Wednesday, February 13, 2019

On Doing The Thing You're Never Supposed To Do



I have a secret to tell you.  A dark and terrible media-insider secret about which no one who knows speaks, and no one who speaks knows.

Ready?

OK, here it is.

You know all those cartoonishly shitty guests that show up like unkillable toe-fungus every week on every political panel show on teevee?  The useless meatbags the media world?  Hugh Hewitt and Rick Santorum.  Erick Erickson.  Jonah Goldberg.  Ben Domenech.  Ann Coulter.  And on and on and on.   That agonizingly long list of bottom feeders, freaks, demagogues, looters, liars, malcontents and grifters who, for no explicable reason, always find a chair waiting for them in the national media.

Well here's the shocking secret.

They do not, in fact, just randomly wander onto the sets to teevee programs, plop into a chair and begin spouting nonsense.  Someone with the authority to decide who gets a seat and who does not actually invites them to be there.   Works out the details with their representative.  Sends a car for them if needed.  Sometimes even puts them up at a nearby hotel.  Preps them on the topic and the part they are expected to play in the puppet show they are about to stage.  Makes sure they are camera-ready.  Has them sign a release if they don't have one already on permanent file.  Makes them comfortable while they wait.  Provides them with food and drink.  Puts a microphone on them and runs sound checks with them.

Then and only then do the little lights on the cameras indicating "live broadcast" flick to life. Then and only then do they begin spouting nonsense.

Which means (for example) that every step taken by Comcast/MSNBC between summoning the Cyborg Sent from the Future to Destroy American from his regeneration alcove to putting him on the air to blather word-like noises from his face hole --
-- is intentional, mission-driven and by-the-book.

Which, in turn, means that until a significant amount of professional embarrassment is visited on the decision makers who approve of putting obvious lunatics like Hugh Hewitt on the air, the cable news political puppet show will never change.

Which realistically means that until some of the other guests on these panels are willing to risk their own position by putting the hosts of these shows in their sights -- are willing to call them out to their face for giving a platform to obvious bottom feeders, freaks, demagogues, looters, liars, malcontents and grifters -- the cable news political puppet show will never change.

In other words, the cable news political puppet show will never change.

Behold, a Tip Jar!

6 comments:

Robt said...

When "news and reporting" became by law, a business expense no different from entertainment.

The Sinclair on the rise of paid to lie to viewers as a business model and fly the flag as news and reporting is no different than FOX.

FOX, Where if we had built a scum bag media Wall and made Australia pay for it. We may not be inflicted by this disease outbreak.

Republicans wanted their own network and their own media. They got it. So far, we are stuck with it and the people that camouflage themselves as Zombies to do their harm.

tony in san diego said...

Scott is not going to touch that one!

Mark Kanicki said...

On a related note, I don't think Jeremy Scahill has been invited back on Real Time since he de-pansed Chuck Todd a few years back, which, I guess, serves as a corollary to your thesis: "don't make establishment journo doorknobs look bad either."

rickstersherpa@msn.com said...

Kos did this once, to Joe Scarborough & was banished from NBC & MSNBC till Hell freezes over.


joejimtree said...

Ah, Don Lemon.

The guy with the outrage timer that goes off for 2.5 minutes with precision every 3.7 weeks when it becomes just a little too clear who he is. And suddenly he has a sharp word or two with Katrina Pearson, or Kayleigh. After the break he reminds everyone that this back and forth that gets a little "spirited" sometimes is what makes everything so wonderful. Then there's the special trip to Ferguson, and boy is he mad! Im sorry but I actually picture him spending his money while he talks, and I think he can too, its why he's giggling.

Christ Cuomo though, is worse, He's all that while taking a moment to remind us every 4.5 minutes that he's Bambi, made up to look like Dondi.
http://www.nancy.cc/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/dondi.png

Neo Tuxedo said...

rickster: Satan must have driven a snowplow to work at some recent time, then, because I saw somebody credited as, and who looked a lot like, Markos Moulitsas appear on one of the MSNBC afternoon shows within the last week.

In other words, the cable news political puppet show will never change.

I'd say "Not until civilization collapses", but I'm reminded, again, of what Rechtaw wrote on that subject:

The Sunday after TSHTF there will be a canned mouse circus urging center rightward movement and free market gloriousity.

Hell, we could have an extinction level event and the following Sunday would be Plausibility Playhouse with asshats beaming in their pablum from undisclosed locations saying it's just a flesh wound caused by DFHs.