Like Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, we seemed so right, but little was I aware of how wrong it all was. Time changes things, changes people. That is why I am in the midst of a very emotional time between a man and his television set.
Flashback to 2004, the election that I dove into head first. I had just gotten hooked on "The West Wing" and craved political coverage around the clock. As my studious roommate that year will tell you, we didn't do sh*t that semester, which allowed me to get all the talking heads I wanted.
What I found was that CNN was good. It had Wolf Blitzer bringing the news and mediating discussions like some CGI-fueled robot. But it also had old, tired contributors like the annoying Tucker Carlson and the decrepit, borderline frightening Larry King. The panels offered very little in terms of smart discussion, and even less entertainment. Plus, I was for Bush, and they were a bunch of lefty's (more on my four-year journey from Bush to Obama another day).
Fox News was, well, it was Fox News. You went there to hear conservatives praise Bush and rip apart John Kerry. It's okay, I guess, but Jon Stewart did a much better job of that. Plus, Republican ideology to me is like a good scotch: one sip is delicious, comforting, and makes you feel better than everyone else; but drink too much and you're in your own world, hurting those around you, and reason and rational thought aren't even on the radar.
I landed firmly at MSNBC and couldn't be happier. It was anchored by a man who lives for politics and political theater: Chris Matthews. Everyday he brought energy and insight to the goings-ons. There was the new kid: a thin, spry Keith Olbermann, who delivered the news professionally with just enough smarmyness to keep it interesting. But the key to my love of '04 MSNBC was Joe Scarborough. He was a Bush guy, a conservative, but told it like it was. If Bush had a bad day or Kerry a good one, he'd say it. He still supported the Prez. and made no bones 'bout it, but you felt like his opinion was his, and not the talking points from the RNC (which, I'm told Sean Hannity gets streamed directly into his brain).
Anchoring it all, and cinching it for me, was that the NBC news team of Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, and the always insightful Tim Russert often popped in, giving a measure of careful pause and thought to the rambunctious talkfest of cable news.
Hence, MSNBC was my channel, through and through, and was the channel of choice at 1110 Rosemont Avenue for nearly all the 2004 election.
Fast forward to 2008. Now the steady rudder of Tim Russert is gone. Chris Matthews looks older, more tired, and not as easily excited as he once was. Olbermann is fatter, completely partisan, and a real dick: he's the liberal version of Bill O'Rielly.
MSNBC has thrown itself firmly in Obama's corner, and this seems to weigh heaviest on good ole' Joe Scarborough. Things reached their breaking point for Joe during the convention last week and he erupted into quite a rant about the Iraq War which prompted David Shuster (the little bitch) to butt in with his views and the whole thing became the ugliest incident on cable news since Jon Stewart laid the smackdown on Tucker, but not nearly as entertaining. Joe was out of line, but bias in either way has to be frustrating. News reports say that MSNBC is in a bit of turmoil and with Rachel Maddow about to get her own show, the whole network seems to be a hop, skip, and a jump away from making landing somewhere left of Karl Marx.
How fortunate is it, though, that just last week CNN HD was added to my cable package. With Wolf at the helm, Cooper getting down and dirty (while staying impeccably dressed) and a cast of moderately entertaining characters, it would seem the obvious choice for me this election year.
But, to be honest, its all so entertaining, I think I should give my place the Johnson Treatment:
Three TVs, all in a row. That guy didn't know how to extract an American military presence from a complex geo-political situation in Southeast Asia, but he sure knew how to kick back.
Sorry for the lengthy post, I thought we should all have a chance to look at something longer than Sarah Palin's resume this week.
Hey-oh!
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