What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…
Just in case you missed it on Twitter earlier this week, my blog disruption was supposed to end this week but it’s now been extended up to another month minimum. It hasn’t helped that we haven’t been getting a lot of ICN worthy news lately either. Anyways…onward we plod. Post your nominations for this week’s What’s Hot/What’s Not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday night…
July 14, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Hot: After living through so many cold years, NBC & Microsoft are finally getting divorced. Truly tis a shame their relationship doesn’t qualify for annulment.
Not: The “MS” in “MSNBC” The cable channel already acts like it wants to be hot-to-trot and losing the married name might help. They should’ve gone with a hyphenated name, anyway.
Hot: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer opines. Well, it’s Blitzer… so “not bland” qualifies as “hot”, Eh?
Hot: FNC’s The Five survives. One year and nobody died. Close, though.
Not Hot: MSNBC’s The Cycle just idn’t gellin’. I really was hoping it would be good show but it’s not watch-able. Maybe The Cycle would be less painful with The Pill.
Related Not Hot: Seems near impossible to mention The Five or The Cycle without mentioning the other. That hurts the latter one more.
HOT: Our weather. The North Atlantic oscillation that brought about an unusually mild Winter/Spring for N. America and a brutally cold one for Europe was supposed to be shifted back by now. Lest I complain about the heat, my friends and family in London, UK are whining about their not having a summer this year.
July 14, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Hot: Obama-Bain-bad-outsourcing-Romney-SEC-felony-liars-appology-noWAY-anti-Romney-smoke-bomb stinks up Romey reputation and keeps Obama in attack mode.
True? Not Really. Hurtfull? It’s starting to look that way. Lots of cable gab fodder.
July 14, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Hot….great new term coined…..Bainers are now the new Birthers…
July 14, 2012 at 9:10 pm
Uh huh. Questioning a man’s business practices is on par with questioning one’s birthright. Got it.
July 14, 2012 at 9:18 pm
I think he means that, just as the “birther” controversy served Obama well, the “Bain” attacks are serving Romney well. In both cases, lots of noise and flashing lights but still nothing there.
July 14, 2012 at 9:26 pm
If that’s what he means, he’s wrong. The Romney campaign has done a terrible job of defining the candidate..a vacuum Obama has filled ably. Mitt is being perceived on both sides as a business hatchet man. That may work with conservatives, but it’s a disaster amongst the middle and left.
July 14, 2012 at 9:34 pm
I think the latest polling indicates that few independent voters are falling for the Bain attacks and in a few days we may learn that the “felony” accusation jumped the shark. We’ll see.
July 14, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Independents don’t have to fall for specific attacks to be convinced of an overall narrative. If Romney can’t find a persona beyond “rich corporate guy gaming the system for his own gain”, he’s in trouble.
July 14, 2012 at 10:15 pm
You probably aren’t seeing the campaign advertisements on the telly all the time in CA. Haven’t seen it yet in VA, but in MI Romney has a rebuttal ads to the Bain attacks using video of Obama’s own words. Hard-hitting enough to leave a mark.
July 15, 2012 at 4:00 am
We see them in Ohio. Fair people look at the promise of Obama in 2008 and recoil at what we got.
July 15, 2012 at 8:29 am
Al: When did Blitzer speak an opinion, I missed that this week.
HOT: The re-appearance of the story of MSNBC.com to be purchased out by NBC. It seems logical, both that NBC likely wants to divide up NBC News and MSNBC, as well as Microsoft appears to be tearing out anything that doesn’t focus in on their primary mission – software.
HOT: Possibly out of character, but the Krugman dig against CNBC which, to be honest, seems like a fair attack on their morning show since they’ve changed it up.
NOT: Apparently The Cycle. Somehow it’s one of the few shows I enjoy on MSNBC, but it appears it’s just me and four other people at this point. But also, we’re going to be attacking this from day one because it isn’t a ratings boom?
NOT: We’d had a year of cheap production standards and playing of characters on The Five, wooo! And it was the top rated show at least for one day apparently? Are we going to start throwing pies at each other next and have that beat everything else?
