Just a poll to see how many people watch cable news here and for what reasons.
ETA: Cable news means the political channels like MSNBC, CNN and FOX.
Other: I don’t have a television.
Other: I have a television, but not cable.
ETQ (edited to query): I answered assuming you are distinguishing the network news from the dedicated cable news channels run by said networks. Are you?
Yes I am. The poll isn’t about the major network news channels.
No. I have a televsion and cable but watch cartoons instead.
I turn it to Fox occasionally, to see how they’re spinning something, or find out what the conservative narrative of the day is. I also flip between the cable news channels if some real news is breaking, or if something like a State of the Union Address or an election debate is going on – some kind of actual, live news event – but for basic information, I get practically everything online.
I almost never watch commentary shows (my wife flat refuses to let watch O’Reilly or Hannity anymore because it makes me curse and swear in front of the children), and rarely turn it to CNN or MSNBC at all.
I often have CBC Newsworld (or whatever it’s called now) on while I’m using my computer if there’s nothing else on. I used to do the same with BBC World News, but I got fed up with all the sports coverage. There’s something about CNN that doesn’t sit right with me, so I rarely watch it.
I used to watch it, but now they hardly ever have news on the cable news channels. It’s always some idiot screeching about something - right or left, doesn’t matter.
Sometimes I wll watch CNN Headline News early in the morning when it’s on heavy news and fluff rotation. Otherwise I read newspapers online or in real life when I can get them. BBC News can have it’s moments, when I’m on the road, and Deutsche Welle is not too bad.
Same here. Don’t want cable either.
2 would be closest, but I don’t have cable. And I’m not going to watch my news online when I can just read it. And I’m not going to seek it out when all the good stuff usually winds up here, anyway.
ETA: I do watch the local news online, though (mostly for the weather forecast, which is easier to understand with someone explaining it.)
I don’t watch TV other than to watch DVDs, so Other. Although I do own a TV, I have no reception and no cable.
I work at a bar and during day shifts, when it’s slow and nobody’s playing the jukebox, I generally have either CNN or Fox news on; CNN is far less annoying than Fox but far more repetitive, and in an eight-hour shift I’d rather be annoyed than bored. (ESPN bores me far more than either, so that’s out unless somebody requests it.)
And I like to fall asleep to CNN because it distracts me just enough to let me relax, but it isn’t so interesting that it prevents me from falling asleep.
But if I’m not at work and it isn’t bedtime, watching the news doesn’t even occur to me.
Do you mean, “Do you watch the political content on these channels?” or “Do you watch these channels for their news?”
The Internet long ago freed me from the infotainment that passes as news. The American news channels are a joke obsessed with what everyone else is covering, splashes of the week, sports, missing white children, weather, vague and threatening harms, celebrities celebrities celebrities and fluff fluff fluff. The last I used to turn to was the BBC, but again, the Internet has completely filled that niche.
I channel surf the cable news networks in the morning, Fox and friends just to get the latest tinfoil hat takes on the news, Morning joe for their on air faux pas and to see Mika furrow her brow at Joe and Willie, Robn Meade is too much fluff but good for a soundbite or two. But mostly I like to read my news from Press display.
I put “No, it makes my brain bleed” but in point of fact, I don’t actually have cable.
Me too, but that’s why I don’t have TV, so I figured it was accurate.
Other: No motivation. I get all the news I need from NPR, ABC, and the Economist. Other news sources don’t offer me anything I’m not already getting. I care about the news, time isn’t an issue, and I’ve never watched cable news so I don’t have any particular opinion about it.
I work on drilling rigs and since a lot of people live on location they have TVs in their offices. These are normally turned to FOX so while I’m hanging out with them I watch a lot of cable news. On my own I never watch any news program except Meet the Press.
The only two channels we get in English are CNN International and BBC World News. And we only watch them as we eat breakfast.