level-Headed, or Rep. Moderate on the boob-tube. Oh no. They toss Rep. Gasoline and Sen. Lit Match in a room together, turn on the cameras and away we go. Of course on the really lucky days we'll have "political expert" Dynamite tossed into the mix incase ratings are down.

I think some sort of averaging system needs to be installed in American politics. Ya know, like in figure skating: you toss out the high and the low (or in this the far left and the far right) and use what's left to make the decision.

Argh... Just had to rant.


Lethal

P.S. Merry X-mas :)
P.P.S. If you perfer a non-religious seasonal saying just pretend I wrote "Happy Holidays."

[mactastic]

But then you mess with the formula for success FOX news uses, and the other networks are scrambling to copy! Screaming heads make for better ratings. Better rating make for more ad revenue. More ad revenue makes the stockholders happy. Making the stockholders happy keeps you your job if you are a media executive. And not only is the problem with people that have no incentive to be nice to each other, they all know (or at least the media-savvy ones know) that if you bluster for a while it cuts into the time your opponent has, or that if you just keep giving polititian doublespeak that you can run out the clock so to speak (much as I hate sports metaphores in politics) and either make sure your opponent has no chance to rebut, or that the interviewer has no time to ask probing follow-ups. Now add to this the increasing tendancy for the parties to carve "safe" districts for representatives that are then able to pander to the most extreme members of their party without needing to seek middle ground (and indeed facing the possibility of being voted out for seeking middle ground) and the proliferation of people like Ann Coulter and Michael Moore who blur the line between news and entertainment. The fact that Rush Limbaugh is considered "entertainment" for legal purposes is outrageous. His sole purpose is political.

All the more reason to watch "The News Hour" on PBS.

[zimv20]

i'm sick of politicians emulating the thing i hate about sitcoms: the insult-fest.

sadly, it seems a lot of people respond to it. in both situations.

i will cite a golden rule of improvisation: play at the top of your intelligence. (it's ignored a lot in improv, too)

[IJ Reilly]

Yesterday's Doonesbury said it well...

[edesignuk]

All politics is total BS IMO. Big kids with big toys (military, money), trading off childish insults constantly. They all get on my ****ing nerves, they all (no matter what party) are full of the same crap. I LMAO when I hear one pulling apart what another has done, because you know, they would have probably stuffed up whatever it was equally as well.
This is why I can never see myself bothering to vote, what’s the ****ing point, they’re all full of varied types/amounts of ****.

:rolleyes: