Day: July 15, 2011

A Celebratory Day In The Cable Media World: MSNBC 15th Anniversary And Fox News Channel-Rupert Murdoch Crisis!

Today, 15 years ago, MSNBC went online as the competitor of CNN, which had begun June 1, 1980. Within a few months, on October 7, Fox News Channel came along as a third competitor in the 24 hour news channel industry!

MSNBC has gone through rough times over its 15 years, but now it is thriving by having emerged as the strong progressive news channel, compared to the moderate approach of CNN and the right wing conservative views of Fox News Channel.

MSNBC has become a station with outstanding talk show hosts, including Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz, as well as outstanding coverage during the day by other anchor people.

It is a source of much what the author writes about, and it gives us a progressive view of events, which is sorely needed, so Happy 15th to MSNBC!

At the same time, Fox News Channel has misled, lied, deceived, propagandized, and become a Republican propaganda channel, including hiring many of the Republican Presidential field at some point of time.

Fox News Channel has NEVER been willing to cover the news fairly, and has made life miserable for Barack Obama, and has convinced an ignorant portion of the population to believe their myths, half truths, and distortions!

Its talk show hosts are disgraceful, having included Glenn Beck in the recent past, and still including Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, along with a whole group of unsavory characters who have questionable ethics, but end up on Fox News Channel!

Their employer, Rupert Murdoch, known world wide as one of the most despicable people in the news business, has now become involved in a hacking scandal that threatens to bring him and his news corporation to their knees, symbolically!

Nothing would be more contributing to the future of journalism than to have the downfall of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News Channel, but in reality, that is not likely! That channel is refusing to report the scandal in detail, part of their “managed” and distorted news coverage, figuring that their audience might remain unaware because they lean so much on the manipulated manner of news reporting on their channel!

Even if Fox News Channel survives, seeing Rupert Murdoch and the channel squirm is victory in itself!

The Debt Ceiling Issue: A “Waterloo” For Both Republicans And Democrats In Office?

The Debt Ceiling Crisis is rapidly becoming a potential “Waterloo” for both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

For the Republicans, their split on strategy, and the possibility that the Mitch McConnell plan to drop the issue of spending for now and give the President veto power three times in the next 18 months to avoid default , but allow the raising of the national debt, has bitterly divided the party, with the Tea Party people up in arms against the Establishment Republicans represented by McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner.

On the other hand, if the McConnell plan ends up as the temporary solution to the crisis, it will force Democrats to vote THREE times on raising the national debt, and that will be used by Republicans against Democrats in the congressional campaigns of 2012, and is seen as likely to cause the defeat of many Democrats, something that Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a traditional moderate swing state, was screaming about to high heaven to reporters!

The whole issue could neutralize the political combat, but what would seem likely is that INCUMBENTS of both parties could suffer in the upcoming election, while Barack Obama could benefit in a major way!

So it could seem to many that the President might be in good shape, but with his party possibly lying in tatters, alongside fellow Republican officeholders.

We could end up with a more rebellious Congress of critics of the handling of the whole issue, and make compromise between President Obama or even a President Romney having a literal nightmare dealing with the legislative branch! And we could end up with only a few votes margin in both Houses, making progress on ANYTHING extremely difficult!