Sunday Talk Show Circle Jerks
By John Amato Sunday Jun 14, 2009 5:10pmI really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore. It's infuriating to watch hosts like Bob Schieffer (not to single him out) just ask basic questions about the issues, have no facts on hand and rarely ask a follow up. It's a talking points wonder. What's so frustrating is that the networks have the resources to really fact check and dig deep into policy like on the health care debate, but instead the McConnell's are just asked to comment on proposals or rumors.
Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday, McConnell told host Bob Schieffer that Mr. Obama's plan for a government health insurance plan would essentially crowd out other insurers from the private market, eliminating competition.
"We can make incredible improvements in American health care, but I don't think having more government — in effect putting Washington between you and your doctor — is the way to go."
Schieffer countered McConnell's contention that the Obama plan would choose (or deny) which treatments a covered individual may get; the White House is not proposing any kind of rationing board, he said. He also repeated the administration's assertion that a public insurance plan would give people another option. "If they want to keep their private insurance, that's OK," Schieffer said.
"I know they say that, Bob," McConnell countered, "but if the government is in the insurance business there won't be any other insurers, it's inevitable."
"All of that really ought to be put aside if we want to get a truly bi-partisan proposal," he said bluntly.
The Republicans and bought off Democrats don't want real competition in the Health Industrial Complex, period. If they love the free market so much then make the health insurance have to compete against something other than their brethren. Do you trust the HIC to actually come through on any of their promises?
How about if CBS puts a few of their crack reporters to work to explain why so many Americans go bankrupt because of health care issues with a large number of them already being covered? The American Journal of Medicine:
Results:
Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001.
Conclusions:
Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of US bankruptcies.
Is that so hard? Health care is driving the country into ruin and all we get is a "no" to the public option while the "single payer" plan isn't even mentioned anymore. When conservatives like Mitch mention the word Bi-partisan, what he means is that they can only come together if Democrats do what they say. Has a major network taken the time to actually explain what the "public option" would mean at all? Instead we got the Grassley's and McConnell's saying that the public option will drive Insurance companies out of business. Why is that exactly? Viewers wouldn't know because they get no information. Here's The Mad Twitterer on the public option:
If 100 million people want to join the Public Option, what's the problem?
Chris Wallace asked the penetrating question to Sen Grassley:
Is it Senatorial to twitter like that?
Yes, Grassley twitters like a bozo and his attacks of Obama on twitter showed you the child-like mind of conservatives. When Bush asked Congress to start working on something, you didn't hear people complain that he actually asked them to do their damn jobs. But Grassley was offended.
And CNN's John King just blathered HIC (Health Industrial Complex) talking points repeatedly about health care.
John King fed them the conservative straight lines and they delivered the propaganda punch lines, one right after the other. If anyone stepped in with something provocative, like the guy who said that his doctor was making him pay $1500.00 per family member, on top of his insurance premiums, just to stay with him. King just blathered on about taxes as if that's this fellows biggest financial problem rather than the fact that he's getting it coming and going from the health care industry.
I'm so sick of the lot of them.
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What? No Dick Cheney today?
The day is still young. It's June. The longest days of the year.
Give it some time. Ya know Darth is still at it.
I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore.
That's why I gave them up about a year ago during the presidential campaign. If any of them had an original thought that wasn't fed to them by their corporate masters, it might have made a difference.
Give 'em up "cold turkey," John.
You'll see it doesn't make a damn bit of difference in your life - or anyone else's for that matter . . . .
You're life will improve exponentially when you give them up.
Next, you'll realize the pointlessness of the cable news shows.
It starts to get better from there...
how many years to do the right thing? Now they just want three or five more before the "trigger" that they want allows fairness and adequate medical coverage for all people? I have your answer: NO! I would really like to know when and how and by whose authority the single-payer option came off the table. Is there anyone out there with an answer that they will share with me? Huh? Anyone?
I do not think DC realizes how important this is to so many people. This could end very badly.
It can't come "off the table" when it was never on it in the first place!!!!
How right you are. I gave them up about three years ago. Never been happier, and the blood pressure is much better too!
...everywhere. My Sundays are so much more enjoyable now.
It's like People magazine but I don't have to turn pages. Either that or the Weather Channel. I like to keep my blood pressure low on Sunday mornings. Go all Lionel Richie with it...