NOT: Viewer Confidence in TV News. Imagine that, years of angling by FOX with the rest following suit, plus the rise of the pundit class, and the ‘legal analyst,’ has turned it all into a garbage shoot. Why would anyone have confidence in TV news after we’ve stooped as low as Glenn Beck, The Five, and a fair share of MSNBC programs, not to mention everyone racing to be wrong first on the Supreme Court.
July 15, 2012 at 9:48 am
Here’s one instance of Wolf doing commentary. The other one I saw was him explaining who pays taxes, and why this talk of “not paying fair share” is BS. Begala couldn’t argue with him, because he knows it’s true and that libs have and will continue to demagogue it. However, I can’t imagine that the liberals watching would have been too thrilled. Further proof of the Conservative Media about which they love to fantasize.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/rush-limbaugh-on-wolf-blitzers-naacp-commentary-hes-auditioning-for-fox/
July 15, 2012 at 10:12 am
Chris: See Mediaite July 13. Blitzer gives Obama a soft slap for skipping the NAACP and taking the black vote for granted.
-SCOTUS Decision flops-
It was obvious right out of the gate that CNN would take the most heat for being wrong and FNC, for its part, simply lucked-out by having Megyn Kelly already miked-up and on set. I think this is simply a hazard of covering breaking news on-the-fly that’s made worse by the inevitable columns highlighting who got the story out first, usually with a minute-by-minute run-down. The recent primaries are a good example… ‘CBS News called the race first but it was 13 minutes later until Fox followed suit. What’s wrong with these people?” Perhaps the cable channels should have an easy-to-post “UNCOMFIRMED” blinker for their banners.
July 15, 2012 at 10:25 am
Al and Laura: Thanks. Has this happened before by the way, or is CNN tinkering with maybe stepping just slightly outside of the “view from nowhere” mentality?
July 15, 2012 at 10:35 am
I watch Wolf daily, and it seems new this week, or at least since he got the third hour.
July 15, 2012 at 2:39 pm
HOT: MS & NBC finally complete the split.
HOT: News Corp announces the end of NewsCore.
NOT: Every thing else.
July 15, 2012 at 3:49 pm
–hot story–
I agree with Chris, the divorce between MSNBC and NBC News online is a hot story. It will be interesting to see how that all shakes out.
–new 3rd hour of TSR with Wolf opinion–
Yeah, Wolf has been doing a segment called “Wolf On” where he gives an opinion. It does seem like he is trying to be fair – he takes equal shots at both sides. It all seems pretty innocuous stuff. Honestly I think Wolf seems a little uncomfortable doing it though. We’ll see how long it lasts.
July 15, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Honestly, Wolf seems uncomfortable doing most things.
July 15, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Laura, I also saw that segment where Wolf talked about the “rich” paying their fair share of income taxes. Yes, it is a republican leaning talking point but that doesn’t bother me because I am sure Wolf will subsequently balance it with a liberal leaning talking point as his CNN overlords will dictate. I don’t think Begala had a difficult time at all arguing because he admitted that Wolf was technically right on the numbers of his argument. Don’t you think we should agree on the facts?? I do. Calling it a fair share is a subjective opinion of the numbers – I think we can agree on that as well. Many agree, that the rich do pay a fair share of the income tax and some disagree but at least we agree on the numbers, which aren’t in dispute.
My problem with the argument about income taxes is that it is simply incomplete. Income taxes are primarily paid by THOSE WITH THE MOST INCOME. Even if we had a flat tax, rich people would pay a majority of the income taxes, because they have all the money. But that is also not the point. What are our biggest expenditures in govt.? Social Security, Medicare, and Defense. 2 out of 3 of those are NOT paid by income taxes. So, this idea that Social Security and Medicare are fat entitlements that are a wealth transfer from the rich to the middle class is just wrong. Income taxes help pay for many infrastructure investments, research, military, etc… Did you know that the Social Insurance taxes bring in almost as much federal revenue as income taxes at that it is funded almost entirely by the middle class because it is a highly regressive tax that is capped at about 109k of income? So, if Wolf or ANYONE else is going to talk about federal revenue, entitlements, and who pays a fair share, I think you shouldn’t talk about just one half of the pie. And you can’t conflate income taxes with entitlement spending – they are not the same. Yes, we need to tweek the system – taxes and entitlements. But the truth is, we all pay for the systems we benefit the most from. Wealthy folks pay are larger chunk of infrastructure, research, and basic govt services like a judicial system for contract enforcement because that is what they benefit the most from. Working class pay more for the Social Safety Net which they are most likely to benefit from.
