I want an answer to this question.

Why is it so hard for every host on CNN to differentiate between the CDC providing NATIONAL GUIDANCE for the ENTIRE COUNTRY and LOCAL OFFICIALS tailoring their guidance to the CURRENT COVID SITUATION IN THEIR AREA?

This "CDC vs Governors" narrative is ignorant and silly.

Why? That's all I want to know?

When there's nothing to report = clickbait and manufactured controversy fills the gaps.

There's no benefit to "cable news" existing. None. They jumped their shark long ago, when showing Al Cowling's white bronco all day long.

Their time slots don't fill themselves and as Fecesbook has leaked, hate keeps people engaged. Jon Stewart roasted Crossfire and got it cancelled, but the overlords keep stuffing the hate back in.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

I can tell you that the pandemic has been a real boon to CNN and the like, it's been nuts for two years now. Not that they shouldn't have been reporting on it, but I have an elderly (not that elderly, actually) mother who watches it for hours and hours every day for years now, and would call me worried about all the people dying. Ironically, she was not nervous for herself, but others who were out in public, apparently falling dead in the streets, thanks to CNN's body count. MSNBC, too, by the way.

FUD.

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mrbigstuff
I can tell you that the pandemic has been a real boon to CNN and the like, it's been nuts for two years now. Not that they shouldn't have been reporting on it, but I have an elderly (not that elderly, actually) mother who watches it for hours and hours every day for years now, and would call me worried about all the people dying. Ironically, she was not nervous for herself, but others who were out in public, apparently falling dead in the streets, thanks to CNN's body count. MSNBC, too, by the way.

It's unnecessary. They certainly all seem competent and intelligent enough. I'm not trying to disparage them as individuals.

It's unfortunately the case that "news" as something that's unbiased and critical is no longer available to the masses. The tabloid factor wins. Not sure it's what we wanted, but it's what we bought into …

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bfd
It's unfortunately the case that "news" as something that's unbiased and critical is no longer available to the masses. The tabloid factor wins. Not sure it's what we wanted, but it's what we bought into …

TV news, corporate America at it's zenith.

News started getting dumbed down already in the 70's with an acceleration in the 80's.

[www.medialit.org] (kind of a longish read, but it lays out the problem effectively.)

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Medialit.org
Some form of serious television journalism will surely survive. But it could well be reduced to serving a specialized audience, while most of the public watches nothing but the softest form of "infotainment." With most of the public getting its news from television already and newspaper readership declining, the danger of creating a public that knows and cares little about public life is very real.

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The arts are not luxuries but assets that give way more than they cost.
--Ronald Tucker on YouTube

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa

Some of the coverage of the Winter Olympics on broadcast TV at the has left me feeling pretty uneasy. The intense focus on the personal lives of a few athletes like Mikaela Shiffrin has been almost lurid. It seems to me that the network is willing to mess with the athlete’s heads in order to encourage drama and attract viewers.

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Where is there dignity unless there is also honesty? - Cicero

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. —Wendy Mass