I figure I spend enough time in the blogosphere to know if anything important was said. I save my rage for that.
Well there's always Davey and Goliath.
Or Veggie Tales
You don't wanna know what Davey saw his mother doing with an oiled up Larry the Cucumber.
Oh dear ysbaddaden, please do tell me you have a YouTube of them somewhere in your vast archives?? Ha!!!!!
That's a mortal sin, criticizing Sunday morning shows on The Feast of St. Timothy Russert.
I don't watch them anymore either . Is amazing how these egotistical blithering idiots can stay on the air , year after year . The only decent shows are when Krugman comes on and ( routinely ) makes an ass out of George Will exposing him as the fountain of right wing BS that he is .
when ya'll at C&L do it so well for us???!
The highlights are bad enough!!
I'd rather kick it in the garden and listen to the birds sing and wander around dead-heading the pansies.
Isn't it so easy for our Senators and Representatives to tell us what's beat for us with health insurance. These elected representatives have the most incredible, solid gold health insurance courtesy of us tax payers. They could care less what we have. To add insult to injury, they are taking contributions and other perks from the insurance industry to make sure that they don't upset the status quo. I'd vomit but I can't get health insurance and couldn't afford medical care if I threw up an internal organ!!!
the competition in the health insurance market
there are private insurers all throughout europe and canada....you can get private insurance if you wish
i have shopped around...i cant afford shit...unless i want a deductable that makes health care moote
fuck you mitch....why dont you give up your government funded health care
The way the insurance company's share rises is by raising prices and cutting costs, not by delivering better healthcare.
And you certainly didn't see "mom and pop" healthcare insurance companies popping up everywhere to create competition under the Freeballing Free Market years of Bush. Employers basically have two or three choices, and their employees get one.
I'm in Australia now, thank god, and the State-run healthcare is better than I ever got in the States, where I paid over $800 a month and had to deal with frustrating red tape.
John, I couldn't agree with you more.
These shows have ALL become just a vehicle for disinformation, blatant misinformation and flat out lies. It's very distressing and, ultimately, extremely dangerous.
I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore. It's infuriating to watch.
I got there a couple of years ago John. I can't watch them anymore. Out here in Southwest Washington State we don't have Faux or NBC because when they changed to digital they didn't set the targeting correctly for the repeating towers, which are a necessary part of the mountainous signal bouncing system.
So it goes. I hope my neighbors get weened off of TV while the circle jerks at KGW and FOX and PBS station OPB sit in their stupidity and wonder why their numbers dropped.
I haven't watched Sunday morning propaganda for a long time. But CBS has a program on that has been there for years called "Sunday Morning" and this week I learned something I didn't know.
Dennis Hopper's father was a CIA Agent. Hence Dennis?
I am sure considering the company he keeps and the fact that he loads up on drugs.
A real man's man. Tall as a woman and doped up all his life. CBS thinks we should all look up to him. Even if they have to get him a ladder for us to do it.
America's greatest threats:
1940's - Nazi Germany and Japan
1950's - USSR and those Commies
1960's - Cold War and those Commies
1970's - More Cold War and those Damned Commies
1980's - Middle Eastern Terrorists
1990's - Bill Clinton's penis
2000's - Corporate Fascist MSM Propaganda
I totally agree, I just watched Meet the press , Face the nation and This week and for me the worst was ABC's this week with Mitt Romney. Every second sentence was a quick jab at the Democrats without any follow up. At one stage he was smiling so much that you got the feeling he does not believe half the BS that he came with himself. Face the nation was just as bad .
As already has been said, these Sunday morning talking shows are turning into press releases. It's an sad commentary when said that Wolf Blitzer asked more hard questions of Sarah Plain than any of the hosts did on ABC or CBS this week.
I'm surprised McLaughlin Group has lasted this long
Especially after the kid show Pinky and the Brain turned them into the McLoudness Group,
"Why am I talking so loud!"
It's the "Weekend at Bernie's" of the political shows.
"Somebody get some sunglasses for Buchanan!"
Re-doing his comb-over....
Reminds me of the scene of Bill Murray bowling in "Kingpin".
mcconnell is a lying sack of shit. He pulls shit out of his ass and throws it on the walls whenever he talks...hoping something sticks...and it always seems to.
