Circa 18 months ago:
I was at a loss. Sometimes I watch morning news coverage. But it was tough to find one that wasn't biased to the right. I wanted something ranging from left to at least center-left.
Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax were still bleating pro-trump and hard-right talking points. And my go-to MSNBC put Joe Scarbrough on in the mornings. It's true that he had grown very anti-Trump, but he would still be very conservative on almost all other issues. TYT was good, but they were not live - at least in the mornings.
The main network morning shows, like the Today Show and Good Morning America, were more fluff than stuff. I was likelier to see celebrity news interviews and recipes than hard news.
I had long since given up on CNN. It wasn't terrible, but it focused on giving equal time to opinions that did not deserve equal time (facts given equal time with fantasy). They also ran a lot of fluff shows about cooking or whatever. Much of their news was blanded, making them a good choice for airports or medical offices.
Another MSNBC* host that I can't stomach is Chuck Todd. He pretends he's neutral, but he often rehashes Republican talking points. His show was at 1 PM.
I complained to my sister, and she told me about CNN's Brianna Keilar, who was on opposite Chuck Todd. She seemed much more acceptable to me. No, she wasn't a liberal flamer. But she seemed to value truth and facts.
When she moved to CNN's morning show, I was happy! I had my mornings back.**
Recently, all that has changed.
A few months ago was the startling news that Time Warner had been bought by the Discovery Channel people. I mean, what the hay? Is Discovery bigger than the super mega-corporation Time Warner (previously owned by the giant AT&T)? That made no sense. Naked and Afraid is bigger than Game of Thrones? Who knew?
Worse news related to this followed. Turns out the major investor in Discovery is a billionaire, one who is a Trump donor and supporter.
It turned ugly after that. One of their most liberal hosts, Brian Stetler of Reliable Sources, was pushed out. His crime? Indicating that "I really hope we don't both sides democracy" Correspondent John Harwood son followed, for the sin of calling Trump "a demagogue" And the new head of CNN went to Republican legislators and basically said, "What can we do to make you happy?"
Others like Anderson Cooper, Jim Acosta, and Don Lemon live on borrowed time. It depends on how well they can kowtow to their new overlords. And I am afraid Brianna Keilar is already gone, moaning about Biden's speech being too nasty to PEOPLE WHO WANT TO END DEMOCRACY.
Biden was wrong for calling them semi-fascists. They're not. The MAGA Trumpies are full-blown FASCISTS. There is nothing semi about them, They are ALL IN.
So, I have to abandon my flirtation with CNN. Do we really need yet another far-right-wing news network?
But it doesn't matter what the American people want.
It only matters what billionaires can buy.
* I didn't want to interrupt my post's main flow, but I know that MSNBC has its own problems. It is owned by COMCAST, which has its own right-wing leanings. At this point, however, the liberal hosts are what's getting them the ratings and money, and they have been able to push back on being subsumed. MSNBC isn't good all the time, but it's good most of the time.
**I need to note that I only see about 15 to 20 minutes of morning coverage daily. Sometimes it's zero. Sometimes it's more if there is a major news story.
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