I am glad Wolf brought up the income tax debate because it is a discussion worth having, unfortunately, it becomes mindless talking points that frankly, I am pleasantly surprised Begala didn’t engage in. I just wished they talked about it longer and in more detail because federal spending is far more complicated that just saying half the country doesn’t pay anything and the rich foot the bill. That is intellectually dishonest and both sides need to say so.
July 15, 2012 at 4:19 pm
^That. Was. Brilliant.
July 15, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Liberals would happily have everyone believe that The Rich are getting a free ride and pay nothing. Conservatives conveniently forget all their policies that led to the bottom-half paying no income tax to speak of. There was a guy on Twitter that linked something about that, and I wish I had any idea where to find it.
July 15, 2012 at 4:31 pm
For the working poor, every payroll and sales tax is significant. The conservative mantra thay they’re getting a free ride is vile.
July 15, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Oh gee, let’s get into that again.
July 15, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Your “mantra” representation is false, not surprisingly. The point that is trying to be made is that “fair share” is bullsh|t, along with the pleadings to raise taxes in order to make up for it.
July 15, 2012 at 4:43 pm
How many times is the phrase “50% of the population don’t even pay taxes” mentioned on FNC? A repetitious phrase is a mantra.
July 15, 2012 at 4:45 pm
I was attempting to explain the reasoning behind it. Pointlessly.
July 15, 2012 at 4:47 pm
So much easier to call it “vile” than to acknowledge any actual reasoning.
July 15, 2012 at 4:54 pm
The phrase is intentionally dishonest. Andrea Tantaros knows damn well poor people pay taxes, and lies about it.
July 15, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Andrea Tantaros is an idiot whose only pre-Fox “strategizing” was how to carry the tray from one side of the room to the other without getting her butt grabbed. Next!
July 15, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Ms. Tantaros was also the press secretary for House Republican leadership… where she also had go from one side of the room to the other without getting her butt grabbed.
July 15, 2012 at 5:52 pm
-Poor people pay taxes other than income-
That’s part of the reasoning behind the Earned Income Tax Credit that’s given to low and middle-income individuals. They receive the tax credit even when the refund exceeds the amount of income tax paid in.
July 15, 2012 at 6:01 pm
My bad. She actually has a decent career. She’s just been magically transformed into a talking-points spewing tart by Fox News, like the rest of the harem.
July 15, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Hot: Brit’s tie. And subbing for Chris.
July 15, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Not: Fox airing what amounts to a Gregalogue at the end of a program about the Fort Hood shooting. He’s not a serious commentator, and damn well shouldn’t be used as one. If I’d been a victim in that, I’d be offended as hell. It’s not a fcking joke.
July 15, 2012 at 9:43 pm
Gutfeld edited a laddie mag. You haven’t truly read crap until you’ve plowed through a few of those articles. He has no business playing Serious Commentator.
July 15, 2012 at 9:53 pm
You’re watching a show about an Islamic militant and 14-or-so dead people. God knows how many were injured. Al the overhanging implications about future incidents. Well isn’t that just a great time to have Greg Gutfeld’s face pop up, and start doing the same schtick he does at 3am with the drunks. Leave it to Fox.
July 15, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Al = All. Recurring theme.
July 15, 2012 at 9:58 pm
I had the show on but was only half paying attention. Suddenly I hear Gutfeld’s voice and look up at the TV. “You’re kidding me.”
July 15, 2012 at 10:05 pm
They cheapened the whole damn story. I’d take Geraldo more seriously. I wouldn’t feel as though he was using dead people to make a political point, how ever valid it may be.
July 15, 2012 at 11:21 pm
-Recurring theme-
Stop talking about me in front of my back, Chickie.
July 15, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Better behind, so to speak.