This wet mop of a host just sits there and lets him get away with this propaganda and bull shit. No wonder we are a f*cking nation of morons. It's programs like this that keep us there.
We are so f*cking ignorant, we support tax relief for the richest people in the country when WE will NEVER see a penny of it...at our expense!! We will FIGHT "single payer health care" because these butt heads tell us it's going to poison our water. Meanwhile, WE have 46-60 MILLION of us that can't find or can't afford health care coverage in this country. ARE WE F*CKING STUPID, OR WHAT??????
The taxpayers had PLENTY of money to bail out supposed FREE MARKET insurance companies, like AIG, while its CEO dusted his hands of the matter and walked away with $300 million. That's a dollar for EVERY single American going to ONE man.
You can't tell me we can't do better.
AIG is refusing to pay the claims made for lost articles in the Hudson River crash landing.
Major jerks. They are experts at saying "No!"
Commentators who had nothing but praise for megadollar bailouts of Big Banking, Wall Street, and Big Auto suddenly are balking at a similar amount for health care for the citizens who pay for it all. The public gets all of the bills and none of the respect OR the services.
And, yes, I was one of those who lost a paid-off home as the result of an uninsured hospitalization. With no other real debts, I couldn't even file bankruptcy to protect my equity.
I lived in the hind end of a pickup truck for two years, albeit with a laptop and solar chargers. That's me--always a Foxworthy and never a fox.
Just the ones who vote republican, and bluedog. Unfortunately for you and me, that's a whole lotta people.
And their ain't a damn thing we can do about it either. No matter how badly my unemployed in-laws get screwed by the republicans (and my wife has nine brothers and sisters who are mostly unemployed now), they are gonna keep voting republican come hell or high water, because republicans are their friends.
No shit. The worse they get screwed by the repukes, the more loyal they become to the GOP. It is freaking astonishing to watch. It takes "thank you sir, may I have another," to a whole new level.
"He pulls shit out of his ass and throws it on the walls whenever he talks...hoping something sticks.."
The Sunday Morning Shit Fest.
Actually it's a pretty good analogy-these dogs are pretty much just rolling around in their own poo.
What?
But if you stop watching the Sunday morning shows, how will you know what pharmaceuticals to take?
Or which oil corporations are the most popular among marine wild life?
So many important commercials you will miss out on.
... the reason McConnell can get on TV and spread his BS with any "credence"? IT'S BECAUSE A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE REALLY STUPID.
If the idiots of American were smart enough to figure out their getting screwed we wouldn't have to listen to this kind of shit. The popularity of Ronald Reagan is a testimonial just how really stupid people are.
I'm sick of it too. I'm also sick of the same old faces on the shows. There are hundreds of congressmen and senators, not to mention a huge variety of professionals in the medical field. How about a thought from a doctor or nurse?
And I have PLENTY of thoughts!!!
(Although once I got started I'd probably just end of growling and snarling at them).
...a total waste of time.
I stopped watching the Sunday shows years ago. I despised Timmeh, can't stand Stephanopoulos, and Schieffer reminds me of Broder on TV.
I've never had cable or satellite and wouldn't watch Fox for any amount of money.
The brief clips I see on C&L are more than enough of the Sunday morning shows for me. Actually, they are more than more than enough, since I rarely watch them and more often than not even if I start watching a clip, I don't finish.
The guests are the same tired old, boring, meaningless, empty-headed jabberers. I couldn't begin to decide who nauseates me more Matalin or Carville -- but both are unwatchable. The "journalists" who appear are the same people whose "reporting" and opinions are available in numerous other venues across radio, television, print, and the Internet. Brooks appears in the Times, on NPR, and then on the Corporate News Hour. Who could possibly need that much David Brooks? Opposite Brooks on the CNH is Mark Shields, who is innocuous in the same way Colmes is innocuous, and like Colmes he has nothing original or interesting or inciteful to say.
Eventually, the Sunday morning shows may disappear, but would my inability to hear George Will speak the same crap he writes for the WaPo really hurt me or anyone in any meaningful way?
I used to scan the Internet synopses of the Sunday morning shows, but it was always the same thing -- more Republicans than Democrats saying the same old boring stuff to hosts who serve no greater function than knowing when to cut to commercial.
