Jay Cronley: Cable-news nuts need less salt
BY JAY CRONLEY World Staff Columnist
Sunday, November 04, 2012
11/04/12 at 3:41 AM
The distorted face of politics is the biased cable TV news nut, the anchor more calculating than Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, and considerably less entertaining.
Remember "Broadcast News"? The news ace as actor being fed information and style by somebody much smarter? The actor, William Hurt, played a genius on camera, a bozo off.
Cable news characters are no more qualified to spread their politics than action movie stars or romantic leads.
The lasting images of this presidential campaign are not of the candidates yearning to serve but are instead of the big-eyed ravings of cable news personalities making a final wild pitch for your support.
Cut on the bias: The failure of TV news as a translator of fact has put the objective voter in a sad state.
Network television news is an afterthought when it comes to anything beyond sex-inspired sitcoms.
Jimmy Kimmel has bounced "Nightline" into the remote hours. It's anchors aweigh on the networks, as they seem to come and go on the changing of a season.
Brian Williams trying to be funny - there's your typical network anchor.
Concerning politics, network TV is a fly-by.
And on cable, the bias is so unashamedly upfront, it's almost like the voter is endorsing one of them - Varney or Hannity, Matthews or Maddow.
The voter is apt to find him or herself wondering how you could support a candidate who attracts such a strange fringe. You sometimes wonder if you could actually have fundamental beliefs the same as that oddball on the cable screen.
Could that be how people see you? As somebody who might jog with Sean Hannity or work crosswords with Chris Matthews?
Driven in the opposite direction: The premise behind biased TV news is offbeat from the start.
On the cheerleading channels, they're preaching mostly to the wooden pews - nothing in the primary audience is ever going to change a thing.
What must the anchors think, that somebody objective will find their nuttiness charming?
There's precious little relief in sight, as close elections seldom seem to end on time. Cable anchors are probably already working on their highway robbery sermons.
There's one important demographic that isn't polled: voters driven to the other side by the most unpleasant media bias.
Original Print Headline: Cable-news nuts need less salt
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