Thursday, September 04, 2008

ABC and Charles/Charlie/Chuck Gibson Can Kiss My Shiny Heinie

I would have written this sooner, but some dingleberry with a back-hoe dug a little too deep north of town and knocked out eveybody's internet and phone/cell service for a day or so. Don't ask me the particulars, but it seems like no matter who your carrier is, they all share the same fiber-optic doodads up here in the mountains.

Normally I don't blog about politics, except once when I confessed about our mixed marriage and my frustration with having to answer political callers who don't have to abide by the same rules telemarketers do with the "Do Not Call" list.

I don't care what your affiliation is. I'm not going to pontificate on mine. There's already too much divisiveness in the world, and I blog to get away from a lot of that crap especially if it touches my real life. And believe me, I get enough of this crap at home.

So I won't comment, or write about political stuff generally, unless it's a specific issue that's near and dear to my heart. I want to enjoy your blog, want you to enjoy mine, and we can all be lovey dovey together. LOL I'm not dissing you if you write about politics, and it won't change my opinion of you at all---just don't be offended if I don't comment.

That said, Hubby and I watched last week's DNC convention speeches together, and this week's RNC convention speeches as well. As hard as it was, we refrained from ranting about this or that and restrained ourselves to (mostly) polite snorts.

There were a couple of impolite gagging sounds that came from the guy who subsequently got to clean the projectile dog vomit out of the kennel last week if he didn't want to spend the night on the couch instead.

The nights are getting cold. The couch is hard. He paid for his transgression lickety-split. Plus I blew a few foul fluffies in his direction under the blankets and didn't say "excuse me" to furthur illustrate my indignance on his rudity.

We didn't watch any particular station, and skipped all the "after" commentaries, because frankly, Hubby and I may disagree on some things, but we both feel that as somewhat educated, erudite, and informed adults with perfectly adequate hearing, we don't need a ::koff:: media pundit "interpreting" the speeches we just heard "for" us.

We can chew on them and bicker about them by ourselves.

So on opening night of the RNC speeches, we tuned in to ABC by a random flip of the dial to hear Fred Thompson's speech, and then the one from Joe Lieberman.

I'm not a huge fan of Mr. L, not because he changed his party affiliation, but simply because it seems that almost every time I see him on the tube, he's very self-promoting and that bothers me. I understand that it's the nature of the beast in politics, so I'm not singling him out.

Hubby and I were watching---ok, I was watching, Hubby was in the kitchen listening and scooping ice cream---when the speech abruptly ended and we were treated to the desk with Diane Sawyer, Charles Gibson and George Steponallofus (like I'm going to look up the spelling this late at night).

Charles Gibson made some comment about how what a turnaround it was to see Mr. L speaking for the Republicans, when 8 years ago yada yada yada, nothing remotely original----and the three of them smugly chuckled. Then Gibson launched into some commentary, and my hubby said, "Is Lieberman still speaking?"

And yes, yes he was...in the background. So I quickly switched the channel, and he was in the middle of his speech!

Well WTF?

Dear ABC and Charles Gibson,

If you're competing with other networks to cover events like these, please tell your viewers that you're going to cut into them with personal opinions and commentary so that we have an option of changing the channel to one which will let us see everything in its entirety without your worthless "hair-do's" input.

I don't need Chuck to "interpret" anything for me.

And I don't give two shits for his opinion either.

I can read, listen, opine, pay taxes and vote on my own. No training wheels or instruction booklet necessary.

Charles Gibson is a sack of skin with a shiny hair-do that sits in front of a camera. That doesn't make his opinion any more informed, important or relevant than any other person's.

His job is to report the news, not to try to influence it.

Denying your viewers the entirety of an event like this and then offering "your" commentary and interpretation of a fraction of it is misleading and irresponsible. Don't pretend to be journalists.

Won't ever tune into ABC again if I want to get the "facts".

Please feel free to kiss my shiny heinie.

ATM

22 comments:

Brenda said...

Amen sistah!!

just bob said...

Many other people had the same type of problems with all the networks and eventually watched C-SPAN which provided just the raw feed without the commentary or interruptions.

So you're not alone, except I don't want Charlie Gibson anywhere near my heinie... LOL.

Queen of the Mayhem said...

I get so disgusted with things like this.


I want to hear what happened...not your self-important opinion about it! ARGH!

Shaun said...

It is too bad that politicians continue to exempt themselves from Do Not Call law.