I'm not sure why anyone would watch these shows anymore. I suppose if you're a Winger, watching might make you think your party is still in charge (or damn close to retaking power), but for an independent or Lefty of what possible use could watching phony journalists and vapid talking heads -- from across the political spectrum, all the way from far right (but usually not really, really far right)to barely left of center, where the center has been moving rightward for decades?
A few hours spent watching the repetitious vacuum of Sunday morning political shows ought to be enough to convince any reasonably intelligent person that it would be more gratifying and edifying to expose oneself to the other vacuum -- space -- without the benefit of a suit.
Fareed Zacharia's informative program on CNN, and otherwise I don't bother anymore.
I will say this about the health care debate, it sure makes obvious the limitations of capitalism and so-called "free" markets. I've had a belly full of the greed monsters of the insurance companies. I was around 15 years ago, and I remember their crossed-fingers promises. I'm furious with the gobshite politicians who take their money and then say we can't have a public option because it would be too much for the poor, fragile insurance industry.
I fucking hate the fucking media, who haven't the wit to challenge the stupidity of the argument coming from the likes of ole Mitch. I wonder if any of them ever read comments on blog posts like this one, or some of the thousands on the health care threads at HuffPo. The blowback on bullshit is mighty.
Health care is a right, a basic human right, and if Washington screws this up, I think they're going to feel an incredible level of heat.
Are we to believe the medical bills that are 10% of income causes bankruptcies?
Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance.
How many of these people had a nice house, new car, but no disability insurance? How many had 8 credit cards like the national average? I suspect many of these people were tipped over the age by medical bills but they we already headed that way.
If you want 1950's healthy care cost, then be happy with 1950's technology as well. Everyone wants a stint, hip replacement, blood pressure meds, etc.. but thinks they should not have to save for it. Believe me, you will get sick., Start saving now. You may not be able to pay all of you medical believes but you keep your paid off house. If you are middle class and have not paid off your house in 15 years then you are not responsible person. (or bought too much house). You could save that extra money for the next 30 years to have excellent health care.
The real fear is that the same persons that regulated the credit default swaps will regulate health care.
a) "If you want 1950's healthy care cost, then be happy with 1950's technology as well."
Not true. Having State-run insurance doesn't necessarily mean technology has to suffer. Many cutting edge medical technologies and cures come out of countries other than the U.S. precisely BECAUSE they're supported by taxpayer money.
b) "Everyone wants a stint, hip replacement, blood pressure meds, etc.. but thinks they should not have to save for it."
You shouldn't have to save for it. Nobody knows what's going to happen to them. That's the point of insurance, not that you should pay money in and get shafted when something happens.
c) "The real fear is that the same persons that regulated the credit default swaps will regulate health care."
Chalk and cheese. This isn't about regulation--it's about funding. Somehow, we manage to fund the mightiest military in the world (among other things). Are there problems with regulation and oversight? Of course, there are. And there ALWAYS will be. That doesn't make the funding any less necessary.
Joemc, just how are Americans supposed to be able to afford to buy a home? Corporate America is paying poverty wages, and small business owners can't afford to pay good wages. Wall Street is driving, and encouraging the decline in wages, and the off shoring of jobs. The housing industry is building homes that only the wealthy can afford, sometimes even leveling homes that are affordable so they can build luxury homes in their places. The banks encourage this also. So your statement about paying off a home in 15 years sounds to me like a cruel joke that is not even remotely funny. There is at least a couple generations of workers trapped working jobs that pay poverty wages by no fault of their own. We show up to work on time, we are honest, and we care about our quality of work. We didn't ask to be born into a life such as this. We work to just barely survive, and truth be told some of us wish we had not been born at all in a greedy, and selfish world like this one. So please stop casting blame at the middle class, or the working poor. It's the greed of the banks, corporate America, Wall Street, and the wealthy that are the cause of this mess we call life in America.
Joemc, like all republicans just doesn't get it, and he never will. He is dense as lead and not very bright.
As you said, the middle class has been robbed - with 25% of the total wealth transferred to the richest 5% of the last 30 years. As long as these teabaggers are willing to defend the right if the Bushies and the rest of the conservative greedheads to rip us off, getting true positive change is going to be harder than it should logically be.
