Was it just that after skipping them for 3 weeks — when I was off on a road trip — I'd lost the momentum of routine, there wasn't enough independent reason to watch, and I couldn't restart?
Or have the shows really gotten worse because they just haven't figured out a way to cover the Trump administration?
Or maybe I just don't want to hear analysis of what Trump is doing!
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A little over 20 years ago, I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post after realizing how little I actually read in it (I flipped through the paper for years before this). The only thing I miss are baseball box scores. Welcome to a freed-up Sunday.
FYI, I call the Sunday morning shows "a bunch of Washington media and political people talking to each other about what Washington media and political people talk to each other about." I've never understood how anyone can stomach that.
Those Sunday morning talk shows have been unwatchable long before Trump showed up. I haven't watched them for at least 20 years.
They manufacture negative stories about Trump no matter how they have to twist the facts. They've lost all credibility in the last year and they think they have noting to lose.
Aren't 3 and 4 pretty much the same thing?
Or maybe animosity towards Althouse makes one of these more desirable?
If so, which would it be?
I'm figuring the answer will be evident before the thread is done...
I am Laslo.
I assume that the shows are are anti-Trump all the time. Not to mention fake. Everything else that the major news networks produce certainly is. But for myself I freely admit that I stopped watching when it became easier to let Althouse do it for me.
Now who are we going to get to watch those shows so we don't have to?
Prediction: Soon, very soon, Althouse will be watching again. Don't ask me why.
I have stopped watching Morning Joe, evening talk on FOX news, and Sunday morning talk. The constant dissection of Trump and the hysteria has worn me out. I am very interested in what is going on but I just want him to get the job done. I don't need the constant blather by the talking heads.
They were shite before, I expect unwatchable now. Welcome to your Sunday's.
I stopped watching in 2009 when every show was about finding a way to kiss Obama's ass. I don't miss them. I don't even read blog posts or FB links about the Sunday morning shows. So if you don't blog about them, I won't miss those posts, either.
"Or maybe I just don't want to hear analysis of what Trump is doing! "
This would be my answer. I ceased watching the Sunday shows long ago, but I inadvertently stumbled onto This Week w/Stephie yesterday. What a show!!!! Group think. A collection hard core lefties agreeing with each other. What a waste of airtime. They haven't changed, they will never change.
The pundits are mystified. They have nothing to add.
They don't seem to have a lot of interesting takes on any of the news stories. I'll catch Red Eye when I think about it, but news is just awful.
Same happened to me with NPR. Not only was it all anti-Trump all the time, the seething anger in their voices was off putting. I notice the anger has leveled off to the point they can speak rationally, the content is still anti-Trump. It is just tiresome. Why bother listening for an hour when it can all be boiled down to a one second tag line - Trump sux.
The news is no longer new.
Sunday before the election the talk shows totally beclowned themselves when panel pundit after panel pundit pompously declared there was no pathway possible for a Trump win.
I do enjoy warching the constant cable news outrage at the latest Trump tweet though. That much hysteria is tough to keep up but CNN does— day after day.
I bet part of it is something you've mentioned before - the way the talking heads seem to think they're more important than the news - and their over the top emoting to demonstrate how you should feel about things - when I take a break from that and then come back to it, all I see is bad acting ;-)
Yeah I can't take it. It was fun when I was 20 years younger and keenly interested in political talk. Now it's all "aren't you terrified that Trump Trump Trumpety Trump blah blah" and no I'm not, really.
Can't we just relax and enjoy an interesting new president for a few months? They even gave Reagan more slack than this. That is before all the World War III hysteria in 1983.
They need more Kellyanne live. She can carry the interviews and slit their throats with a cute smile.
Meanwhile the game will be reducible to slander based on a Russian Invasion fairy tale.
I saw on one of those shows that Trumps puts on his socks in the wrong order.
Cacimbo Cacimbo said...
Same happened to me with NPR.
I sometimes still listen to the hourly rant they call news, but only to make fun of it. (Skip the first one!)
I think I needed another option: 1 and 2. I am unsure of either 3 or 4, but I feel both 1 and 2 are relevant. #1. It's like watching a new season of a show you like, only to find the new season has gone way downhill. You keep watching just because you have always watched it. If there is a failure to record an episode, all of sudden you no longer fear missing an episode because you didn't really miss it. #2 is self explanatory. Even if you aren't a Trump fan, you get tired of the predictability of the anti-Trump bias, kind of like how you longer want to heare the Lena Dunham criticism.
