Talkin' like they know update: Jon Stewart once again hits the nail on the head

I watch the Daily Show pretty much every night that I have available.  After the primaries in Arizona and Michigan this past Tuesday, Jon Stewart had an absolutely spot on take on the cable news coverage.  I watched CNN for as long as I could take and then I just had to stop.  I watch because  I'm a political junkie.  However, on this night, they just killed time with one inane news shtick after another.

One of my new songs, "Talking Like You Know" from my upcoming album "Mommy, What's A Depression?" was actually inspired by this type of cable news shenanigans.  In the above instance, CNN kept killing time with various round table discussions and moving from a sophisticated computer board to "the cube" when all they essentially were saying was…we don't know exactly how the Michigan race is going to turn out.  But they had to make it seem like they knew something insightful; they needed to fill airspace.  I wrote the song this past summer during the debt ceiling fight because it felt like the pundits, especially those on networks that have an obvious political agenda, were talking about matters that had little to no relevance to my life or the lives of anyone else around me; more importantly, they acted like they knew EVERYTHING  about whatever subject they were speaking on and could not possibly be wrong in their opinions.  

During the debt ceiling fiasco, no one was talking about the home mortgage crisis even as I was fighting to refinance my underwater mortgage.  No one was talking about jobs, as one friend after another lost theirs or were holding on to the one they had by a thin thread.  All the press was talking about was a manufactured crisis and the merits of Obama's "leading from behind" strategy in Libya. "Experts" were filling in the blanks, many times incorrectly.  The pundits and "experts" chosen by Fox and MSNBC seemed to be on just to elucidate the party line.  I find this immensely frustrating when all I want is to understand the news of the day from people who study it.  I don't just want editorial and the networks mentioned often appear to be little more than giant Op-ed pages.  

Then there is 24 hour-a-day conservative radio.  All they speak about is politics from their perspective.  There is no news, just editorialized commentary.  And what did Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck do in their lives before radio that makes their opinion any more worthy than anyone else? Did they have a position in Government or business or foreign service that gives them a fuller knowledge of the issues more so than a guy off the street who reads a lot?  It's political and economic gossip run amok.  I might as well watch the Braxtons.