About 90% of what you wrote is pure bullshit. Wise up old man.
So solly, honey--I paid off that run down little house in 10 years as a hedge against real estate inflation and as an investment, and so I could maybe start a little business and make some real money instead of the pittance the male chauvinist pigs hand me on payday.
And you want us to save that money for the next thirty years. In the stock market or 401K's or IRA's, no doubt--the very same things which have dropped in value.
Pull your head out of your asshole and check your own responsibility rating.
and if they are not a "rationing board", they're are many people out there that would tell you otherwise.
I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore.
"I know they say that, Bob, but if the government is in the PACKAGE DELIVERY BUSINESS there won't be any other PACKAGE DELIVERERS, it's inevitable....oh, except for United Parcel Service."
I haven't watched the sunday shows since 2003.
I have watched small segments from time to time, but to watch the whole show is such a colossal waste of time and energy.
The same idiot pundits asking the same idiotic questions designed to deceive.
Over paid liars with no honesty, no dignity, no honor, no integrity, no intelligence, no idea that all but the 25% dullards know they are lying sacks of shit.
I would like to get all these liars knocked off the tube. we would be so much better off as a nation without these lying fools!
republicanism is a mental illness!
I would rather have the government between me and my doctor than the insurance company.
What no one points out, is as members of Congress, they have government insurance and a damn nice plan at that, why can't the rest of us join that one, afterall we are their employers.
I have been pondering this over the last few days. A couple of choice events have come to mind: #1, a quip I heard years ago on the Bob and Tom show about how iconic events, especially ones enshrined in film, are often faked for the cameras. One of the guys (I think it was Tom) started talking about how even in the early days of filmed news things like Lindbergh's landing in Paris was re-staged (there was hardly anyone present at the original). Basically, if you saw it on TV, it's fake he said.
And one of my favorite Electric Six lyrics: "If you work in television, you're a fucking liar . . . "
I came to the conclusion that the only way to fight this nonsense is to de-legitimize television as a source of anything but garish entertainment. To respond to anyone's assertion that they "saw" it on the news with "the TV is a bunch of lies." "Television is all phony." "TV News is staged propaganda and you can't believe a word of it."
We have youtube, the internet, texting, twittering masses to tell us what's really going on. We don't need a bunch of middle-aged to elderly white men to tell us what to think on Sunday mornings.
It would be great to have a real debate from all sides with real experts from all sides and then the public could actually become educated and make their own decisions.
Skip all the news anchors and politicians who frankly mostly know very little about healthcare.
I think Obama should just basically ignore the Republicans and the industry on this one and just blast through his own plan. Once you get a better public system in place there is no way the Republicans would ever be able to take it away. There is no way the Republicans could be viewed by voters that they are taking away people's healthcare. It would become a sacred cow like in all other countries.
else hear the same thing I heard over the weekend? Rush Limbaugh claimed that the reason health care is so high is because of people exercising, getting hurt doing it and always in the ER.
This from a well proportioned blimp.
"I know they say that, Bob," McConnell countered, "but if the government is in the insurance business there won't be any other insurers, it's inevitable."
Ah, Senator McTurtleface....The Government is already in the Insurance Business. Ever hear of Mediacare???? And by the way McTurtleface, private insurers have Senior plans in lieu of Medicare Part B. Ever heard of Senior Blue? Senior Choice? I am sure there are others as well. Stop your lying McTurtleface
How many BILLIONS have we spent bailing out insurance companies?
More than we spend on PUBLIC EDUCATION in a year.
We should have allowed them to fail and used the money to set up a GOVERNMENT OWNED AND RUN healthcare program.
The Republicans continually rail against "supporting failed programs" like public education and the post office. But they're 100% behind supporting failed companies. WHAT'S THE F@#$ING DIFFERENCE?
The difference is, given the right funding, government-run programs, like the post office and the public schools and the fire department, etc., etc., etc., have done a great job at providing basic services to all U.S. citizens over the years.
Imagine if we'd privatized all of those and left them to the whims of the market.
If education and safety and mail delivery are basic rights, why not health, the most important thing?
If private insurance companies can't compete in the open market with one govt sponsored plan then their plans must be crap. The govt isn't going to force anyone into their plan. I guess for all their protestations to the contrary ins co's don't really want a free market.
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