While it seems to be really easy to get fired from MSNBC (Sorry Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir) it doesn’t seem to be too tough to GET a show. This 12 year old kid Steve Kornacki got the show Up when the old host Chris Hayes (who is 14) moved to 8pm to host All In. And when there are only a few hundred thousand people watching something (because let’s face it, cable news is really only for people who want to fight on the Internet) I guess you can take a few risks. Not “Let’s say people should poop on Sarah Palin” style risks, but some risks.
So for reals I like that Up show because if the topic is good then the conversation goes longer and makes more sense than the usual way political yak goes:
Person A (doesnt matter liberal or conservative): Something something
Person B: Something directly refuting that
Person A: Something different
In that format nothing is resolved, nothing gets talked all the way through. They don’t even get to the whole “agree to disagree” stage. Just ignorant. And when there isn’t anyone on the other side of the political spectrum it’s worse. It is just a bunch of stupid back slapping. Which is why Up is better. They talk things through and sometimes even come to conclusions. Also, it has a game show!
The guy has a definite love for game shows and it comes out in his dumb news one. The clip below (which has Ana Marie Cox my true love forever in it) shows that originally you had to wait for the whole question until you could buzz in which is stupid. How are psychics supposed to win with a dumb rule like that. Luckily they changed it. And the contestants are pretty good-natured when they get stuff wrong.
But the part that worries me is that people get a LOT of stuff wrong. The questions are always about things that happened that week but these “news people” can’t answer them? Isn’t that their job? It’s one thing to have a bunch of random jerks trying to answer things, but if your whole career is based on sitting in front of a picture of fake books and talking about whatever fart-in-the-wind political thing came up that day you should be on top of things a little better.
Imagine if they did the same thing for doctors and asked them medical questions and they didn’t know. How would you feel then?
I’m trying to understand this concept of “shows” on “cable.”
Hippie
Host: Where exactly is the spleen in the body?
Doctor A: It’s behind the kneecap.
Doctor B: Like hell, it’s under the bottom lip.
Doctor C: Let’s all agree to disagree here, folks. It’s under the arm, and here are the pictures to prove it.
I’ll buy that show in a heartbeat.