UP with Chris Hayes - ctrl-click image here to see a 9 minute and 14 second opinion piece conducted by Chris on Solyndra entitled - Why the Solyndra failure isn’t a “scandal”. Image Credit: thepoliticalcarnival.netHere, at MAXINE, we are prone to fall asleep with the TV on. It is a habit groomed from a life with frequent travel and a desire to keep up with information that might be developing during the night ... if we happen to wake up. In the early ninties we had live reports from Gulf War I on CNN. The growth of Cable TV and Gulf War II just cemented this habit not to mention that once this process was embraced, every hotel room around the world was comfortable with the same type of background noise as a home bedroom no matter the outside ambient difference.
This morning, however, was a little different - Oh, to be rudely woken up to the sound of the voice of new TV opinion show host, Chris Hayes - a self-described Communitarian & Egalitarian ... read this as 60's radical socialist, as he puts forward his unchallenged logic followed by a cast of talking-heads that would make an echo chamber shatter was too much for a half-awake, personal-freedom focused 4:30am PT brain could take.
This penchant for some Cable TV "News" stations to construct a monolith of liberal talk shows with hosts who have a progressive agenda (examples - CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and Fareed Zakaria GPS - Global Public Square and author of "The Post-American World", MSNBC's Morning Joe ... that's pretty much it for this outlet) is not new, but most, at least try to bring a shadow of an alternative balance of opinion with the dais that joins the host in a discussion ... even if it is to only give another point of view the grace of being mentioned. Do not expect this on "UP, with Chris Hayes".
This excerpted and edited from The Huffington Post -
Chris Hayes, the Washington editor for "The Nation" and a longtime contributor to MSNBC, is getting a weekend morning show. Hayes made the news official on Twitter on Monday, and MSNBC released its official announcement shortly after.
The show starts on September 17. It will air on Saturdays from 7-9 AM and on Sundays from 8-10 AM. Alex Witt, MSNBC's regular weekend anchor, will see her show pushed back on both days. The launch of the show marks another attempt by MSNBC to successfully program weekends—something it has not been known for in the past.
[Reference Here]
The round table of talking-heads included:
Reihan Salam, Columnist - The Daily.com / National Review Online - Salam is an unorthodox conservative. He has written that he intends to "pump ideas into the bloodstream" of American conservatism." ... read this as a person who has very little problem with a big, bigger, biggest government approach and will consider looking into, and discussing changes in the Constitution. He advocates policies that strengthen traditional family structure but has supported gay marriage for years.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University International Affaires Professor - Former Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State in the Obama Administration from 2009-2011 (more on her POV below having to do with the petition by the Palestine Authority to become a recognized state by the United Nations).
Liliana Segura, Columnist - The Nation - this, from the About on her blog - I'm an independent journalist and editor with a focus on social justice, prisons & harsh sentencing.
Ezra Klien, Columinst - The Washington Post - In February 2007 Klein created a Google Groups forum called "JournoList" for discussing politics and the news media. The forum's membership was controlled by Klein and limited to "several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics."Posts within JournoList were intended only to be made and read by its members. Klein defended the forum saying that it "[ensures] that folks feel safe giving off-the-cuff analysis and instant reactions". JournoList member, and Time magazine columnist, Joe Klein added that the off-the-record nature of the forum was necessary because “candor is essential and can only be guaranteed by keeping these conversations private”.
Topics Covered:
Topic - The Politics Of Tax Raises - about 3 segments - Not one comment about the possibility that the size and scope of Federal Government ... ANY government ... might be too large and out of control on how it manages its charter and the spending of tax monies collected.
Topic - Killed By The State - at least 2 segments - A pure anti-death penalty discussion that surrounded the execution of Troy Davis. They lamented that this execution may not be a game-changer for the death penalty but they wanted it to become part of a growing conversation about ensuring that innocent people aren't killed or die in prison. A good question is - Why have a justice system with 12 jurors and several automatic judicial reviews and retrials before a sentence is carried out if there is no final justice ... the justice of a sentence carried out?
Topic - GOP 2012 - 1 segment focused on Perry's statement on immigration and heart. Actual citizenship of the United States did not seem to have any weight in this conversation at all. Further, it was stated and the view was shared by all sitting around the table that they were surprised that some in the audience of Conservatives would actually BOO soldiers in the military when some in the crowd gave a less than accepting response to a YouTube question about upholding the elimination of Don't Ask Don't Tell if they became President. None of these folks ever came to the conclusion that the Conservatives in the audience were booing the policy ... not the solider.
Topic - The State Of Palestine - Change in contributors - Anne-Marie Slaughter plus via remote, Diana Buttu The Dubai Initiative, Harvard University. Highlight - the former Obama State Department official, Slaughter, stated that the Palestine leadership had every right to ask the UN for a ruling on a declaration of Statehood / the Obama Administration has not been able to bring the parties to the table - the UN should not take the petition for a vote but use it to get the parties back to the negotiation table. - 1 segment
Topic - Israel & The GOP ... Word Cloud which had Israel as the largest word - derided as identity politics and as the only international relations topic covered in the debate, Reihan brings on the historic point of the previous Republican debates on the Panama Canal during the end of the Carter era ... Slaughter smiles with glee at the comparison and dilution of the topic through the linkage. - 1 segment
Topic - Update (a short segment on corrections in statements made on a previous show - this probably could at least be an hour of a show in itself if they actually understood what the definition of counterpoint was).
Topic - "Now We Know", subtitle - What We Do Know Now We Didn't Know A Week Ago - Highlights snark points about anything non-liberal like the Koch Brothers new increased ranking in the list of America's richest people ... right, no mention of the fact that George Soros also had an increase in ranking and broke into the top 10 for the first time since he has been on this list. Coming in at No. 7, Soros had a fortune of $22 billion after adding $7.8 billion to his net worth thanks to investments in gold and related securities as well as equities. Soros switched to cash in the spring, allowing him to preserve his gains and miss market turmoil caused by the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
END ... thank, God.
One more note in fairness - Fox News has a round table hour that replaced Glenn Beck called "The Five". This show has at least one committed Democrat liberal on the dais at all times.
Also - do not confuse political opinion shows that are headed by a single personality like Glenn Beck (who now has moved on from Fox News to internet subscription streaming with GBTV.com), Chris Matthews, Rachael Maddow, Bill O'Reilley, Sean Hannity, Larry O'Donnell, and the like because these are pure personality driven, subject exploration shows with some of these programs making it a point to interview people from all different points of view regardless of the POV of the personality.
Question: Why was the bedroom TV on MSNBC (BSLSD - self-explanatory) at all?
Answer: Must have rolled over on the remote and reset the channel.
(Article first published as MSNBC's Doubling Down - Up With Chris Hayes, Weekends at Technorati)