Good thing you never gave multiple-choice exams? (You'd didn't, right?)
The only topic IS the hack press.
Why look- here's Drudge linking to Politico.
First sentence:
"He [Comey] upended the presidential election — twice.
Really? So Hillary, who set up a private server while head of the State Dept, and used it to funnel huge sums of money from international players into her private family foundation and then lied about deleting 30,000 e-mails, that's a big nothing? She hid her use of a private server - lied about it, mishandled classified info, and had any R done the same, that R would be indicted, and found guilty of a felony.
The press is HACK(D).
(fixed)
I was listening to a public radio news report about Trump and ended up getting so annoyed I switched the station. The reporter didn't say anything that was obviously untrue, but rather told a lot of half truths that implied things that would cause a listener who was unfamiliar with the events to come to the wrong conclusion.
I imagine the talk shows are just as frustrating - no one willing to ask questions that would clear up that kind of obfuscation. Is the Trump hate more obvious than the Obama love? In both cases, it's more like a fandom than news reporting and both are off-putting.
Watching Mika cry on Morning Joe when she thinks of the damage Trump is doing to the country is also entertaining. Then the next day Mika and Joe deny that Mika ever cried.
Great way to start the day.
I would have voted 1 and 2 if available, but voted 2 as the next best option.
I believe the only possible explanation for anyone ever watching Sunday morning talk shows is addiction. Unless your kid is one of the hosts.
It's the Altexit problem.
Watching and blogging the shows was always too much like work. Heck, I always told my husband "It's great! Althouse watches them so we don't have to!"
So... now that you have more time for real leisure, you realize how much like work it was. And so....you've retired.
But, I'd keep coming just for the photos and whatever you feel like working on. Someone out there will watch and blog the morning shows. It doesn't have to be you.
It's not longer fun to watch Chuck Todd oil down the democrat.
You should have had an option for 1,2,3,&4. As it is, I had to click the last option.
OT Hey Ann have you read that new book about Nazi drug use, Blitzed yet? I knew they were high on meth during the blitzkriegs but the book goes into the whole phenom in depth. It seems that Nazi Germany was the result of pushing back on the heroin and coke use in Weimar - and replacing it with speed. As a fellow Boomer I'm sure you'll appreciate!
As to Hitler...eh it's easy to see some similarity with Trump. But at least Trump isn't drug-addled is he?
3 weeks is enough to make you look at an addictive pattern, see if there's any there there. I'm getting to that point with Morning Joe: another week, and I'll be cured.
Once you've gazed upon and contemplated 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, uplift, and subsequent erosion, it's hard to take seriously the self-important emotional expressions on the faces of Jake Tapper and guests.
I sincerely do not understand people who try to tell Althouse how to run her own polls. It is a fine option not to vote.
"Aren't 3 and 4 pretty much the same thing?"
3 suggests that I'm horrified by Trump and can't bear to look. I'm averting my eyes.
4 says I do like him and want to be able to continue and not be disabused of my infatuation.
AprilApple said...
30 = 30,000
Deleting 30 incriminating e-mails is a crime; deleting 30,000 incriminating emails is a statistic.
3 and 4.
The best political media shows for decades. Get the popcorn, soda and grab a good seat.
Russia, Russia, Russia.
I watched Chris Wallace for maybe 5 minutes yesterday then shut the TV off. He asked Paul Ryan if Trump admin was spending too much time on Russia issue. Ryan, if he had any balls, would have turned the question around on Wallace and asked if it was the media that was spending too much time on Russia.
I am pretty much done with the Sunday morning news shows too.
It would be like listening to long time Republican Chuck every Sunday morning for hours. Who wants that?
I occasionally tune into Morning Mika to see if she's still in full-meltdown. It's nice when her dad shows up and she turns the show into "I'm right, Daddy, aren't I? Tell them I'm right."
Halpern is the only unbiased contributor and I suspect he'll be asked to leave soon enough.
I am quite sure yard work is best done on Sunday mornings. Everybody can avoid the negatives of Sunday morning overwrought and so called news shows. Meanwhile, money can be kept from the pockets of big media companies. And the positives of weeded gardens, mown grass and flowers can be enjoyed too.