StopPoliticalCalls.org is fighting for the privacy of the American voter.

1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry
2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein’s Robocall Privacy Act)
3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..)
4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)

As I testified at the US. Senate these robo calls are an epidemic and this election cycle “phone spam” and are invading the privacy of All American Voters.

Our members are taking a stand and saying enough is enough at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org.

Here is a quote from a member recently:

"I'm a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I'm a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop.."

Learn more.

Shaun Dakin
CEO
Www.StopPoliticalCalls.org
A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter

Otter said...

Preach it, sister! I am so sick of media intelligensi and smarter-than-you celebs giving their opinions, then letting us all know that if we have a differing opinion, then we are just stupid. GAK!!!

Litzi said...

Hi Attila,
Subjectivity in reporting anything, be it politics, sports, etc. should be left to the Monday morning quarterbacks. The news commentators can offer their advice, criticism and second-guesses concerning the actual events afterwards.

Journalists should be required to take a course or two in objectivity in college and be coerced into adhering to it while on the job.

KrisMrsBBradley said...

As somebody who's husband works for a national network news studio...almost all the commentators suck, each in their own special way.

I usually get my news off the internet.

Anonymous said...

You said it. I always wonder what makes these people "experts" anyway to analyze everything.

Anonymous said...

"I can read, listen, opine, pay taxes and vote on my own. No training wheels or instruction booklet necessary."

AMEN.
i may re-use this, with credit to you, of course!
have a good weekend, darlin!

Green-Eyed Momster said...

I'm just shaking my head at it all. I've never been more confused than I am this year.

Back to the ice cream....Never gets too cold for ice cream, does it?

Have a super weekend

Heinie kissing hugs!!
:)

Green-Eyed Momster said...

That didn't sound right so....

**Hugs!!**

I'm blushing but I didn't delete my comment!! I won't blame you if you do!!!

Angela said...

Yes this blog has certainly shown that you have opinions on many things

Smiles!!!

Grim Reality Girl said...

Yes, I am with you. Less commentary and let me see and hear the damn speeches! HELLO! C-span gave decent coverage.... no silly chatting the night I found that channel while traveling...

Michelle Flaherty said...

I am so with you on this one. I don't see it often but every once in awhile, the commentator interjects his/her own personal beliefs and it really pisses me off. Do your job, report the news and STFU with everything else. If they have to voice their opinion, they need to go talk to therapist.

Clippy Mat said...

George Steponallofus.
hahahaha
good 'un.
i am thoroughly enjoying american politics. we're going to have an election in canada soon.
and i don't think i'll be able to stay awake thru the run up to that!

contemporary themes said...

With you on this one. I watched it all on CNN.

You are damn funny, though, and I appreciate the laughs. I so need to laugh right now! You write it well!

phlegmfatale said...

that business of news commentators talking over speeches to tell us what the orator is saying is SOOOO condescending. Pa-tooey!

Anonymous said...

I'm an engineer with an office on the floor and next door to one of the big network news departments.

If you want the convention watch c-span or possibly PBS. The major nets are trying to cram information into one or two hours. They will show the major address or two of an evening, if it is in their time slot, and an analysis of what remains. Usually they have gotten the speech in advance under an embargo and will cut to analysis the second the embargo is over

Anonymous said...

The point I picked up on the 9 year baseball player is that they wanted him to move to a league where he wouldn't dominate. That the league he was in was for beginers and he was beyond that level.

carmachu said...

Amen on the news "interperuting" things for us!

Actually I'm curious as to your thoughts and impressions on Palin myself....she kinda reminds me of you...

Michelle Flaherty said...

I don't particularly care for JLo but who is anyone to say what's selfish and what isn't? It's hard taking care of two babies at the same time and while JLo probably has a nanny for each child, I'm speaking of the general population who has twins. I know quite a number of couples who had twins who chose not to have anymore kids because of the difficulty of taking care of two babies at the same time. I guess that means they're selfish too?!

There's nothing wrong with being selfish once in awhile. For me, it was my divorce and not being willing to stay in a bad marriage for the sake of my kids. At the time, the kids were young, didn't understand and because of that adjusted well to the divorce. After years of being a full-time mom, I made a choice for ME for once.

As for Sarah Palin, I applaud her. Many pregnant women accept what's given to them and there's no crime in that. Anyone who has anything neagtive to say about her situation are ignorant, judgmental a-holes.

Anonymous said...

Well written article.