Cable news: Who here still watches it?

[herding cats]

I stopped mostly awhile back. I'm just curious if I'm an outlier here?

44 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, I do regularly.
	13 (30%)
	Yes, I do but not as often.
	7 (16%)
	Yes when there's an evolving event taking place.
	1 (2%)
	Seldom, but still occasionally when I'm bored.
	0 (0%)
	I watch a few specific people, but don't watch as much as I used to.
	2 (5%)
	Never.
	18 (41%)
	Other.: explain, please.
	3 (7%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Cha]

1. I took your poll with

Pleasure.. Never.

Not since November 2002.. Midterms.

[herding cats]

3. Thank you, Cha!

You're wiser than I was. It took me many more years to finally put them completely to bed.

I'm a slow learner.

[Cha]

9. At least you're doing it..

I had a low threshold for being gaslighted right to my face.

Wanted to throw bricks at them.. the internet and Social media were brilliant inventions... that I discovered also in 2002.. July!

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Rarely or never; when I do it's BBC World News and not CNN/MSNBC (n/t)

[herding cats]

5. BBC always feels a bit different to me.

I don't watch it on. TV, but their reporting online seems decent to me.

[mwooldri]

15. BBC is subject to something like a "fairness doctrine".

As such it's fairly straight with the news. Though domestically in the US each side of the political aisle accuses the BBC of bias in favour of their political opponents.

[orleans]

4. other hardly ever

i don't get cable news but once in awhile i'll watch rachel on the computer

[herding cats]

6. Fair enough.

I've enjoyed a watching some of her segments myself online.

[Hortensis]

7. There's little cable news to watch. BBC is most available to us.

CNN and MSNBC are overwhelmingly political entertainment/discussion.

CNN does provide some news mainly related to politically related events, plus mass shootings, airliner crashes, big military events. But one comparison with a major newspaper covering national and international news will show that by far most news is not covered.

[herding cats]

8. You are preaching to my choir.

I don't need someone to tell me what I should be thinking. I have my own thoughts. I follow BBC online, not on TV, but I definitely agree.

[Hortensis]

10. :) Oh, and they do. I used to watch a lot when younger before

I realized how warping and inimical to understanding that was. And at that we'd always taken a major newspaper, but that didn't provide complete immunity when I was watching so much.

Speaking of news, reading the paper at breakfast each morning, competing for room on the table, trading sections and reading things to each other, was the best. It was an important part of our day in a way that having a world of information on our devices any time of the day isn't. And it could be finished.

[True Blue American]

14. I tried the digital version after

Wet news papers thrown every where but sadly found outside of local it was yesterdays news.

Spectrum has a great local station based on your state. That is how I get the latest crooked dealings of Mike DeWine and his statehouse gang as Thomas Suddes calls them. They are now trying to by pass the State Supreme Court who ruled against them 3 times on their badly gerrymandered map. Even with his Son sitting on the Court. They are now trying to slip past to the Supreme Court where they know the Federalist Society will rule for them.

It is sickening what Republicans have done to this state.

[Hortensis]

24. Yes, the paper's yesterday's news, but that was "the news" then. :)

Everywhere we see today's Republicans at work it's sickening. But they've actually seemingly been making inroads among voters in many places, rather than shocking and repelling. The benefits to the far right from the 2008 great recession should have passed, but they've done a great job of keeping the crisis happening.

Elections will indicate whether awareness of how dangerous they've become is kicking in because media coverage isn't.

[True Blue American]

29. I loved the newspaper.

We had 2 once upon a time. Morning and evening. Both boys made their spending money delivering. I delivered quite a few.

But on the digital I found myself not reading it. I guess like any addiction it took a long time!

I actually have the Kennedy books both papers published by both Dayton Daily and Morning Journal Herald. They merged.and was an addicted Letters To The Editor writer. I do miss that!

[Hortensis]

30. Lol. My husband wouldn't go for two, and just one was a

lot of newsprint. I once covered a new neighbor's back yard to smother years of weeds with just a few weeks' supply, then she rototilled them in with manure and we did it again.

We still take the LA Times, as well as others, though we moved out of CA 20 (yikes) years ago. Digital, though. I read the digital format, but my husband insists on reading the much less functional enewspaper version because it looks like the print paper "photographed."

[True Blue American]

32. Newspapers to kill weeds?

My Son is going to hear this. He thinks he is an old farmer with ideas from me..

I had a huge garden, rototilled, then covered with black plastic, that was my weed killer! Cut a hole, mix in bagged cow manure and stand back, no weeds, hold moisture. Last time I ended up with 27 tomato plants, just kept finding new ones.

The next year I planted 3 in the flower bed.

[AngryOldDem]

31. I wish I had the BBC.

With my cable company, it’s not part of the basic service, and I really can’t justify taking a hit on an already outrageous cable bill.

[NewHendoLib]

11. I'm now a never. Turned it off in 2010.

[True Blue American]

12. I had to turn it off Trump, war,

Complaints about everything Biden does.

There are a few good ones left, Jon Avlon, CNN, Ali Velshi, a man I long respected, but they are wearing him thin on MSNBC. He has to quote the drivel of all the shows he fills in.

Jim DeMint needs to be on week days.