Win-win-win.
Fact Checking Rachel "hands up don't shoot" Maddow.
Someones gotta do it.
Actually, 1 and 2 but that wasn't an option. One thing about television is that, after being away from it, one realizes how little one misses it. The political bias only confirms my dislike of MSM news programs. I don't need my news analyzed. Give me the news and I'll analyze it, myself.
Every Sunday you have your choice of:
Experts agree, Trump is terrible!
How terrible is Trump? We ask the experts.
Experts tell us why Trump is even more terrible than he was last week at this time.
Trump can't be that terrible can he? Let's see what the experts have to say.
Or you could go outside because spring is here.
The constant dissection of Trump and the hysteria has worn me out.
I go through phases. It’s sometimes interesting to see what spin they can come up with to explain that inconvenient villain called Reality. Or what they carefully avoid, such as the plain fact that the leaking of Michael Flynn’s private conversations in Trump Towers proves to any impartial observer that Trump Towers HAD to be surveilled by the Obama administration.
Chris Wallace’s response this Sunday when one of his panelists spoke of this very obvious concept was: Oh, but that was because they were spying on the Russian ambassador[I’m paraphrasing].
Without hesitation and in almost perfect unison two of the panelists replied, “It doesn’t matter!”
So yes, it’s tedious but some small satisfactions can be had.
I watched Morning Joe this AM for about 5 minutes and found out that they were outraged about Trump insulting Merkel. Trump grabbed Merkel’s pussy, metaphorically speaking, and the pimps and whores on Morning Joe were bothered bigly, THAT I can tell you.
Halpern is the only unbiased contributor …
He tries to avoid the worst excesses but Joe and Mika occasionally force him into an intellectual indignity. No real dissent is allowed in the whorehouse, not even from Guest Whores.
"I'm right, Daddy, aren't I? Tell them I'm right."
Love it.
The shows were boring before Trump came along. Too much blather between the so-called "Media Panels" and not enough questioning of actual News makers. Not only are their "opinions" conventional DC wisdom, its obvious they don't know have any inside info on what the Trump administration is doing.
The bias and constant "gotcha" questions directed at Republicans, made the boring turn into the unbearable. Chuck Todd and the others don't ask Trump surrogates questions, they debate them.
And having Lindsey Graham or McCain on every other week, doesn't increase my interest.
I used to watch Todd and FNS but they are getting worse and I often forget all about them. Like yesterday.
Maybe Brietbart should start a Sunday morning show.
I wonder what has happened to their ratings since the election ? Maddow's has gone up until her faceplant last week.
I haven't watched any of the Sunday shows since David Brinkley retired. I haven't missed them -- I do miss Brinkley though.
I was leaning towards 1 & 2 because that is how I feel, especially after a camping trip in our trailer and being isolated from the news. When we return from the peaceful, beautiful silence of the woods or desert....the blather on television just doesn't seem that important anymore.
BUT...I was forced to chose the last example because it is also true and really made me laugh.
Stopped watching the Sunday shows? Good. Waste of time. Just need to read Althouse to get a sense of what's going on in the world. Oh, wait.
I need another option!
The shows have been pretty bad for a while, but the decline was so gradual it was hard to notice, and force of habit kept Althouse watching them. Coming back after a three-week break, with fresh eyes, makes it clear just how valueless they've gotten.
Thus, the death of Althousian interest in them. They are cruft and life's too short to spend it watching cruft.
Not only don't I watch Sunday morning talk shows, I also don't need Mme. Althouse to watch them for me. Talking heads talking to other talking heads about what all the talking heads are talking about. And all of it useless blather.
I depend on AA to weed through all the Sunday dross and deliver the essentials to me Monday.
I think I quit watching them when she made this a regular blog feature.
She wades through it so I don't have to.
Retirement? That's a major life change. Lots of habits change when you retire often without even consciously thinking about them.
The real problem is and has always been a complete lack of imagination and curiosity. Its amazing how retailers of pap and professionals in the art of dodging 500 pound gorillas are so well paid.
You will find far more imagination and curiosity in Althouse or Instapundit or even Zerohedge everyday. Heck, even in Democratic Underground, though the comments there are TV-quality trite.
There are hordes of Internet and Youtube personalities, plus some alternate tv/radio types you could throw together with the tired old farts to make a fascinating, piquant mix.
