MSNBC Boycott: Day 1

March 24, 2008

I have been watching MSNBC for about four years now.  I started watching Olbermann, and because I liked him so much, I also jumped aboard for the rest of the shows (except for Tucker, I never could stomach his bimbocity).

I have regularly TIVO'd Morning Joe (Imus, before that), Tweety and Countdown.  

Tweety is all over the board.   He is so inconsistent, that you never know what he will say.  That was always part of the fun... like the time he had a "thrill running up his leg" or whatever the hell it was he said.

But Pat Buchanan's comments in his blogosphere diatribe "A Brief for Whitey", were so outrageous, so vile and racist that I vowed never to watch the network again until he's gone.

Morning -- Day One

I actually slept in!  No Joe TIVO'd -- no reason to get up.  Seems I'm going to be getting off to a great start today, especialy since Joe seems to be able to elevate my blood pressure lately.

The first thing that comes to mind is that in a general sense I am watching way too much cable television news. This strike could only be good for me.

8:15 a.m. MST - Time to fire up the lap top and go to Daily Kos.  There's a diary that says Buchanan hosted the show for Joe this morning. Thank God I didn't tune in!  I already feel rewarded.

8:30 a.m. MST - I decide to listen Lionel on Air America.  Wow, they even have video -- who knew?  Lionel is playing clips of Lindsay Graham and Karl Rove from MTP.  Great fun, really! I should have done this sooner.

9:00 a.m. MST - Time to start working -- I work from home, and I should have a productive day since I got a full 8 hours of sleep and didn't poison myself via Buchanan.

I just noticed that my home page is MSNBC.com.  Geez, I have really been loyal to them.  Guess I'll try Google News for now.

2:30 p.m. MST:  My work day is done... CNN is my new network... let's see what Wolf is kickin' out.  Oh Christ!  It's Carville... unrepentant and arrogant -- and Wolf is giving him a pass -- looks like a friggin' Katie Couric interview.  Sympathetic, moronic.  Bastards!  Clinton News Network indeed!  

Oh good, now it's Gary Hart.  Wolf gets tough!  Who knew?  Reminds me of Obama's interview with Major Garrett.  Geez, Wolf, is this where you ask the judge for permission to treat the interviewee as a hostile witness?

3:30 p.m. MST:  OK, screw it.  I have to see what Tweety says about all of this.   Just a little peak won't hurt...  Go Tweety!  Bosnia controversy -- way to go!!!  Ya!  This is great!

OK, I have officially fallen off the wagon.  I might as well stay tuned at this point....

4:00 p.m. MST - David Gregory - More Bosnia controversy.  This is hilarious!  Oh, God, there's Pat "Whitey" Buchanan, but Katrina VandenHeuvel is stomping all over the panel.  Gregory keeps trying to interrupt, but she's on a roll,  she dominates, she shuts Pat down, closes him out.  Ya!  That's more like it!

6:00 p.m. MST - Olbermann - leads with the Iraq war and 4,000 dead.  Wow.  Amid all of this political banter, I have to admit to myself that I may have forgotten what is really important and how we must bring our troops home.

Now great coverage of the Clinton Bosnia gaffe, and Jonathan Alter correctly points out that there are even bigger whoppers in Clinton's resume than the Bosnia fabrication: Ireland, etc.

Somehow, it doesn't seem that important in light of the Iraq story.  I admit it, I am stuck on Obama, and maybe I have lost sight of what we are really fighting for in November.

7:00 p.m. MST - PBS. Frontline.  Bush's War. Wow.  We were really screwed by Rumsfeld and Cheney.  I mean of course I knew all of this, but the way it is presented in this documentary is devastating.  I want to cry for my country.  The part about Gitmo reminds me of WW2 footage of the Nazis.  Good God.  We need to purge these people from our government.  All of them.  Including McCain.

This is my nephew who deploys to Iraq on April 1 with the Marines.  I am scared to death for his safety.

So, needless to say,  my boycott was a complete failure.  It reminds me of the time I went on a diet at 8:00 in the morning, and ate a box of chocolates by noon.  

Part II of "Bush's war" is on tonight.  I hope Americans tune in.