Two Ideas for ORIGINAL News Talk Shows

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


A lot of stuff sucks and daytime news television is among them. One of the biggest problems is that they are all the same- every show from 12 until 6 on ESPN is the exact same. Same is true for the time slots on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Same topics, same/similar guests. As Donna Brazille recently said, daytime news needs more stories and less pundits out scoring points everyday for their respective teams (i.e. political party). I have two ideas.

1) Have a show called News You Didn't Hear Yet Today. If that show were to air here is what it would not talk about today- The oil spill, don't ask don't tell, Immigration legislation, Bipartisan failures. Even ESPN could use this. Instead of recapping last night's games, predicting tonight's games, talking about the latest scandal then in a moment of failed levity talking about pop culture they could actually, oh, I don't know, unearth a story. Not in that lame-o Human Interesty way that ESPN360 tries to do. Talk about the sports that don't get coverage- horse racing, tennis, soccer, iditarod, cycling or any college sport other than baseball or basketball.

I feel like my learning curve for television watching really flattens out about after 19 minutes of daytime tv. Why would I watch Dylan Ratigan, Chris Matthews, then Ed Shulz on MSNBC? they're the same show. What are you laughing at FoxNews? You do the same exact thing.

2) A news show that interviews regular citizens and allows them to discuss how current stories affect them. It could maybe be kinda like Larry King, but with less softball type questions. Like if Rachel Maddow sat in for Larry King one night. I wouldn't even mind if they talked about all the rehashed topics listed above- it would at least be something I wouldn't tune out. I enjoy hearing fisherman in the Gulf tell their stories about how the spill affects their lives. They could interview people affected by the proposed Arizona immigration legislation, people affected by don't ask don't tell, the new health care, etc.

I'd rather hear it from them than I would from Wolffe, Dick on Countdown with Keith Olbermann telling me how this will affect real citizens. Here's an idea- forget the wussy, and just interview the real citizens. Seriously, that guy is on at least 14 times a week.

With all of this punditry going on today, it's hard to take people at their word. They are either trying to score points for their team, score points with the host so they can be back again to promote their new book, or trying to be outlandish for the sake of self-promotion. Most startlingly, they could actually be telling the truth this time. We just don't know. Ordinary citizens would still probably do that to some extent, but much less so.

Oh and get rid of Rick Sanchez on CNN. Holy Moly Buttholey is that guy unwatchable. His ratio of people he's drunkenly murdered vehicularly to minutes I have enjoyed his show is: 1:0. The ideal ration would closer to 0:400.





That's how I roll.