Change the frames of reference too.
But no.
This is a decadent format broadcasting out of the sepulchre.
Imagine Milo Yiannopoulos on one of those shows. It would be as if someone threw in a hand grenade. Then people would watch.
Or substitute some other modern young turk, Cernovich say.
The issues currently in the news are either inherently boring or they have been rehashed to death. Plus the underlying theme is that Trump is too incompetent and/or loutish to properly deal with these issues. It's gotten old. Speaking of old, I would like to hear more discussion and debate about Nancy Pelosi's mental processes. I have a theory that too much Botox can cause early onset of Alzheimer's. This would explain so much about California. I'd tune into the Sunday shows if they had panel discussions on the extent of Pelosi's dementia and its possible causes.......They speculate that wealthy Romans fed off plates that were decorated with lead based paint. Lead poisoning accounted for the increasingly depraved and irrational behavior of wealthy Romans in the later stages of the empire. I think something like that might be going on with Botox. I would like to see Chuck Todd explore this issue with Ms. Pelosi.
I refuse to be dominated by the tyranny of multiple choice answers! I would vote for 1 & 2, with a trace element of "No one with any sense can stand this any more." I am spending a lot of time reading European newspapers lately, because at least they are covering the news.
I don't really think you had an addiction - I think the US navel-gazing is just antithetical to your mentality, and you can only tolerate so much of it.
Also, from now on my personal pronouns will be grum, grump & grumps, which is my way of hinting that the tidal wave of nonsense was rising before the election, and the conversion of the news into nonsense is just one part of a larger soul-eroding cultural/social phenomenon which has substantively corrupted the media/academia/political realms.
Institutions that were devoted to the business of extracting meaning have all been converted to the business of obfuscating all meaning.
1 and 2.
"I have a theory that too much Botox can cause early onset of Alzheimer's. This would explain so much about California."
No, the PTB in CA don't really have much to do with Pelosi. She is just another hireling.
Gave them up two years ago when we switched DVRs and I forgot to program them in for regular recording. After just 2 weeks of no Sun morn Talk, the wife said "you seem happier". . . .
With the today's internet, why get stuck on the habit?
1and 2.
And I skipped the poll.
Outside of the Beltway bubble, these shows are meaningless?
That would've been my choice for an answer.
My local news tease Saturday night said there was an attack at a Paris airport with one fatality. Funny none of the morning news I tried (without much success) to watch Sunday morning even mentioned it. Or China's response to our SoS visit. Or NoKo's meltdown over our military exercises.
I'd like the Major News Networks to at least make an attempt to tell me what else is going on in the world other than Trump's tweets. Believe me, if I wanted to follow Trump's tweets there is an app for that. But relying on the "news" people to tell me news is fruitless. Like lifelong Republicans around here, the "news" shows have monomania and show no signs of their collective fever breaking.
The talking heads should have Richard Fernandez (Belmont Club) and that Spengler guy. Maybe Michael Totten.
Mike, exactly! We are forced to rely on foreign news media to find out what's going on in the world. Sad.
It will be interesting to see if Ann returns to blog the shows. I got sick of them all battling straw men, fawning over deliberately off point topics and promoting the leftie agenda as the only right and righteous stance to take.
I hung on after Brinkley but gave up after Russert. Tim. Never made it to Luke, fortunately.
Once you've gazed upon and contemplated 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, uplift, and subsequent erosion, it's hard to take seriously the self-important emotional expressions on the faces of Jake Tapper and guests.
Once Meade and Ann had gazed upon all the old, White faces surrounding them at Zion, Bryce Canyon and Death Valley, it became hard for them to take seriously any political talk shows that dealt with Racism in Amerika.
I pretty much gave up Sunday talk shows when David Brinkley retired. Loved the round table discussion back then.
"it became hard for them to take seriously any political talk shows that dealt with Racism in Amerika."
Maybe because it is all on the black side ? Pretty much the case since 1965.
it's because you have been alerted and are now noticing how much of it really is fake news. It always was, but has gotten much worse because of President Trump, and the President is not shy about pointing it out.
I don't know how you hung in there as long as you did.
The only political show I could ever stand to watch was The McLaughlin Group, only for the spectacle, not the analysis. Dana Carvey's impression of John McLaughlin was great. I would still check in from time to time during his declining years for a bit of nostalgia. Sad to see him go.
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