The rest is all repeated gossip. Scarborough actuall reads the papers, promoting his own columns. Mika does the same with her projects.

[Sherman A1]

13. I gave up on drama infotainment TV long ago.

I just cringe when I see a thread here citing CNN, MSNBC as a source as I see neither as reliable.

[mwooldri]

16. I listen, rather than watch.

Viewing a TV screen while driving isn't highly recommended, especially as the vehicle isn't self driving.

[True Blue American]

34. Well, yeah, that would be a problem.:)

Self driving have a way of going through stop signs. I do love the cameras though.

[pstokely]

17. does anyone under 50?

look at their advertisers, especially Faux

[Polybius]

23. I do and I'm under 50

I enjoy CNN & MSNBC.

[Kaleva]

18. About 3%-4% of the adult population watches cable news

That's Fox, CNN, MSNBC and a few others combined

People who watch cable news are the outliers.

As for me, I'll occasionally watch segments of CBS News, ABC News and NBC News that I can access via the Internet that I get by cable.

[hunter]

28. My adult children and their cousins pay no attention at all to traditional television and radio.

They stream everything. I think they are only vaguely aware that broadcast and cable television exist. That's old people stuff.

[True Blue American]

35. My kids tell us

To turn it off, but they seem to keep up. Problem is a lot of right wing crap keeps creeping in with what they know.

[hlthe2b]

19. Complicated. I don't have cable access to MSNBC/CNN, but I do listen to TRMS, Nicolle Wallace &

Last edited Tue Feb 22, 2022, 10:49 AM - Edit history (1)

Lawrence O'Donnell podcasts fairly regularly or stream live on TuneIn. Occasionally, when something is breaking, I will stream segments of MSNBC or CNN live on my laptop via one of the sources frequently mentioned on DU (unstable, but in a pinch, they work). I tend to do the latter more with BBC--especially in recent years.

But, I'm still a big newspaper reader (online) and regularly subscribe/read WAPO, Denver Post (my local) and I pick from among some of the other leading national (NYT, LAT, Boston Globe, etc) and international newspapers to read frequently. I'm still a fan of the Guardian and tend to both donate to and read their site regularly.

Obviously, I welcome news sources posted on DU. When I am in a hurry I do the latter and at least a few times a week I will record/watch a network newscast along with my local news--usually but not always ABC or NBC.

I'm a news junkie but a busy one. I don't think cable news is the sole problem (excluding Fox, of course). I think the problem is for those who don't get a WIDE source of news or for those relying on social media. The internet is a godsend in that respect because as one who has worked internationally, I've always wanted far more than national viewpoints and focus. I frequently used to fall asleep to BBC because having worked in non-English speaking countries, that was often my reassuring lull to sleep in those days.

So...

[Celerity]

21. You do not need cable access, just use a free stream online.

That is how I watch MSNBC and (far less) CNN here in Sweden.

Cheers

[EYESORE 9001]

20. Never

I have even given up watching network news. I’ll watch an interesting clip occasionally, but I’ll never purposely watch it.

[2naSalit]

22. Produced on cable, seen on livestream.

[Sympthsical]

25. Cable news is mainly an older viewer thing

The median age for CNN is 64. Fox is 68.

A lot of it is cord cutting. The younger the person, the less likely they even have cable. I haven't had it in years, and I do not miss it.

We do, however, have several billion streaming services for some reason.

[Paladin]

26. I've cut way back on MSNBC and CNN.

I don't need that sort of non-stop depressing news in my life, at the moment.

[hunter]

27. Quit television news and opinion shortly after 9/11/2001.

Quit cable / satellite / broadcast television entirely more than ten years ago. (Hooray, no more commercials!)

My wife has never watched television news.

When I was a kid my dad would get home from work, turn on the local CBS station, and pop open a beer to watch the local news and then the evening news with Walter Cronkite. Maybe that's why I started watching television news.

Looking back, I didn't realize how acutely concerned my parents were that my brothers and I might get drafted, or have to resist the draft. We were raised to be conscientious objectors. My dad was a Radar O'Reilly medical clerk during the Korean war and it was just the luck of the draw he was never sent there.

My dad still watches a lot of news, mostly the local stations and MSNBC. He reads a lot of news as well. We grew up with daily newspapers in our house. It was just natural to read the paper in the morning.

[BannonsLiver]

33. American cable news is completely useless

When this shit really gets going I’ll be using my VPN to watch the BBC. American cable news is completely worthless. It’s just panel discussions and hot take opinions. There’s no actual news being disseminated whatsoever.

[True Blue American]

36. My son calls it," 4 people sitting around

Giving their opinions. Scarborough has degenerated to reading the news and pushing his own by line.

[SoonerPride]

37. I used to be an MSNBC and CNN junkie until 2016

Then I just couldn't watch any of it.

I avoided news almost completely for the entire trump fiasco for my own mental well being.

I only watch it occasionally now, mainly if there is a breaking news story of consequence.

But I no longer watch hours and hours of cable anything.

I spend most of my free time reading and listening to vinyl LPs.

[GoodRaisin]

38. I've pretty much given it up.

It’s boring, redundant, and frankly, full of spin and outright lies that do nothing but piss me off. I used to turn it on in the background but it just became too annoying.