I've often thought that the problem with 24-hour cable news channels is that they have way too much time to fill and not enough decent content to fill it. So the networks let people go on and on about something until they eventually say something totally stupid. My thesis is confirmed by items like this. It's a Fox News segment on complaints that Newsweek's extreme closeup photo of Sarah Palin's face is sexist because it shows minor flaws on her face. Huh? Let me ask you something, Fox: Did you have another segment planned for that time slot that fell through at the last minute and you had to scramble to find something else? Then did somebody see Newsweek lying on a coffee table and say, "Hey let's make a big stink out of this!" Was that what happened?
Note the dubious use of "some say" sourcing in the anchor's introduction.
This leads to another point of concern for me as an observer of the cable news channels, and it's also a concern I have with the blogosphere. This is hardly a new phenomenon, but the fragmentation of the media into scores of TV channels and hundreds of blogs is that people gravitate to the media that reflect their own beliefs. This point was made clear to me the night of the Biden-Palin vice presidential debate. Both Fox News and MSNBC invited viewers to text their votes as to which candidate they felt won the debate. Foix News reported that 86 percent of their viewers who called in thought Rep. Gov. Sarah Palin won. MSNBC reported that 81 percent if its viewers felt Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won. Sigh,
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