I am always shocked at how The Daily Show w/Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report prove time and again that the MSM is a complete and utter failure at reporting the news and doing actual journalism.

When an hour's worth of comedy shows do more research than MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN combined something is seriously wrong with the state of our news programming. I'm at a loss. If it weren't for PBS and Comedy Central I wouldn't watch any television for information at all.

ETA: The interview is here.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

Gee, ask me if that comes any great surprise!

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

For the sake of trying to stimulate discussion: Is that of any great surprise to you? If it is surprising please tell me why.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

You are so right. Its a very sad and very true fact, that's evidence that the American gen pop is pretty stupid, at the least very Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are basically THE real news. I'm almost ashamed that I've stopped watching them nightly, not because I want to per se, but I've gotten caught up with keeping up with the Klowns on FOXNews and the antics of Olberman and the humor of Maddow, I try to watch all those 4 shows every night, Keith, Maddow, Bill-O and Hannity, I tend to manage it with some close timing for the most part. Hence I miss Jon and Steven, when I used to only watch those previously.

I need readjust, however I do listen to NPR daily, so I'm not uninformed. I also listen to Gary Null and Diane Rehm. Gary's show is a MUST for me daily, more than anything else.

What shows on PBS do you recommend?

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Nothing sways the stupid more than arguments they can't understand.
Cardinal de Retz

"My mother would have said that a woman voting for John McCain
is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." - Cecile Richards, TX

I love "On Point", and "Fresh Air", Terry Gross is the best interviewer in the business.

And I love "Wait Wait Don't tell me" and "Car Talk".

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

First of all it was a rhetorical question. Second, no it was not surprising in the least at all

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"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane

For news related things I watch the 2 hour block from 6pm-8pm almost everyday. The block includes: Nightly Business Report(6:30pm), The news Hour with Jim Lehrer(6:30pm), and BBC News(7:30pm). On Friday there's "Washington Week".

Sometimes I'll watch a show called "NOW". On occasion they'll have some really incredible stories and get this, actual investigative journalism.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

The news Hour with Jim Lehrer is one of the most valuable shows on TV for unbiased, thorough news coverage and analysis.

pbs has there issues to dude...but overall you are dead on....since 1980.....

I watch "wash week" on partofme's advice..I wonder if he ever treid the Wall st journal report on fox as I asked.......have you ?

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

Car talk????????

thats pretty joe six packish goober..be carefull..you chew tabacco?

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

The only thing worse than elitism through a sense of intellectual superiority is elitism from a sense of intellectual inferiority.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

A couple of goombahs from my old neighborhood, plus they went to MIT and their office is in Harvard Square, that practically makes them elitist snobs and the show was first recommended to me by the president of the Boston Stock Exchange.

It's not exactly "Elvis Country".

Although I failed to mention that when I drive up to mountains during ski season I became addicted to the Humble Farmer Radio Show, Jazz from the 30's and 40's and Maine Humor. And now I'm quite disturbed, because when I went to get the URL to share this radio gem with anyone who cared to listen to this quirky show over the internet, I found he'd been taken off the air for refusing to self censor his political commentary.
Anyway here is the URL Classic Jazz and, dry Maine Humor with Robert Skoglund, The humble Farmer

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

If you take out the word "unbiased", I agree 100%.

NEWSFLASH: There is NO UNBIASED SOURCE FOR NEWS.

NONE.

ZERO.

ZILCH.

NADA.

That being said, Lehrer is a good show.

While watching any news program though, it is important to recognize the bias and to try to remember it while watching the entire program.

Even on individual issues, like the war on drugs.

The war on drugs is considered more conservative than liberal, yet almost every news report supports the war on drugs. Only recently has this started to change, but in general, the MSM still supports the drug war.

Now, look at issues like gay marriage and gun control.

ALMOST ALL THE MSM supports gay marriage and gun control.

PBS, like most MSM outlets, is heavily slanted to the left, but they are not totally liberal, as they still go through the motions of supporting the party that is in power, at leat while they are popular.

I mean look at how many plastic ribbons people put on their cars to support the troops just a few years ago. How many do you see today?

When it comes to news, I have always found it was best to sift information on the internet. RENSE is one of the best sites for news, as they don't write the stories, they just post them. Just filter out the UFO/BIGFOOT/PARANORMAL stories and you will have important news stories from every mass media source that exists, as well as stories from alternative media, professionals who are not journalists, researchers and average people like your neighbor next door.

I will list the sources for just the 1st 10 stories at RENSE.........

ABC News
Yahoo Finance
Next is from Gerald Celente, founder/director, The Trends Research Institute

The next piece is form Benjamin Fulford, from 1998 until 2005 he was the Asian Bureau chief for Forbes magazine

The next piece is from a concerned citizen who posted the voting record for the bailout.

REUTERS

The Telegraph UK

Video Google

A piece on the Jewish religion

Market Oracle

There, that is the first 10 stories, but it is not a good example of the different sources at the site. I probably should have picked a different group of 10, but what I like about the site is that it doesn't do a lot of filtering.

It ALLOWS ME TO FILTER MY OWN NEWS, INSTEAD OF DOING IT FOR ME.

I guess that's why I like internet news. I couldn't count the hours I sifted through Yahoo news. Of course now Google is way better, but at one time, Yahoo news was the best. Yahoo used to include AP stories and other news wire stories, but alas, those days are gone.

It is a sad truth that the Daily show contains more truth than any other news show on t.v.

Most of the good journalism being done today, is done by the alternative media.

Tis sad, but true.

Luckily, there are still some good journalists in the MSM kicking and scratching to get important stories reported.

People like Jane Akers and Steve Wilson.

I gave up on the US MSMs years ago. I get most of my US news from the BBC. I do read at least one major US newspaper and one international non-BBC site daily to give me perspective. I rotate which other outlets I read. I read Al Jezeera frequently. That gives me some idea of how global situations are being viewed in the part of the world where we have soldiers in harms way. They are not nearly as biased as one might expect. They have an excellent piece on the global financial markets this AM.