For a long time now, I have been a big fan of MSNBC. I work a graveyard shift and being I am a blogger, I depend upon the late night rerun of the evening political news to inform me. I of course also read USA Today in the morning when it is delivered to get a rounding out of my political and world news. Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews and even Chris Hayes give me the news until three in the morning central time and then I watch a few sitcoms on either Nick at Night or TVLand.
Unfortunately, of late I have had to either turn to CNN or just gave up on the news entirely to watch sitcoms. The reason is that it seems to be wall-to-wall coverage on my favorite news channel of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's travails concerning the George Washington bridge lane closures.
I understand it is an important subject and I believe that Chris Christie knows more than he is telling but give me a break, there are other things going on in this nation and in the world to talk about when it comes to politics and world events. I am a news hound after all and I need subjects to blog about and I am sorry, Chris Christie's political problems is not the only thing I want to concern myself with and I doubt very many people do.
I do not watch Fox News. If it were the last news channel out there, I would not watch Fox News, as I know their obsession with our current president, Barack Obama. However, MSNBC has of late become obsessed with Chris Christie as much as Fox News obsesses over Obama.
Yes, it is important that they spend some time talking about Gov. Christie's possible involvement in closing down lanes to cause problems for a Democratic mayor who did not support him in his last election. In addition, any other involvement Christie had in bullying or using his office, such as blocking Hurricane Sandy aid dollars to help Democratic mayors that were affected by the super storm, is an important topic for any news channel to cover. Still, it does not rise to an important enough occasion to spend hour after hour talking about nothing but Chris Christie and what he knew and what he did not know when and just how much was he involved.
The events of 9/11 were important enough; the Great Recession was important enough but a scandal involving a New Jersey governor that might or might not run for president in 2016 is not. At least not two weeks with hour after hour coverage of the same old story, telling it repeatedly, as though MSNBC is a one-horse show with nothing else to talk about in the world. Possible terrorist attacks in Russia during the Olympic Games, school shootings; everything else barely is mentioned if any at all.
Do not get me wrong, CNN has also talks too much about the Bridgegate scandal and eventually I just give up personally and watch sitcoms throughout the night, depending entirely on the morning local news and USA Today to tell me what else is going on in the world. Still, CNN does talk some on other issues or I would not bother with that station either.
I love Rachel Maddow and all the rest of the crew over at MSNBC but they are driving me up the wall with this wall-to-wall coverage of a story that is getting old. Twenty minutes per news program ought to be enough to get any new details and interviews. Nothing about the story is important enough to talk endlessly about it, from the top of the hour to the bottom.
I know eventually, something will happen that will become more important than this story and then the subject will change, and I am sure the New Jersey governor is kind of wishing for something to change the subject. Until then, it looks as though MSNBC cannot talk about anything else for very long before returning to the obsession of Chris Christie and that bridge.
I realize MSNBC is the counteraction to Fox News and its obsession with Obama and the Democrats but surely, we progressives have more on our plate than that one story. So, I plead with MSNBC to stop obsessing, give us an update on Christie and that ongoing scandal but do not talk about it endlessly. Alternatively, I will continue to turn over to CNN - which I find boring at times, or maybe, I will just find something to laugh about and watch reruns of "That 70s Show", which was about a time when there was no such thing as wall-to-wall news coverage; a much simpler time for sure.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place