The Joe Manchin meltdown

| 11:59 pm EDT April 12, 2021
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Sunday is the day when morning News shows break down the week’s events. There are many morning shows to choose from. For political junkies such as myself, I often watch them all. And what happened this past Sunday was irritating.

This past Sunday, I watched as show after show spoke about…Joe Manchin. It became so tiresome. Eventually, I had to turn it off. The media seems fixated on Manchin. What will Democrats do? How will they get their agenda passed? What if Manchin crosses sides? Over and over again, the media conjures up meaningless scenarios of events that have not and will not happen.

I want to be precise. Not all media outlets do this. But this is becoming somewhat of a disturbing pattern. It all has to do with ratings, of course. All of the cable networks lost viewers after the 2020 election, and they want those viewers back. I do not think this is the way to go about it.

Repetition in news has always been an issue, but it’s getting worse. The News should never be…well…boring. Nor should they report non-stories as stories. For example, I will never write an article about Trump running in 2024 because it will not happen.

The Manchin fascination is getting tiresome. I became increasingly frustrated this weekend because it was almost literally almost all some hosts spoke about.

When news hosts become boring, it is a problem. And the media also loves conflict. The words of Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” very much apply here. I hope they stop doing this and get back to a “Maddow style” of educating and informing with real information on meaningful and real stories. I am not hopeful.