the end of Sunday morning civility

Political interviews have changed.  I've been watching them since I returned to Chicago in 1987.  They used to be a lot better.  They didn't used to have as many guests, it used to be more pundits pontificating, but they weren't nearly as partisan as they are these days.  The leftist pundits were cynical about the dems and the rightists were cynical about the reps.  The political guests were obfuscators, they had a message to deliver and were inclined to avoid any question that wasn't part of their message.  There was no question they couldn't turn back to their talking points, though sometimes a pundit could penetrate the shell and piece out a bit of information.  The whole process was boring, but civil.

Then further down the dial the Foxies appeared.  I remember at first us liberals and centrists were amazed at how openly biased they were.  I remember we used to be shocked by Russ Limbaugh.  How cute we were back then.  Anymore it's just the way it is.  Let me say there was something classically liberal about the talk shows of yore.  If you said you believed something you were expected to back it up with reasons, and sometimes to back up those reasons.  When speaking from your point of view you would mention the reasons some people wouldn't like that point of view.  It was the lost art of discussion.

I was never a fan but I think the Donahue show was thought of as mildly intelligent, but then along came Jerry Springer and chair tossing, and who wanted to watch Phil anymore?  The same with civilization and Foxies.  At some point the pols who had been on Fox and gotten used to that shouting over their opponent took it to the civilized shows, and their mild-mannered opponents had to shout back in self-defense.  And then the thoughtful pundits lost out to the one-note partisans, and the Sunday morning talk shows have become slugfests.

And the Trumpists are even worse, they start hurling insults before they even get asked a question.  I saw this Miller guy get kicked off that CNN show, and I felt like standing and applauding.  Eventually I read that CNN had to get their security to get him out of the building, and that the Trumpists were calling that fake news.


I think you'll find that most highly successful people do not come from hardship backgrounds, you have to get into the right schools and have the right connections.  I think one reason Old Dog might be of this opinion is that if a successful person comes from a lowly background the story is blared to the world, and those who came from a pretty good background tend to downgrade it when they tell their stories.  I'm guess I'm thinking of show biz types here, but who wants to hear the story of some CEO, but every time they are interviewed it is a long litany of the hardship they (bravely) endured on the road to stardom.