MSNBC: I Kid Because I Care

As much shit as I give MSNBC, I actually do like the news on the channel. I routinely watch Countdown and, when awake, Morning Joe. The unreasonably blasé manner of the anchors at pretty much every time except prime time is appreciated by this guy. They'll hate me for saying this, but most of the daytime anchors are very attractive. And, to their appeals that they are good journalists, they are for the most part.

I don't think that all of them are very good. I'm not convinced that Contessa Brewer is a good journalist. She's a good news reader. She's hot. She has a good control of the desk, but her interviews are lacking in my opinion. Chris Jansing is tenacious, but interjects a little too much personal opinion into her reports. I'm personally into Monica Novotny and Mika Brzezinski since both of them know what they are talking about when on the line. They both ask good questions and understand the dispassionate nature of being a journalist. Also, while I'm glad that Norah O's got twins now, but she needs to come back to the desk. I'm missing her daytime presence and general cantankerousness greatly. O'Donnell played fast and loose with the facts sometimes, but it was OK because it always made watching her hour of programming more interesting. And I also know to not really trust television news. It's a bad habit I developed around the 2000 election. I haven't been able to shake it since.

Anyway, with this ode, I'm ending today. Let's not get it confused, CNN is the better news channel, but there is a certain charm in watching MSNBC. And, MSNBC usually shows a car chase during the day and I do like car chases. MSNBC also has very solid political coverage compared with CNN. Since it's cable news, I won't compare it with the bosses of news programs: NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and 60 Minutes. Watching MSNBC is like reading the tabloid paper for the gossip and other stories. You get the real news from other sources, but gaps in knowledge are filled by the tabloid. MSNBC fills the gaps.