The 24 Hour News Cycle...Mostly Hyperanalysis

If you were to watch the cable news networks this week you are likely to be in for a heavy dose of stories about airline safety, health care reform, and Harry Reid's racial/racist comments. There's just one problem. What if you aren't interested in the Harry Reid story? Then, pretty much news is ruined for you.

To me at least, the Harry Reid story is pretty simple. He said something stupid. No one argues with that. He said something racial and insensitive. No one argues with that. He said something racist depending on your perspective. The Democrats are being very hypocritical downplaying this since they made great hay out of the Trent Lott story. The media is acting in its typical fashion trying to downplay this. Many Republicans are also rather hypocritical since they defended Lott.

The problem with a simple story is that there's only so much you can say before you start saying the same thing over and over. I understand how cable news works. It's not meant for someone to watch it all day long. You'd feel like your watching a broken record then.

Still, I believe it's a great shame. Cable news gives networks the ability to broadcast news all day and all night, and yet, what actually happens is that cable news grabs onto a handful of stories and hyper analyzes them all. To this day, it's very common to find two people debating the public option, whether or not Obamacare "bends the cost curve", and whether not it gives health care to illegals. These are all important debates but how many times can we have the same debate before in fact we are simply recycling the same debate and replaying it over and over.

There are hundreds and thousands of stories not covered by cable news each and every day because we're having an endless debate on the merits of the public option. There's so many stories struggling for oxygen that the 24 hour news cycle has no time for because they have to make time for each and every talking head in the world to give their opinion on Harry Reid.

I lost interest in the health care debate months ago. The main reason was that the non stop coverage saturated the story and it turned into an endless debate on the same topic over and over. Health care is important but how many times can you hear a debate on the merits of the public option?

Lately, cable news has become obsessed with what the health care debate has done to the chances for the Democrats in November. That's also important but endless speculation is just simply annoying.

The case of Scott Brown is a good example. That's an important story and it will get played over and over until the election. Yet, Brown's candidacy snuck up on people. The story only became a story because of a poll that showed he was getting close. Of course, things must have been happening on the ground to create the dynamic necessary for such a poll. Where was cable news while Brown was quietly making his move? They were likely having another debate on the merits of the public option.