Late last year after the midterms, I wrote a post entitled "Cable News Needs To Die," where I argued that cable networks have become nothing more than conduits for Billionaire Bucks to then cover said billionaires' preferences in election years.
It was true then and it's true now, given MSNBC head Andrew Lack's recent remarks about how good he feels about the programming pivot they've taken.
“As reasonable as that [discarded liberal] programming was for when it was created, we’re in a long game now … This is may be the most interesting election of my lifetime … The world has never been more dangerous in my lifetime.”
I wonder, does Lack think the incessant coverage of idiots like Donald Trump has anything at all to do with that danger?
Not at all.
“I think it’s a helluva story — and I like big stories,” Lack said, rejecting the notion that his and other news outlets are simply providing the reality TV mogul-turned-politician a free forum to reach and attract supporters.
“Donald Trump is leading our news coverage, and everybody else’s, because Donald Trump has cut a path through the Republican party that is profound right now … The coverage we’re giving to Trump is arguably 24-7 because he’s got 40 percent in the polls.”
Well, Andy. Is that a chicken-or-egg problem? Seems to me one spawns the other, to be honest.
What makes me laugh the hardest is his claim they're going to be the "breaking news" go-to in Cable-land, since we live in such scary, dangerous times.
I'll let Charlie Pierce speak for me here.
Of course, during Lack's lifetime, the world was a more dangerous place when Soviet and American attack submarines were playing chicken with each other every day in the north Atlantic, to say nothing of a certain 13- day stretch in October of 1962. (Also, too, Berlin.) But let's take his opinion at face value and stipulate the world is in such unprecedented peril that a pivot to "hard news" was called for. What has Lack's response been to the most dangerous situation in his lifetime so far?
More Morning Joe.
My man Chuck Todd every day.Picking up the Halperin-Heileman Unintentional Comedy Hour from Bloomberg.
I feel safer already.
