Cable news media, one up, one down (Ron Paul, interviews, legal)

[TnHilltopper]

After reading the forum the past few days I came across a bit on CNN's new show with Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker. What I noticed was that no one gave a positive review of it but those that even commented on derided it, so thus made me want to watch it.

Well I'm going to give it a thumbs up, despite it feeling clunky and a bit awkward, and good lord what is up with that table the size of a frisbee? I've never been a fan of Spitzer as he just kind of gives off that creepy uncle feeling, but when it comes to legal and political matters, he is far more sharp than many that grace our airwaves.

So why give it a thumbs up, well I like the format as it reminds me a bit of the old show Crossfire, or a version of Mclaughlin Group - Washington Week for the blue collar guy. Now if they would just spend 10 bucks at a yard sale and buy one of those old 70's dinner tables that were made out of an old barrel with some simulated leather stapled on top, they would be in like Flynn.

Last nights program with Libertarian Nick Gillespie and Liberal John Ridley was civil and well measured. It was the typical FOX/MSNBC bash fest and I suspect bored to tears all those people who seek out such venues.

I don't expect the show to last because it isn't as sensational, glitzy or hyperbolic, and in fact it was rather muted, although muted at an unreasonably fast pace which barely allowed one thought to be digested before the next topic was tossed out. It has potential, but sadly I just don't think it will last long enough to evolve into something better.


As to a thumbs down, well that would be Lawrence O'Donnell. I got an email notifying me about him giving an interview with Ron Paul, so figured this should be interesting. It was very interesting and rather sickening at the same time.

Apparently the show had agreed to the framework of the interview which is common with most guest, but O'Donnell's people apparently didn't tell O'Donnell or more likely, O'Donnell is just another gutter dwelling news reader.

Since O'Donnell apparently has a history of "ambush" interviews, much like some of the other sensation peddlers that are all too common these days and last night was no exception. O'Donnell asking Ron Paul what his son thinks? Are you serious? I mean this isn't any better than Paula Zahn asking a guest the day after 9-11 as to how bad he felt about what happened. Seriously, this is what constitutes journalism?

However the real ambush took place when O'Donnell asked him about the 1964 Civil Rights Act in which Ron Paul and his son have said was unconstitutional. Reason being, that the government is mandating that people in their private and public lives must conform to the governments standard and not to their own. Namely, if you own a business you do not have the right to refuse service or give preferential treatment to people based upon race, religion, or gender.

What Paul has suggested is that the Jim Crow laws should have been repealed as opposed to a government mandate forcing private citizens to conform to government standards. As one of the effects of this has later been seen in a non-race related issue of smoking bans in eating establishments. This is the type of "creep" that Libertarians fear encroaches on personal liberties and freedoms and it is a valid argument.

However what was instead suggested by O'Donnell was that Ron Paul was an old school racist who believed that blacks should keep to their own water fountains. The manner in which the questions were asked as well as what questions were asked were little more than a hit piece intended to associate and demonize the Tea Party as simply racist thugs pining for slaves.

I understand the arguments, both sides in fact, and I feel they both have legitimate positions and the context of the times should be accounted for, but when O'Donnell framed his interview in a Beck-O'Reilly manner, he joined the ranks of putrefying what is left of Journalism's dignity.

At the end of the evening I was glad to have watched a nights worth of cable news because it served as a reminder to just leave the tv muted and slap on the news aggregate channel with 8 screens of news and no one talking.