Rosie v. Imus

[Haezed]

And Rosie had a couple of great reasons for being fired, not the least of which was spouting 9/11 nutcase conspiracy theories.

 

What talking head doesn't?

 

What talking head doesn't spout 9/11 nutcase conspiracy theories? About all of them except Rosie.

[Sisyphus]

Limbaugh is full of wacky conspiracy theories. Broadcasters hire them because they're crazy. It's called ratings!

[ParanoiA]

Limbaugh is full of wacky conspiracy theories. Broadcasters hire them because they're crazy. It's called ratings!

 

Your partisan stripes are glowing in this statement. What is the problem with talk radio? It's quite focused on substative argument there. Moreso than any other media outlet other than perhaps these forums. I see why talk radio guys laugh at the left so much for the ineptitude to launch a successful liberal radio show without the government's help. Your statement is indicitive of the smug disregard for a platform the left simply doesn't own, therefore despises.

 

Do you honestly believe your "corporate news" is better? The basic equivalent of Wal-Mart doing news coverage. It's a billion dollar business that also depends on ratings and exploits people's weaknesses and tragedies, under the prop of journalism. That's why they had a cute little thumbnail of an explosion with fire and debris in the lower right hand corner of the TV screen within minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing - and a caption "Terror in the Heartland".

 

Yeah, Rush is so wacky...

[Sisyphus]

Actually, I was lumping television together with radio. I thought that would be clear from the word "broadcasters." Journalistic integrity doesn't win viewers/listeners. What they want are colorful personalities that will say lots of outrageous things. That's why it's "commentary" and "opinion" rather than, you know, "news." If somebody like Rush was held to factual standards of legitimate journalism, he would be either a) boring, or b) fired a long time ago. Case in point, the ratings for The View went up once Rosie starting spouting conspiracies.

[ParanoiA]

Actually, I was lumping television together with radio. I thought that would be clear from the word "broadcasters."

 

You'd think. But it blew right by me. I had inferred radio broadcasters, sorry. And I agree with the rest too.

[Haezed]

Limbaugh is full of wacky conspiracy theories. Broadcasters hire them because they're crazy. It's called ratings!

 

 

All talking heads villify the opposition but a 9/11 conspiracy theory is in a class by itself. It feeds into a common perception held in many countries and I do question the patriotism or intelligence of anyone who spouts this drivil without first looking at the evidence.

[Haezed]

Case in point, the ratings for The View went up once Rosie starting spouting conspiracies.

 

Temporarily.

[john5746]

All talking heads villify the opposition but a 9/11 conspiracy theory is in a class by itself. It feeds into a common perception held in many countries and I do question the patriotism or intelligence of anyone who spouts this drivil without first looking at the evidence.

 

Yeah, Rush is a political professional with a staff, etc. Rosie is a comedian/actress/??, with far left political views. When she spouts that stuff, she is serious, so I am not excusing it, just that she is far more likely to say something out of ignorance.

 

When Rush starts talking out of the realm of politics, such as global warming, he can sound just as ignorant, but that isn't taboo.

[Sisyphus]

Temporarily.

 

Well yeah, because she's gone now. But is there anything to suggest it would be harmful in the long run? Has Anne Coulter's career been harmed by saying ignorant and even deliberately provocative things? No. That IS her career, and she's gotten quite wealthy doing it. This is just free speech and the free market at work. Why do I know who Paris Hilton is? Why does Donald Trump have a TV show? Why is professional wrestling a thriving industry? Why was The 300 so successful? Because dumb, offensive, and pushy gets attention, that's why, and attention sells products.

[Haezed]

Well yeah, because she's gone now. But is there anything to suggest it would be harmful in the long run? Has Anne Coulter's career been harmed by saying ignorant and even deliberately provocative things? No. That IS her career, and she's gotten quite wealthy doing it. This is just free speech and the free market at work. Why do I know who Paris Hilton is? Why does Donald Trump have a TV show? Why is professional wrestling a thriving industry? Why was The 300 so successful? Because dumb, offensive, and pushy gets attention, that's why, and attention sells products.

 

I was so disappointed in The 300. That could have been a great movie if they had given it a treatment like Saving Private Ryan, Letters from Iwo Jimo, Apollo 13 and other historically based shows which attempt to be truthful to the gist of the subject matter.

 

In any event, I would think 9/11 conspiracy theories would be particularly taboo in a science board about politics. Not only was she harming America by spreading such lies (which can then be spread throughout the mid-east) but she is an idiot because she thinks she's a scientist when she is not.

 

She's gone from The View but she'll be back. It's become taboo to question patriotism but I do question hers when she spreads such a harmful lie that can be picked up elsewhere.

[Haezed]

Well yeah, because she's gone now. But is there anything to suggest it would be harmful in the long run? Has Anne Coulter's career been harmed by saying ignorant and even deliberately provocative things? No. That IS her career, and she's gotten quite wealthy doing it. This is just free speech and the free market at work. Why do I know who Paris Hilton is? Why does Donald Trump have a TV show? Why is professional wrestling a thriving industry? Why was The 300 so successful? Because dumb, offensive, and pushy gets attention, that's why, and attention sells products.

 

 

It is not simply ignorances that makes her accuse the United States government of killing thousands, reshaping the skyline of its major cities and almost taking out the US capital. We are talking about a certain mindset which is dangerous and should be condemned, not censored, when encountered.

[Pangloss]

The problem with Rosie wasn't her expression of opinion but the venue in which it was being expressed. The horribly misnamed "The View" is a coffee and donuts show usually filled with cooking and gardening tips and celebrities on movie publicity tours. Airing her wacky conspiracy theories without balance lended them an inappropriate level of credibility.

 

She's more than welcome to start her own show on Air America, which is exactly where that sort of nonsense belongs. Heck I'd probably even tune in for entertainment purposes.

[Haezed]

Watching this I finally felt a sense of closure.

[Pangloss]

I read somewhere yesterday that Imus is now suing is former employer, saying that he was doing exactly what they employed him to -- be controversial.

 

Doesn't that constitute a retraction of his apology?

[theCPE]

Ever since bill maher said that our atmosphere was down to 9% oxygen during the "earth to america" propoganda show a year or so back, I have had little respect for his blatant mistruths and pathetic attempts at political humor.

[ecoli]

I read somewhere yesterday that Imus is now suing is former employer, saying that he was doing exactly what they employed him to -- be controversial.

 

Doesn't that constitute a retraction of his apology?

 

I think he's suing for the rest of the money his contract owed him... and I guess the rest depends on what his contract actually says.